Employee Giving Drives

Thanksgiving Food Drive (November 9 - November 23)
Take a Turkey to Work Day (November 23)

It's not about carpooling with an annoying co-worker, instead it's ensuring that families in our communities can celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings. Starting the first week of November, employees bring non-perishable food items that are collected throughout the Laboratory; this food drive culminates the Tuesday before Thanksgiving with the collection of frozen turkeys at the Laboratory's security portals - and in downtown Los Alamos. The non-perishable food and turkeys are taken to San Martin de Porres Soup Kitchen. There food baskets are assembled and distributed for the holiday. In 2008, over 700 food baskets and turkeys were collected and distributed.

Holiday Drive (November 30 - December 16)

Children laughing, people passing, meeting smile after smile, the "holiday gift tag" program at Los Alamos National Laboratory is a way for employees to add that personal touch to make a special child, or a senior's holiday extra special.

Over the past several LANL employees have been instrumental in providing gifts to families in need. Individuals with a particular group/division provide new clothes, toys, and food for a holiday dinner to those who otherwise wouldn't be able to celebrate due to their hardships. Tags can be picked up from holiday trees throughout the Laboratory. Volunteers then collect, wrap, and distribute the gifts just in time to see the anticipating faces light up for the holiday. Last year over 1,300 tags were tuned into gifts of joy for many of our community members.

 

 

 

LANL Laces (year-round)

LANL Laces is a year-round Laboratory employee-giving program. The program is designed to purchase shoes for children to ensure that they have proper school attire. Local school districts identify kids who have the greatest need. We then partner with a local store where students are assisted in getting their proper size. This past school year 150 pairs of shoes were provided to students from the Agua Fria Children's Zone, Jemez Mountain Schools, Ohkay Owingeh Schools, Espanola Valley Schools, Gallina, Lybrook, Coyote, Velarde, and Dixon Elementary Schools.

During this year's back to school drive, money was collected from food sales, raffles, and even a dunk tank gave people the opportunity to have fun and donate to the Laces program at the same time. The results of this fundraising means that another 300 children will be fitted with new shoes during this school year.

 

School Supply Drive (July - August )

The generosity of Laboratory employees and several major subcontractors help ensure that students from our community have new school supplies to start the school year off on the right track.

Prior to the new school year, the Community Programs Office coordinates the collection of school supplies. Items include: crayons, pencils, colored pencils, pens, paper, spiral writing tablets, notebook binders, glue, and round-tip scissors.

With a revitalized campaign this year, Lab employees set a goal of collecting enough school supplies and backpacks to help 500 area children get the materials needed to begin the school year. With assistance and support from employees and contractors across the Laboratory, over 750 backpacks were collected and their corresponding supplies were donated. In all, between 10,000 and 15,000 individual items were contributed.

As a way to help employees get excited and engaged, organizations took up challenges to collect particular items in specific quantities. For instance, LANL Human Resources Division held what they called "Measuring Up" and collected rulers.

Donations by Laboratory employees can be made to the LANL Treasury/Cashier's Office located in the basement of the Otowi Building
at TA-3.

Contact: Tim Martinez, (505) 667-2390, timothy@lanl.gov