SCE Employees Deliver Christmas Gifts to Camp Pendleton Families

For 20 years now, employees at the San Onofre nuclear plant have partnered with the Armed Services YMCA to provide presents for military families in need.

Seventeen years ago, Jose Perez’s co-worker at Southern California Edison asked him to help drop off donated Christmas gifts at the Armed Services YMCA of Camp Pendleton. It’s a tradition that Perez and employees at the utility’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Clemente have continued for the past 20 years.   

“It’s about family. And the Armed Services is part of our family,” said Perez, an SCE principal manager of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance. “It feels good to give back to our community. These young Marines have families and sometimes they struggle to make ends meet.”

Hundreds of SCE employees donated gifts to the Armed Services YMCA at Camp Pendleton.
Hundreds of SCE employees donated gifts to the Armed Services YMCA at Camp Pendleton.

This year, Perez once again filled his truck with Christmas gifts donated by hundreds of SCE employees — from the San Onofre nuclear plant, Blythe and the Rosemead headquarter offices — to 31 Armed Services families in need.

Each year, the military families let the SCE employees know what they need by filling out a list. These wrapped gifts are then dropped off at Camp Pendleton. Parents can also choose Christmas gifts for their kids by selecting unwrapped gifts that are also donated by the employees.

For the past 20 years, SCE employees have partnered with the Armed Services YMCA at Camp Pendleton.
For the past 20 years, SCE employees have partnered with the Armed Services YMCA at Camp Pendleton.

Many of the volunteers gather each year to help wrap the gifts at the San Onofre nuclear plant. The wish lists are simple. Most ask for basics like clothes and shoes. The employees then load all the gifts into trucks for the short drive to Camp Pendleton.

“It’s a natural partnership,” said Lynn Sakamoto, a project manager at the nuclear plant, noting that the plant is located on Camp Pendleton, on land leased from the U.S. Navy. Also, many of the security personnel at the plant, which is in the decommissioning process, are former military or law enforcement.

“These men and women are fighting for us. This is the least we can do,” she added.

SCE employees load up a truck with Christmas gifts headed for Camp Pendleton.
SCE employees load up a truck with Christmas gifts headed for Camp Pendleton.
Christmas gifts from SCE employees are lined up at Camp Pendleton.
Christmas gifts from SCE employees are lined up at Camp Pendleton.