National Agents Alliance team donates Christmas gifts for Christmas Cheer of Alamance County

Dec. 27, 2010 - PRLog -- BURLINGTON, N.C. – National Agents Alliance’s Agent Building Task Force team visited Christmas Cheer of Alamance County Tuesday afternoon and donated around 25 children’s toys in support of the non-profit organization.

National Agents Alliance’s Chris Hill and Melissa Pelchat, two ABTF team members, delivered the packages and met with some of the volunteers at Christmas Cheer’s office in Burlington at 331 S. Main St.

Dawn Sternal, the executive director at Christmas Cheer, said donations like the one National Agents Alliance made would help provide a better Christmas for more than 1,000 families in Alamance County.

Last year, the charity, which has around 30 volunteers, helped make sure more than 2,000 children had new clothing and toys on Christmas.
Sternal said her team of volunteers takes great pride in knowing they are giving back to Alamance County.

“Those of us who are here doing this work are not doing it for the money,” Sternal said as she was working at her office Wednesday. “We are rewarded by knowing that we are collectively making a difference for needy children and the elderly in our community. Combined efforts of people giving whatever they are able to help us provide for families and children all over Alamance County. We are not funded by anybody, no state or federal grants … it’s total and complete charity.”

National Agents Alliance Chief of Staff Chris Reavis came up with the idea to have the ABTF team make toy donations for children. He was pleased with the number of donations made.

“In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn’t sound like a big deal when you are talking about 30 toys, but that’s still 30 toys the folks at Christmas Cheer didn’t have until Tuesday afternoon,” Reavis said. “I can’t imagine being a child and waking up and not having any presents on Christmas. If we’ve helped even one child in Alamance County then the effort was worth it. I wish we could do even more.”

Christmas Cheer was founded more than 70 years ago by Roma Fortune, a local fireman. His original vision of seeing that no children in Alamance County wakes up without presents under the tree has also grown into helping care for the forgotten elderly that need help too. The charity provides assistance for families who have children in eighth grade or younger and for the elderly 60 years and older, with an emphasis on food and warm clothing.

National Agents Alliance President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Albright commended his staff and Reavis for taking the initiative to give back to the Alamance County community.
“I love to see our team doing things like this and when you are helping children it means even more,” Albright said. “Christmas is such a special time in any young person’s life and no child should go through any Christmas without a big tree, bright lights and presents under the tree. I can remember how exciting it was to wake up on Christmas morning and I hope we’ve helped ensure that several children will get to experience a great day with family, food and presents.”

The group also provides Christmas trees and decorations, new or gently used books and school supplies when needed. Christmas Cheer works closely with county agencies to ensure that services are not duplicated and are used fairly and wisely. Each family is screened to verify their need levels.

Sternal, who has worked for 23 years with the charity, said donations are welcome year round. While she prefers financial donations once Christmas is over, no donation is turned away.

“Our need levels are so high with the economy and we welcome any donations, even if it’s only $5 dollars,” Sternal said. “We helped more than 1,000 families and 2,000 children last year and we expect our numbers to be even higher this year.”

ABOUT NATIONAL AGENTS ALLIANCE
National Agents Alliance is an innovative lead generation and marketing organization that sells life insurance, annuities, and other financial services products through more than 7,000 active independent sales representatives in 50 states. Focused on serving middle-income families, National Agents Alliance is the No. 1 United States provider of mortgage protection insurance and offers a broad array of other affordable products from highly regarded companies such as Mutual of Omaha, Foresters, and ING. Since its inception in 2002, National Agents Alliance has helped more than 670,000 families successfully apply for more than $78 billion in life insurance coverage.
For more information about National Agents Alliance, visit http://www.nationalagentsalliance.com or call 1-866-752-1163.

ABOUT CHRISTMAS CHEER OF ALAMANCE COUNTY
Christmas Cheer is a non-profit charity dedicated to sharing the Spirit of Christmas with underprivileged children and the elderly of Alamance County. Roma Fortune, a local fireman, founded the charity more than 70 years ago. Christmas Cheer provides gifts and clothes to needy families with children in eighth grade and younger, and also helps the elderly older than 60 with food and warm clothing. The charity’s staff of 30 volunteers and additional family sponsors helps more than 1,000 families in Alamance County each year. For donation information, contact Dawn Sternal at 336-229-9969 or via email at dsternal@yahoo.com or christmascheer@att.net.
For more information about Christmas Cheer, visit http://www.ChristmasCheerofAlamance.org.

For additional information on this topic, please call Mac Heffner at 336.227.3319 x189 or visit http://www.nationalagentsalliance.com/contact-us/

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National Agents Alliance is one of the largest associations of agents and agencies of its kind. With representatives in all 50 states our annual financial services sales are over $100 million.