Reznick Group's Tysons Corner Office Adopts a Family for the Holiday

 

In December 2009 Reznick Group's Tysons Corner office teamed up with Our Daily Bread to adopt a local single-parent family from Reston, Virginia.  Our Daily Bread (ODB) is a volunteer-based organization focused on easing the plight of low income residents in the area of Fairfax, Virginia and Northern Virginia.

It draws volunteers from local community organizations, local businesses, schools and universities and local faith-based groups. Our Daily Bread's Holiday Program matches families in need throughout the Fairfax County area with local community groups, businesses and individual families willing to provide Thanksgiving and December meals and gifts.

For the family that included seven children, Tysons Corner office staff provided a gift card for the family to buy their Christmas dinner at a local grocery store.  In addition, each child provided a wish list of gifts.  In the reception area of our office, we hung an ornament on the Tysons Christmas tree with the name of each child and a gift that he or she wanted.  Each employee took one (or more) ornaments and purchased the gift(s).  Then prior to the Christmas holiday, several of the Tysons staff delivered the gifts to the family at their Reston home.  Some of the children were home from school and were very excited about the gifts being placed under their tree.  "It was heartwarming to put smiles on the children's faces and know that we helped to ease some of the strain on their mom at that time of year when kids are hoping and wishing," said Carol Rowland, Office Manager for the Tysons Corner office.

While many organizations and programs developed to assist the homeless, Our Daily Bread recognized a need that was going unmet—serving those families who, while not homeless, were in financial crisis and in danger of "falling through the cracks." These families and individuals live from paycheck to paycheck, and unexpected expenses can send them spiraling from self-sufficiency to the brink of homelessness. As the cost of housing in Fairfax County rose sharply through the 1990s and 2000s, rent claimed a greater and greater share of these families' resources, leaving little left over to meet other needs or provide a financial cushion for emergencies.  The Holiday Program is a great way for a group or family to rediscover the true spirit of the holidays.