Residents' donations to City Hall assist 23 families

Archive for Thursday, December 23, 2004

December 23, 2004

Twenty-three Lansing families are experiencing the generosity of the season, thanks to those who donated to various funds at at City Hall.

From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, members of the Lansing Lions and Kiwanis clubs distributed gifts for 60 children of families. The gifts included eight bicycles from the Lansing Correctional Facility's Christmas Bike Giveaway.

Club members and city employees worked for a few hours Friday afternoon sorting through gifts and organizing before returning for the evening distribution.

Sunshine Petrone, a Lansing city employee, said Lansing Elementary and Intermediate schools had donated at least 500 cans of food to the Mayor's Christmas Tree Fund.

Gifts for the most part were left unwrapped so parents collecting presents for their children could wrap them personally at home.

Petrone said the fund received $4,572.80 in monetary donations. The money is used to purchase food gift certificates for the families and to buy gifts for those children whose cards on the Angel Tree weren't picked up in time.

Families nominated to receive gifts must fill out an application with income verification and proof that they live in Lansing.