Operation Happiness

Speaker 1:           The Christmas spirit is alive and well right here at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Winchester and I am here with Roy. He is the Operation Happiness Manager, let’s say.

Roy:                       Yeah, I am the Manager of the box that we have behind us here. I’m involved in the sorting, the packaging, and then the distribution of 1,273 boxes that we have put together.

Speaker 1:           Wow. Okay, let’s talk about what exactly is Operation Happiness?

Roy:                       Operation Happiness is a community service that has been going on, this is the 41st year and it’s a community and operation of giving for folks that may be, at this time of the year, less fortunate than, maybe, other folks within our county.

Speaker 1:           Right.

Roy:                       It is a giving, a loving and a giving, opportunity for us to do this for our community.

Speaker 1:           This is a major operation. You have tons of volunteers that are here today. What does that mean to you, seeing this growth in this?

Roy:                       This is such a giving community and I have seen more volunteers this year than I have ever seen in over the past few years. The boys and girls, the young people behind us against the wall, that are pushing the carts out, the people that are working here with the prayer team. I’m sure, up in the coat room, there are dozens of people assisting up there with coats and toys and then on the next building up, in the registration process, there are numbers of people up there, also.

Speaker 1:           It is a huge operation.

Roy:                       Yeah, this past Friday, there was a individual that collected over 15,000 cans of corn, green beans, peas, and fruit cocktail from our schools in the county. There was a contest, in fact, Shearer Elementary had 3,800 cans of products that they donated.

Speaker 1:           That is absolutely wonderful. It really is. How long are you going to be going on today? Is this operation just for today?

Roy:                       This is just for today here at this building. What boxes that are not collected here today on folks that have signed up, they will be delivered to the Community Service Building on Taylor Avenue and they will have an opportunity to come in tomorrow or Friday or Monday or after Christmas next week and ask for their box of giving.

Speaker 1:           That is really wonderful. What does it mean to you to be able to help provide this type of operation for those in need?

Roy:                       I’m retired from 4H and the community has been so good to me, a Berea College graduate that came from a dirt background as far as having stuff and it makes me very happy.

Speaker 1:           Well, thank you so much for all that you do. This is a wonderful operation. Get on over here to the Emmanuel Episcopal Church right here in Winchester and you’re watching Good Day Kentucky everyone.

(silence).

Introduce. I’ll introduce the package and then once we start talking, we’re just talking.

Roy:                       I’ll look at you.

Speaker 1:           Yep.

Roy:                       Okay.

Speaker 3:           You don’t want to look at me, I ain’t that handsome. I’m ready when you are [inaudible 00:09:27].

Speaker 1:           Alright. Okay. Here we go and three, two, one-