Room at the Inn Donation

A high–tech employer in the city of Marquette is making Christmas a little brighter for the area’s homeless residents.

On Thursday night, Pioneer Surgical Technology donated $3,000 to Room at the Inn.

Pioneer Surgical associate global communications manager Nicole Young says company employees were having trouble deciding what sort of Christmas party they should have.

They eventually put several options up for a company-wide vote.

Young says one of the options was to not have the party and donate the money that they would have spent on it to charity instead, and that option was the runaway winner.

Room at the Inn is the Marquette area’s homeless shelter program.

Different churches take turns hosting it for a week at a time.

Room at the Inn founder Helen McCormick says the donation could be used on expenses like laundry token for the guests, or possibly even cab fare.

The check presentation was held at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church in Marquette, which is hosting the shelter program this week.

McCormick says whenever St. Christopher’s is hosting, guests need cab fare to get there each night and then back into the center of town in the morning.