by Holly Robinson
December 16, 2011 10:13 AM
Paul Menzel, LifeStorage store manager, and Santa Claus visited a pediatric unit and emergency room delivering toys and gifts to sick and injured children in the Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Illinois. Some of the gifts included monster trucks for the boys and Barbie dolls for the girls. The children were thrilled to receive the visit and the gift.
Menzel shared one of the highlights of the visit. Menzel and Santa knocked on one boy's door and asked if Santa could come in and wish him a merry Christmas. The boy jerked back the curtain divider and yelled, "Santa's here? Santa's here?" The boy couldn't stop grinning during the whole visit. Menzel said, "It meant a lot to me to be able to make the kids smile and to let them know that, even though they aren't going to be home with the family for Christmas, that doesn't mean that Santa didn't know where they were."
This is the second time that Menzel organized a visit to children in the hospital. He finds the activity personally gratifying. This year, they visited 10 children and several staff members. He indicated that he was able to make the visit because of the support from LifeStorage and his co-manager Ken Parelius.
"When you have a good partner working with you at your location it makes it a lot easier to do these types of community events. Having trust and confidence in your co-manager is key to being able to get out and spread the company name around. In this case, LifeStorage hopefully brightened the lives of some children and did so at an amazing hospital," said Menzel.
"This is something I would like to continue doing every year, if possible. There are not only kids in hospitals that need this type of help, though. There are lots of other organizations that could really use help this holiday season. If more people would help out, life would be much easier for everyone. Good things come back to good people. Good business comes back to good businesses," Menzel said.
LifeStorage provides self storage for personal and business use. They offer flexible leases and customizable spaces for business storage. Businesses can store everything from file boxes to large equipment to office furniture and extra inventory. They offer a conference room, Internet access, private mailboxes, and copying and faxing. They ship and receive packages for businesses and even provide free Starbucks coffee.
LifeStorage has partnered with ShredIt and provide the service of shredding confidential documents and data. They can destroy and recycle office electronics such as laptops, hard drives, cell phones, printers, hard drives, and personal computers.
In addition to this benevolent endeavor, LifeStorage participates in other charitable activities - especially during the holidays. They participate in food and clothing drives and Toys for Tots.
Sources Used:
LifeStorage-Chicago Self STorage Company and Santa Visit Community Hospital to Spread Some Holiday Cheer." PR Web; 16 December 2011.
LifeStorage Centers of Elgin.