Autumn Care of Suffolk was full of joy when the facility’s residents received visitors on Friday that came bearing an armful of gifts for the entire facility.

CHEP Recycled Pallet Solutions, from Harbour View, visited the rehabilitation center to deliver presents to the residents of the facility. This is the first year they have done charity work for Autumn Care.

“In the past, we have dealt with Meals on Wheels, but we wanted to do more this season,” said Erick Cross, CHEP’s plant manager. “It’s more personal being this involved.”

Tameika Cross, Autumn Care activity director, was excited to see the company giving back to the community.

“This is the first year this has happened. They wanted to make sure to give back,” said Tameika Cross.

Tameika and Erick are married, which is how CHEP found another outlet to give back to the community.

Residents sat by the facility’s decorated Christmas tree while the CHEP employees handed out gifts for them to open.

The residents received a plethora of gifts from the company to help expand what they already had in their activity rooms. The presents ranged from dominos and classic board games to a portable DVD player and a radio.

Cross made it clear that next year Christmas would be bigger and better than this Christmas.

“We’ll be here next year. Since this was the first year, we had some budget constraints, but next year this will get specifically budgeted for,” said Cross.

The CHEP employees enjoyed giving back so much that they plan on continuing the kindness for the rest of the year, not just Christmas.

“We are very adamant about helping the community,” said Cross. “We won’t stop at just Christmas, because we want the other guys at the company to get involved.”

Cross and his co-worker, Marcus Bailey, ended their time at the facility by making bedside visits to the residents that didn’t have a chance to join in the Christmas cheer.