Tampa Attorney Gives Back To Families In Need
TAMPA, Fla. (CW44 News At 10) - One local business owner is trying something new from his office this Thanksgiving. After making it through a pandemic without having to face a shutdown he's giving back to the community who has helped him stay in business.
When you visit a local law firm, it's usually because something negative or life impacting has happened. But that wasn't the case for the Reyes Law Firm Tuesday. "I've done the Christmas things before and I've done other things before, and I don't know the turkey thing, I decided to do a turkey giveaway this year," said Edward Reyes, a business owner and Tampa attorney. Reyes spent the afternoon handing out turkeys to a group of Facebook raffle winners.
CW44 News At 10
Tampa resident, Danny Caro remarked on the charitable gesture, "I think this is a great opportunity, especially in the year that we've have with so much struggle, someone actually giving back to the community."
"I got 600 people that entered," said Reyes "We have 30 turkeys, we gave away 10 already to a motorcycle group, they have a charity. And then we have 20 for people to pick up, and we had four people from those people that one gift certificates to Walmart." Reyes says, given the type of year 2020 has been, he feels lucky and blessed to be one of the business owners who did not face a detrimental shutdown during a pandemic.
He's giving back to the community that is helping him stay in business. "You know, we're very blessed as a business owner because everybody, when they need us we provide the service, but this is a way to pay back. People go through tough times, and we want to make sure we can provide for them because they provide for us," said Reyes. And so with the pandemic in mind, he wants to do the same for them. "People are losing their jobs because of the pandemic. People are having income issues. There's a lot of factors that are happening currently, right now and I think that just giving somebody food, giving somebody a meal goes along way," said Reyes.
A long way for multiple families who say they're feeling the love. "Four people have already come today and they've said 'you have no idea, we didn't have food for Thanksgiving'," said Reyes. "This is something totally right out of The Reyes Firm, always eager to help. And this just shows a piece of that, giving back to the community," said Caro.
Reyes says, because the raffle was so unexpectedly successful in its first year, he plans to continue the new tradition moving forward. "I think going forward I'm going to really start providing for meals; mashed potatoes and maybe stuffing, stuff like that," said Reyes.
TOP STORIES FROM CBS:
• Dow Jones Tops 30,000 For First Time Ever As Biden Transition Points To More Stable Future
• How Will COVID Affect Black Friday Sales? Stores 'Significantly Scaling Back,' Says Expert
• Black Man Killed At Norcross Apartment Complex
for more features.