Only about 115 shopping days to Christmas! (Written Aug. 31)

Now is the perfect time to schedule an activity that helps others while dovetailing perfectly with your Christmas shopping.

Mountain Hope Good Shepherd Clinic is looking for volunteers to wrap gifts for a couple of hours starting on Black Friday (November 25) and continuing every day through Christmas Eve. Proceeds will benefit the non-profit clinic, which serves Sevier County residents and employees with no health insurance.

The location Ole Smoky Barn, 131 The Island Drive in Pigeon Forge. Volunteers are asked to sign in for two-hour shifts (or longer) any time between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.

“This is a great opportunity to turn a Christmas shopping outing into something more,” said Ashley Burnette, director of fund development for Mountain Hope. “Just think — you can shop in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, then wrap gifts for a couple of hours to benefit others. You could even wrap the gifts you just bought.”

What’s more, you can shop with a friend and then both of you can have fun wrapping together. Two volunteers at a time are needed at each location.

There’s another way you can help the project. You can donate Christmas wrapping paper, tape, scissors, bows, and ribbon by taking it to the Clinic at 312 Prince Street in Sevierville.

To sign up for your shift, contact Ashley at 774-7684 or by e-mail at aburnette@mountainhope.org.  You can also sign up for a shift online:

Shifts at the Ole Smokey Barn in Pigeon Forge at the Island

The Clinic provides quality medical and dental care at low cost to the county’s uninsured. It now has more than 21,000 patients of record. Fund-raisers such as the gift wrapping project are one way of bridging the gap between what patients can afford and the actual cost to the clinic of providing care.