The Hugs Project

Yesterday, I decided to take some time off from studying. Because apparently I can't handle more than one day of studying anymore. I'm such a bad PA student. Even worse, I'm perfectly content with that.

One of the things I did while I wasn't studying was go to The Hugs Project with my Mom. My Mom has been going to Hugs once or twice a week for several years now, in addition to volunteering with the Red Cross once a week to sew stuffed animals for sick kids, doing free taxes for the elderly during tax season, going camping with Girl Scouts, and all the other little things she does (like go one 4 kayaking trips for example). Pretty amazing, huh? 

It was my first time at Hugs. They are currently taking up two large rooms at Crossroads mall to get all the Christmas boxes out to the Soldiers. (sidenote - Crossroads is not scary at all at 11am with all the 70 year old mall walkers on the loose)

To sum it up - these people work so hard, they are incredible! I was amazed at all the boxes of food, candy, presents for children overseas, notes of support, reading materials, dvds, pillows and hygiene items that they are getting to soldiers. Since these are the Christmas boxes, there were also stockings stuffed with wrapped goodies and candy canes!

one of the assembly areas

There is another room packed with sewing machines and material that people were using to make the pillows for the soldiers and small stuffed animals for them to give to kids.

sewing room

My job was on the assembly line, I just went down the rows of table putting items into boxes.

it was a loooong line!

And this one of the boxes I packed up! It's so hard to fit everything I wanted to into the boxes to get to these guys. They just weren't big enough!

One of the cool Christmas items were these little Christmas trees! Someone got the idea of recycling old prescription bottles and putting little trees into them. I thought it was neat!

Overall, it was a great experience, these people put a lot of hard work into making our soldiers overseas feel loved and appreciated. I'm glad I got to be a part of it for a day!

My Mom - the volunteering superhero!