Contractors want to help restock foster care closet

The Sweetwater County Foster Care program’s emergency clothes closet is severely depleted and Peterson Beckner Industries (PBI) has made it a mission to help restock it. 

PBI is a steel erection company from Houston, Texas, currently working at the Genesis Alkali Granger facility. The work is expected to last until the spring. Even though many local workers were hired by PBI, several company representatives have made Sweetwater County their home for the duration of the project. 

“Everywhere we go we try to give back to the community,” Rick Haydon, a PBI representative, said.

PBI first found an opportunity to give back at the beginning of August, when workers donated $4,000 worth of backpacks and school supplies to Sweetwater County School District No. 2. 

PBI has set their goal even higher for their new project, aiming to donate $5,000 worth of clothing to the Sweetwater County Foster Care closet. This mission came about after PBI heard about the program’s need. 

Nicki Parker, PBI’s administrative assistant, learned from the director of the program that the foster care system has been unable to receive clothing donations during the COVID-19 pandemic due to possible contamination and the difficulty of laundering used clothing. Because of this, the clothes closet the program uses for children in need is severely depleted. 

To help get the closet up and running again, PBI has decided to donate brand new clothing. The most needed clothing items include socks, undergarments and pajamas, and PBI also wants to donate warm items for the winter, such as coats, hats and gloves.  

In order to get new, quality items the foster care program needs, PBI has created an Amazon.com wishlist with the items they want to donate so that employees can easily pick out what to contribute. According to Parker, PBI reached nearly $1,000 in donations during the project’s first week. 

While PBI mostly puts together donations themselves, they are open to help from community members who wish to contribute.

Anyone wanting to help restock the foster care closet can order items off the Amazon.com wishlist, which is titled “Peterson Beckner Community Outreach Oct 2021.”

Those who order off the list can select a PBI address under the name Rick Haydon as the delivery address to have the donations sent to PBI, who will gather and deliver the items.

PBI asks that all items be ordered by Oct. 22 so the clothes can be delivered to the foster care program on Oct. 29.

 

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