Hundreds of Farley Nuclear Plant employees are being “Santa Claus” to many families in the Wiregrass who otherwise might not have had presents under their Christmas tree this year.

Since the mid-1980s, union members and employees of Farley have gotten together to help make Christmas a little brighter for Wiregrass families in need.

“We’ve got good jobs and a lot of people don’t,” Michael McCord, president of Union Hall IBEW 796 told WDHN News. “We’re just trying to give back to the community and we do it for the kids. We don’t do it for us. We started many years ago and we’re just trying to make it bigger and bigger every year.”

This year, Farley – which employs more than 900 people, with more than 360 of those being union members – has adopted 26 families and 58 children in need.

“Pretty much anything they had on their list, we’re going to give it to them and we didn’t select which toys or items on the Christmas list,” said Daniel Komm, plant manager of Farley. “We went ahead and got all of them so everything that was on their lists, we got that for all of the families so we’re really looking forward to making the kids’ Christmas special this year.”

Farley employees are making a difference in a big way by donating to several organizations, including the House of Ruth, Toys for Tots, Santa for Seniors, The Child Advocacy Center and the Wiregrass Area Food Bank.

“We want to take the burden of Christmas and the worry off of them and we want it to be where they just open up on Christmas morning and see what Santa Claus has provided for them … have a turkey or a ham, have food for the two or three weeks their children are out of school so we provide that so that there is nothing for them to worry about,” said Carolyn Jordan, a Farley employee and former organizer of the event.

This story originally appeared on WDHN in Dothan.

(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)