The number of Christmas smiles skyrocketed Thursday, when the Salvation Army Austin Corps visited Hormel Foods Corp.

Friday, December 17, 1999

The number of Christmas smiles skyrocketed Thursday, when the Salvation Army Austin Corps visited Hormel Foods Corp.’s Austin plant and corporate offices.

Separate projects resulted in a truckfull of Christmas presents to be distributed next week by the Salvation Army.

The Hormel Foods Austin plant project resulted in enough presents for 34 families and 72 children.

Meanwhile, the Hormel Foods corporate project will benefit 15 families and 41 children.

"Isn’t this amazing?" observed Capt. Douglas Yeck, officer in charge of the Salvation Army. "These people are so generous."

Yeck was part of a line of Hormel Foods plant workers carrying boxes and sacks full of presents to the Salvation Army’s white truck parked outside the plant Wednesday morning.

A similar scene took place minutes later at the Hormel Foods corporate offices.

Max Pecht II was chairman of this year’s Employee Enrichment Committee that conducted the Christmas Gift Drive project.

"This is the fifth year that the corporate office employees enrichment committee has sponsored the Salvation Army Christmas Gift Drive," said Pecht. "The committee is comprised of 13 people from a cross-section of areas in the corporate office and Research and Development."

The committee includes Scott Aakre, Katherine Benkler, Cheryl Brandt, Kristina Carroll, David Dickson, Brenda Fisher, Kevin Gaul, Laura Hinkel, Kevin Jones, Judy Laskewitz, Larry Lyons and Eric Spenske as well as Pecht.

In just three boxes were over 100 individual gifts to be distributed to disadvantaged families this Christmas.

"We promoted this activity by sending out individual letters to all employees with information about the drive and then posting signs on the doors and in the employee canteens," Pecht said. "Individuals and work groups were encouraged to bring unwrapped gifts and place them under the Christmas trees located in the canteen."

According to Pecht, the response was "exceptional."

"We collected hundreds of individual gifts, including gift certificates and a bicycle," he said.