• Posted: December 20, 2020
• better communities, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Press Releases, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana, Salvation Army’s Evangeline Booth Lodge

Powering Chicago and its partners in the electrical industry helped brighten the holiday season in recent days for families experiencing homelessness with a $10,000 donation to the Electrical Industry’s Holiday Party for Chicago’s Homeless Children.

On Saturday, December 19, Powering Chicago delivered hundreds of gifts to children and their families at four Chicago area homeless shelters, including the Salvation Army’s Evangeline Booth Lodge in Chicago’s Uptown community. The toy drive, which was possible because of the contributions of a diverse group of electrical contractors, distributors, manufacturers, manufacturer’s representatives and others in the industry, continues a long history of support by the unionized electrical industry for those experiencing homelessness in the City of Chicago and suburban Cook County.

Since 1992, the Chicagoland electrical industry has joined forces each December to host a Christmas party for children experiencing homelessness. Last year’s event, administered by the Chicagoland Electric Association Education Foundation, was hosted at IBEW Local 134’s union hall in Chicago. The event brought together more than 400 people from seven area homeless shelters for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, dancing, face painting and a visit from Santa.

“Although we couldn’t host a party for these families this year because of the pandemic, we were committed to finding a way to help bring some joy to them during the holiday season,” said Powering Chicago Director Elbert Walters III. “Powering Chicago participates in more than 100 philanthropic events each year as part of our industry’s commitment to better communities throughout Cook County, and having the opportunity to spread even a small amount of holiday cheer to families in need is one of the highlights of our year.”

For this year’s event, volunteers wrapped each of the 500 presents, which were loaded into an IBEW Local 134 cargo van and other vehicles on loan from members of the electrical industry and delivered on Saturday, December 19. As in past years, Santa made an appearance to help hand out presents.

“Powering Chicago is the presenting sponsor of the Millennium Park Christmas Tree and members of the unionized electrical industry are the people who make all of the holiday lights in Chicagoland possible during the holiday season,” Walters continued. “We like to say that we’re powering Chicago’s holidays, and we’re grateful to have been able to do that for these families in need.” 

In the month of December, Powering Chicago has also donated approximately 80 boxes of socks and other essentials to the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center for homeless veterans and sponsored a campaign that has solicited holiday lights photos from Chicagoans that are being displayed in Ronald McDonald Houses in the Chicago area to light up the holidays for families with sick children. The campaign kicked off with a $10,000 donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana, which was matched by another donor in honor of Giving Tuesday.

To learn about the campaign and the other ways that Cook County’s unionized electrical industry is delivering on its commitment to better communities, visit the Powering Chicago website.