Submitted by: Women of Steel Chair Denise Wagner
United Steelworkers Local 115 Women of Steel committee in Lafayette, IN., wanted to pay tribute to some of the people who couldn’t be home for Thanksgiving. They decided on sending a load of home-made cookies to some of our troops overseas.
They started their plan on November 6 using social media and contacts in three departments to get the word out and request donations at their Alcoa plant. Thank you notes to the soldiers were placed in break rooms for local union members to sign.
The baking items were purchased and a group of women started making the cookies. Where they were done, Gretchen and Bill Roy vacuum packed all of them to keep them fresh.
While the cookies were baking, a local “soldiers guard” group was contacted to find out where any local area soldiers were stationed. It was determined that there were a group of soldiers from the Lafayette area stationed in Kuwait.
On November 16, over 500 cookies were packaged and mailed out with the assurance that they would be received by Thanksgiving.
The WOS committee wanted to send a special thank you to all the Local 115 members for their donations and to all the bakers and Gretchen and Bill Roy who vacuum packed the cookies.
Thank you also goes out to Amy Mueller and Kim Quillen in Tube Mill, Gretchen Roy in Ingot, Denise Wagner, Brandy Moore, Megan Cornell, Larry Lewis, Connie Lynn, in Extrusion who were instrumental at making sure this project was a success.
This project is just one of so many USW's amazing members do every day to give back to our communities. If you or your local are doing good things in your community, we want to hear about them. Click Here to share video and photos with us and don’t forget to use the #USWCares hashtag when you post your stories on social media. If you or your local is doing this kind of work, please submit a nomination for a Jefferson Awards at usw.org/uswcares. Don't forget to shout out @Steelworkers!