KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A longtime volunteer and co-founder for the MLM Christmas Store, which started back in 1973, received a well-deserved award recently.
Those who volunteer with Pat Welsh say she is very shy, but they thought she deserved to be recognized, which is why they nominated her for Fox 4’s Pay-It-Forward Award.
Those who know Pat say she works year round on the store and helps coordinate the 500 volunteers it takes to successfully run the store each Christmas.
“This has been her passion for many, many years,” said Kelly Seward, who was one of the people who nominated Welsh for the award. “And she is amazing. I`ve known Pat since my first day working here, and if it`s 100-degrees out in July or if it`s 3-degrees in January, Pat is working on the Christmas store or in our warehouse.”
Seward said she waited all year to nominate Welsh.
“There`s no way we can count how many things are in people`s homes that Pat has touched, that she`s bought or she`s packaged up, tallied, given out,” Seward said. “So she`s paid it forward more ways than we can ever count.”
Welsh was shocked when presented with the award and $300. She even asked if this was real. Watch the video above to see her reaction.
FOX 4 loves your ideas for our future Pay-It-Forward stories. To nominate someone who’s not a relative, click on this link.
