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Volunteers spend Christmas helping others

On Christmas Day, volunteers tell us their stories of how their holiday tradition began.

Helping others takes many forms, and for some Minnesotans, that means volunteering on Christmas.

The annual Christmas meal inside St Paul's Union Gospel Mission brings warmth and joy to those on the receiving end, but the feeling is shared by volunteers like Jennifer Eckert, who started 14 years ago.

"It does bring me joy," she says.

She now calls it a family tradition.

"It's a way to see what's going on around, in the Twin Cities," she says. "Here I get to see that other side. There's other people besides just me."

Eckert says it's also a learning opportunity for her son.

"That it's not just overseas that we go and send those relief products, but they have the need here too," she says. "It just fills your heart with hope, love, joy, and it's just a great thing."

Mike Hamilton has volunteered for 16 years at the Christmas Miracle at Rock Bottom Brewery, which provides both free family meals and gifts for children. He's among 240 volunteers who give their time, but receive much more.

"When you volunteer you always have this idea of great things that you're going to give to other people and, truthfully, the joy that you get and ... the benefit that comes out of it for your own heart and your own life and your own family and your community, it's hard to put words on."

Delivery teams now span generations back at the Union Gospel Mission, and the impact of giving has only grown stronger.

Lauren Bryan was just 14 when she first joined her mom.

 "It's changed my life, volunteering, it completely changed my career path," she says. "I originally wanted to be a veterinarian and when I started volunteering I kind of switched more into patient care and medicine, now kind of my end goal is to work with Doctors Without Borders, so it really has impacted my life a lot."

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