Letter: Special heroes help program’s success

The success of the Burbank Coordinating Council Holiday Basket Program is due to the participation of many hundreds of people along with service clubs, PTAs, scout troops, churches and more. You are all so wonderful and amazing!

A lion’s share of the participation is from two special heroes.

First is the Little White Chapel. Pastor Bill Thomas and the board allow us to use their classrooms to store and sort out all donations from the two food drives when drivers come in several times a day, so we were busy there Oct. 12 and again on Dec. 7. On Dec. 11, we filled the church when we assembled the bags of food for unadopted families. There were oceans of bags lined up everywhere to allow volunteers to continue to sort and pack. The church then opened the gates once again on Dec. 13 for us to pick up and transport all the bags to Washington Elementary School. They were so gracious. It is great to see what a church in the community will do to help. This church is our meeting place each month too. Everyone is welcome to attend the first Monday of every month from October through May from 12 to 1:30 p.m. For details visit www.burbankcoordinatingcouncil.org.

Our second major hero is Washington Elementary School, which deserves huge kudos for allowing us to use the auditorium and the hallways and the outdoor lunch area in order to pack families’ donations and to deliver baskets throughout the city. For two days, we fill the school and outdoor area with foods, gifts and volunteers to pack, move, drive and make the project happen. It takes so much space to allow for the hundreds of family baskets and this school is ideal. Thank you to Principal Arlene Mooradian-Zenian.

Janet Diel
Burbank

Editor’s Note: Diel is president of the Burbank Coordinating Council.