FORT WORTH -- One by one, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics employees rolled gleaming new bicycles into the lobby of the company's Fort Worth headquarters and down the hallway Thursday.
They were followed by a line of more colleagues, many carrying a bike under each arm.It was Lockheed's annual holiday charity event, in which the 14,000 or so employees do their very large part to assist Santa and local nonprofits in making Christmas merrier for less fortunate children.The employees turned over nearly 400 bicycles to Toys for Tots that had been purchased by individuals or groups of workers. There was an additional $43,800 check for Toys for Tots.And the Lockheed Aero Club, funded in part by employee payroll deductions, presented checks for $10,000 to the Goodfellow Fund, the Star-Telegram's holiday charity, and for $8,000 to the Cowboy Santas organization.The generosity was enough to choke up a couple of Marines, especially given the uncertainty in the lives of many Lockheed employees and their families. The company will cut more than 600 jobs locally by the end of the year, and with falling defense budgets and other concerns, the workforce may well shrink more in the coming year."Everybody in here knows somebody else that's lost their job," Marine Maj. David Loveday said. "These people may not get a raise this year, and yet they go out and spend $100 for a bicycle and helmet."Through paycheck deductions and their own individual and group efforts, Lockheed employees work throughout the year to generate funds for charitable purposes."They have bake sales to raise money," said Alli Beach, Lockheed community relations coordinator.In addition to the bicycles and cash donations, Lockheed employees have also recently donated $1,000 to Child Protective Services, $800 cash and 1,900 pounds of food to the Tarrant County Food Bank and $2,800 to the YWCA. Also, through Catholic Charities, employees have "adopted" 55 youths for whom they will provide gifts.The Goodfellow Fund has been a partner with and benefited from the generosity of Lockheed employees "as long as I can remember," said Lockheed spokesman Joe Stout, a longtime employee of the company."We're very proud of our employees' tradition of giving at this time of the year to help others who are less fortunate and in need," Stout said.The Lockheed employees' $10,000 gift will be a welcome addition to this year's Goodfellows' campaign, which has a goal of $1 million to provide $50 J.C. Penney gift cards to 20,000 schoolchildren. While other nonprofits focus on toys, bikes and such, Goodfellows provides the basics: The cards can be used only for clothing and shoes.Be a jolly Goodfellow
Send your tax-deductible contribution to Goodfellows, Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101. Or go to goodfellowfund.com and make a credit card donation. Unless anonymity is requested, contributors' names will be published in coming weeks.
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