Christmas at Bill Luke

For the past 25 years Bill Luke has been suppor ng needy families for the holidays. For many of those years, we have been sponsoring the elementary school across the street from our dealership.

The school counselor, Kris n, is very involved with all of the families and knows them all and their needs personally. She is very involved with all of the students and their families. One day, a few years back, I went over to talk with her and she was out taking one of the students to the den st. Now that is dedica on! She hand picks the 20 families who she believes need the most help and our troops take over from there.

We no fy our department heads and send out the communica on throughout the 350 employees that we have and BOOM! Holiday Magic starts happening!

Each of our needy families receives two gi boxes; one fi lled with common household items such as soap, shampoo, condi oner, lo on, deodorant, tooth paste, tooth brushes, hand soap, cleaning products, Clorox wipes, laundry detergent, dish soap, toilet paper, paper towels and two family board games. The other box is fi lled with non -perishable food items; rice, beans, canned goods, dried cereal, Top Ramen, and blankets. We were on a special mission this year to procure as many blankets as possible.

These are all things that most of us take for granted. I can’t imagine a child asking for a blanket for Christmas. During the lock down days of the pandemic, there were many children who missed out on two hot meals a day (possibly the only meals they received) and eight hours out of a poten ally bad situa on. The teachers at this school did their best to cover everything they possibly could via computer, they even had the P.E. teacher chime in with exercises!

Our owner, Don Luke has always been very involved in the community and has quietly made dona ons to the Boys and Girls Clubs, Schools, and churches. We are very fortunate to have such a generous owner and do our best to give back and pull together to carry on with the same support.

We strive to make a diff erence… ALWAYS!

Submi ed by Susan McDaniel - Bill Luke DCJR