The City of Auburn Hills participates in numerous charitable giving initiatives during the holiday season. Firefighters Against Hunger, Adopt a Senior, the Optimist Club collected toys for children, Helping Hands, and Meals on Wheels just to name a few. My personal favorite is when the Auburn Hills community sends Santa to our Troops.

Throughout the month of November, staff collected donations of items to be sent in care packages to local troops serving around the world. The community got involved and many people brought donations to the Tree Lighting Ceremony last Friday. Local businesses also contributed to the care packages, including many generous donations from Fieldstone Architecture and Engineering.

With all of the help from the community, we set a new Auburn Hills care package record this year, and set the bar for 2016 much higher! In 2014, we sent nine care packages to our troops. In 2015, we sent 22 packages, which were double in size! If you do the math, that is an increase of more than eleven times!

Desert Angels is an Auburn Hills nonprofit organization that functions solely on volunteers and donations. They were integral in the increase of our care package donations and helping make sure that all of our care packages went to local troops. If you or your organization would like to learn more about Desert Angels, you can visit www.thedesertangel.org

We extend our gratitude and largest thank you to Louise from Desert Angels, the patient post office employees at the Great Lakes Crossing location, and the countless individuals taking time to think of our troops and gather care package items.

The pictures below give you a small glimpse into how wonderful the Auburn Hills Community is, not only around the holidays, but also all year long!

Samantha Mariuz, Management Assistant