A letter from the Bloomfield (Mich.) Optimist Club:

I am happy to report that this year’s Children’s Holiday Wish Program is
history, and the best one yet at that! We have removed our tables and
equipment, straighted out the operations center and delivered all of the
gifts to the happy recipients.

As usual, thank you very much for the indispensable role that your
company and the Bloomfield Hills Organic team played in making this
program such a total success.

Looking back, I checked my records and found that this is the seventh
year that we have worked on this project together with you and Organic.
We have come a long way from the casual conversation that we had over a
holiday dinner in 2001, when the subject of the Holiday Wish came up and
you expressed interest in coming on board the next year. That
conversation marked the beginning of a dramatic rise in our program
capacity and scope. Having a dependable space to work from has allowed
us to think ahead and as a result, the material handling and logistical
operations of the program have improved dramatically over the years.

I

I am happy to report that the program’s annual Saturday bike assembly
operation on your second floor, which is run in collaboration with our
local Boy Scout Troop, has resulted in over 500 bikes being delivered
and 2 Eagle Badges being earned over the last 3 years alone. In
addition, having access to your storage area has enabled us to
accumulate donated dolls and other toys on short notice throughout the
year and to keep them on hand for allocation in December, which has made
us much more efficient.

Another benefit of the excellent physical location of your office, is
that it has caused the number of sponsors dropping off toys to us to
increase because it is so convenient for local companies, schools and
others to find us and get to us during regular business hours and later.

This has been very helpful as the number of toy pick ups from our
program sponsors has risen substantially over the last few years.

Our sponsors and members have enjoyed the Power Point presentations and
Digital Thank You Cards that have been produced by your team for our use

at several of our our annual Thank You Breakfast Banquets in past years.

As you know, they do so much more than the spoken word alone can
accomplish. It’s all in the presentation!

Thanks, for all of the above that you and your company have made
possible for our club and community over the years, including hundreds
of excellent donated and wrapped gifts from volunteers and chipping in
with the actual manual labor of the whole team as we set up a “bucket
brigade” down the stairway from the second floor and out the door moving
bikes to trucks for delivery after an “all hands meeting.” I think we
got about 300 bikes out the door in about 30 minutes! Talk about the
rubber meeting the road! I seem to recall that somewhere there may
exist, shots of you and Bill Camp with your sleeves rolled up and bikes
in the air.

I have found this project to be an effective antidote to the local and
national news. We are taking effective action and making an impact in
our community. It is a great partnership indeed! Happy Holidays Chuck
both to you and to the entire Organic organization!

Optimistically yours,

Brian MacKenzie
Program Chairman
Bloomfield Hills Optimist Club
Children’s Holiday Wish Program