Bath&BodyWorks and the holiday

This is the nicest story I’ve heard about this holiday, so I wanted to pass it along.

Over at EtiquetteHell, there’s a very long, very emotional thread going on about a nursing home where, due to administrative changes, the donors who ordinarily sent the residents presents for Christmas were redirected to donate to the furniture fund. The presents were a highlight for the residents, many of whom had never received three or four presents at the same time (as the home is in a poorer area and servicing an impoverished population.) Since many of the residents didn’t receive any other presents than those donated, this was going to make for a bleak Christmas.

The wonderful Ehellions, by the way, were marshalling themselves to buy, make, and send gifts to the nursing home if the poster only gave the word.

The staff were depressed and upset about the upcoming cheerless holiday. And then the Activities Director stepped in and started calling local businesses to see if she could scrape up any donations, anything at all.

Bath And BodyWorks came through in a big way, providing gifts for every single resident of the nursing home. Every one of them. (That’s on page 6 of that thread if you’re interested in skipping to the important parts.)

In the thread, the poster gives a list of what the residents will be receiving courtesy of the store.

And I have to say, this has me–a very very cynical person–typing with tears in my eyes, because I would have figured a Big Box Store was as heartless as the cement blocks that formed its walls, and instead they apparently have the latitude to participate in community affairs, and this one particular store has shown it cares about people whom no one else cares about. People who would otherwise have been invisible.

I wrote to Bath & BodyWorks and told them this. I told them I have never shopped in any of their stores, but in the future, sometime after the post-Christmas rush dies down, for the first time, I’m going to check them out.