Lenexa employees “adopted” a local single mother with five children, providing the family with food, presents, household products and a grocery store gift certificate for the holidays.

Terry Vasturino, senior HR coordinator, Corporate Human Resources, Melville (right), helps volunteers from The Salvation Army collect gifts donated by Arrow employees.

Camille Sarivole, administrative assistant, AEC, Wilmington (left) and Tony Borsini, manager, Marketing and Sales, AEC, Wilmington, pose for a picture in front of a pile of gifts donated by local employees.

Employees around Arrow gave generously this holiday season through local toy drives, fundraisers and spirited holiday activities in their efforts to provide holiday cheer to local children and families who might otherwise go without.

• Employees at the Arrow/Zeus branch in Lenexa, Kan., “adopted” a local single mother with five children, providing the family with food, presents, household products and a grocery store gift certificate for the holidays. This was the 15th consecutive year that the Lenexa branch adopted a local family for the holidays.
  
• Employees at Arrow’s Logistics and Value Added Center in Phoenix, Ariz., donated generously to support a local employee whose daughter will undergo her second bone marrow transplant and receive chemotherapy this winter. Amidst her frequent hospital visits with her daughter, the employee, a single mother of two, is currently unable to work and has no income. In truly generous and inspiring fashion, local employees donated enough to provide the employee with $3,600 per month from November 2006 through January 2007. Local employees also voted to forego giving out gift certificates at this year’s holiday party and to donate the money to the employee and her family instead.
  
• At Arrow’s global headquarters in Melville, N.Y., employees participated in two holiday toy drives to benefit needy families on Long Island. Toys and clothing donated by Arrow employees were provided to 75 children facing life-threatening illnesses at a special holiday party in their honor, hosted by Make-A-Wish Foundation, and 125 children from families in severe financial hardship through The Salvation Army’s holiday Angel Tree Program.
  
• The Arrow Electronics Components (AEC) branch in Woodland Hills, Calif., participated in the United States Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program, a program designed to have soldiers from the U.S. Marine Corps distribute toys collected by local organizations as Christmas gifts to needy children. Altogether, employees donated several hundred gifts through the program.
  
• Employees in Wilmington, Mass., and Foothill Ranch, Calif., also participated in Toys for Tots programs through the United States Marine Corps. The Wilmington branch held its second annual Toys for Tots Family Night on December 11. Employees, customers and suppliers attended the event with their family members, donating more than 2,000 gifts to benefit less-fortunate families and children in the Boston area.
  
• For the third consecutive year, employees at Arrow’s AEC branch in Raleigh, N.C., along with several local suppliers, contributed toys to 15 children, ages three through 14, from the Masonic Home for Children, a foster care institution in Oxford, N.C. The toys were personally delivered to the children by five local Arrow employees, who also spent time playing, sharing a meal and taking pictures with the children.
  
• Employees at Arrow’s Primary Distribution Center in Reno, Nev., participated in the Reno Rodeo Denim Drive, a collaborative project between the Reno Rodeo Foundation and the Reno Rodeo Association to collect new denim clothing, white cotton socks and underwear for abused and neglected infants, children and teenagers in northern Nevada. Employees contributed more than 50 denim clothing items and 25 pairs of socks and underwear.
  
• The Santa Clara, Calif., branch supported local families in need through a holiday toy drive facilitated by The Family Giving Tree, and a holiday food drive through Second Harvest Food Bank.
  
• In Indianapolis, Ind., employees “adopted” seven local families in need, donating toys and grocery store gift cards to the families through the United Way of Central Indiana’s United Christmas Service program.

Additional toy drives, fundraisers and holiday activities were held throughout many other Arrow locations.