Moving on down the line
Packing the food boxes took an assembly line of volunteers at a Phoenix warehouse.

What started out as a simple toy drive snowballed into an effort that brought together nearly two dozen local businesses and service organizations and stretched far beyond ensuring the children of Arizona’s National Guard soldiers had something to unwrap Christmas morning.
Ultimately, the drive collected hundreds of toys, thousands of dollars in gift cards and more than 1,400 boxes of food donated by an assortment of Arizona companies, all of which helped more than 800 families.
A few more unusual items also were provided for families with specific needs: a woman whose refrigerator door was broken received a brand new appliance, another woman’s broken-down truck will be fixed for free by Tucson auto dealer Jim Click and one family received a Christmas tree.
Rep. Jerry Weiers, R-12, spearheaded the project.
“It’s a pretty incredible feat, really, for something we started four weeks ago,” Weiers said on Dec. 21 as volunteers packed the food into boxes at a south Phoenix warehouse.
Originally, the idea was to set up Christmas trees decorated with toy-soldier ornaments in the House and Senate lobbies and ask staff and lawmakers to purchase a requested gift for a child of an Arizona National Guard member deployed to Afghanistan. But Weiers has a knack for fundraising projects, so he just started asking local businesses if they wanted to pitch in. Everyone he asked was eager to jump on board, he said.
“The bottom line is it’s Arizona companies willing to help Arizona families in the Arizona National Guard,” he said.
Weiers hopes CHANGE, or Citizens Helping Arizona National Guardsmen Everyday, won’t be relegated merely to helping at Christmas. Rather, he envisions the outfit providing everything from gifts to toiletries to food to rent assistance throughout the year. An affiliation with Project We Remember, a national group that helps military families, conveys a tax-exempt status to CHANGE, allowing donations to be tax-deductible.
The project came with a fair share of frustrations, Weiers said, as it took much of his free time to corral the donations and volunteers in such a short time frame.
“Every time I do it, I say, ‘I’m never doing this stuff again,’ But it’s the right thing to do,” he said, glancing down the expansive furniture warehouse at the assembly line of volunteers stuffing salads and eggs into boxes. “In my heart, I know that, and it makes it easier to come back and do it all again the next year.”