During the Christmas holidays, a team of GM employees and retirees zip in and out of the Detroit Area Agency on Aging, picking up greeting cards for the Holiday Meals on Wheels campaign and then dropping off the proceeds of their sales. They’re most recognizable in Santa hats with large smiles, always jovial, always positive and always putting the needs of others before their own. Leading this team is Ardin Hammel, a 40-year employee of General Motors who retired as a project engineer in 1992.

Active in the men’s club throughout much of his GM career, Mr. Hammel assumed the chairmanship of the club’s Holiday Meals on Wheels campaign in 1995. Since then, the volunteer club has sold 10,060 holiday cards at $5 each, selling more cards every year. In the last three years, members have raised over $14,000 for Holiday Meals on Wheels, and they are currently selling our spring holiday card which reads, “May the beauty of this season be yours throughout the year.”

Easter Sunday is just two weeks away, and the GM Men’s Club hopes to sell at least 600 Spring cards. The government-supported daily Meals on Wheels program does not include holidays. Easter is one of four holidays each year when home-delivered meals are provided because of the private, charitable contributions of individuals and organizations. Each $5 card provides a hot, nutritious meal to a homebound senior.

For former club president Joseph Wrobel, a manager at the GM Technical Center, Holiday Meals on Wheels is an important way to give back to the local community. He knows that for many homebound seniors, the Meals on Wheels delivery may be the only meal of the day and the only contact with a friendly face. He says, “Our visit and the holiday meal are something that is looked forward to by the seniors and makes a direct, positive impact.”

The GM Men’s Club is now celebrating its 75th anniversary. Throughout the year, members take on everything from working with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation annual walk to hosting the Special Olympics State Soccer and Bicycling Finals. In fact, members raise money and coordinate activities for some 100 charitable causes. With flyers, posters and personal appeals, they’ve raised dollars from fellow employees at GM plants and facilities throughout Southeast Michigan. Hammel personally delivers our holiday cards to 13 different locations and the numerous GM employees who support our campaign.

Membership in the men’s club is open to all employees and retirees, and according to Hammel, more volunteers are needed in these tough economic times. Many volunteers, like Hammel and his wife Theresa, are extremely generous with their time and talents, knowing they can always make a difference in the lives of other people.

The GM Men’s Club never stops asking how it can help. Members posted information on their website when they realized we needed Holiday Meals on Wheels volunteers. On Saturday, March 22, we need assistance from 8 a.m. to noon to prepare cold packs for the Easter meal, and on Easter Sunday, March 23 we need volunteers from 6 to 10 a.m., to pack hot meals for delivery.

The club members are like “Ever-Ready bunnies” who keep going and going and going. And they’re just the variety of bunnies we need this Easter. In our service area —Detroit, Highland Park, Hamtramck, Harper Woods and the five Grosse Pointes — some 5,000 homebound seniors will receive Detroit Area Agency on Aging holiday meals.

GM employees and retirees can find out more about the GM Men’s Club from Richard Cyr, 2008 Men’s Club president, at (586) 986-4389, and they can support Easter Holiday Meals on Wheels by contacting Mr. Hammel at (586) 754-6547 or visiting the “E Mall” on the club website, www.gmmensclub.org.

At the Detroit Area Agency on Aging, we welcome contributions and volunteers from all interested individuals, and you can reach us at 313.446.4444. Remember: Hunger Takes No Holiday.

Tune in to “The Senior Solution” on WGPR 107.5FM every Saturday morning at 10 a.m., hosted by Paul Bridgewater, president and CEO of Detroit Area Agency on Aging.