Hisshonians celebrate Christmas morning at Rescue Mission!  With 70^o F weather outside, and the sun shining, it seemed more like spring than Christmas Day in December.  Nine of our team gathered in the kitchen to help prepare the lunch for residents, guests, and family for the 11:30 AM meal.

Our CEO Philip Maung brought his wife and two sons to join in, and the daughter of another co-worker, filled the ranks to cut and place desserts, prepare rolls for warming, and any other duties assigned.
While we manned the kitchen, an army of other volunteers donned black bow ties on white shirts, with black slacks, to individually serve each guests as if they were in an expensive establishment.  Director Tony Marciano says Charlotte is the only facility of its kind in the country that has the volunteers wear a black tie.  In turn, Marciano says “that the guests not only come for the meal, but for the conversation, and are so appreciative that they are treated as an equal, and not a homeless person.”
Usually Hissho volunteers on Thanksgiving and Easter, but this year we added Christmas!  What a wonderful way to give back to the community.  We have been blessed to be a part of such a great organization as Rescue Mission.

Hissho has a strong tradition of giving back to the community and Thanksgiving Day is no exception.  Some of our Hissho team, who were not out of town or with family, volunteered in the morning at the Charlotte Rescue Mission, in the kitchen.  We love going there and sharing camaraderie with the entire kitchen team.  It’s like family when we go there!  The people we help prepare food for are wonderful individuals who always appreciate what is offered.  Smiles abounded all day as Rescue Mission served over 1,200 throughout the day.

It seems a leprechaun left a huge pot of gold at Hissho this month! But, this pot of gold is EXTRA special!

Those shamrocks you see are actually donations from our humble Hisshonians! For the past two weeks, we’ve asked our Hisshonians to donate however much they’d like to go towards buying lunch for those in need.

We’ll purchase sandwiches, chips, fruit and water, and our awesome volunteers will assemble “brown-bag” lunches and distribute them at Crisis Assistance Ministry here in Charlotte, N.C. (By the way, if you’re local and want to see how you can volunteer with this great organization, click here: http://www.crisisassistance.org/)
Stay tuned for more on this project!! And we want to know: how are YOU bringing a little luck to someone?!