Purl's Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Blog: Archive for the ‘Happy Holidays’ Category

Coats for Kids 2017

Tuesday, November 28th, 2017

Coats for Kids 2017

Start saving those winter coats from last year!   Winter months are on the horizon and will be here soon.   Don’t throw away any coats that are too small for your kids!  We accept gently used or new coats and jackets.  All donations stay in our own community and help children in our area.

Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning is proud to join Kiss Country (KSKS 93.7 FM) and the Salvation Army as a collection location for the 2017 Coats for Kids drive.  Each year the community and local businesses work with the Salvation Army to collect gently used or new winter coats to keep kids warm in the cold winter months.

For more than 30 years this campaign has brought together organizations, schools, businesses and members of the community with the single goal to donate to children in need.    Kiss Country has been part of Coats for Kids in the Central Valley for more than 20 years.   Their efforts to bring this issue and coat drive to the forefront, has made a real difference in the lives of so many young children.

We are open to the public as drop off location for coats Monday – Friday from 8am-5pm.   We encourage our customers and members of the community to get involved and help keep the kids in our Valley warm.  Our goal is to help collect hundreds of coats in the hope that no child will have to be cold!

 

Please come out to the Purl’s office here: KISS Country and Purl's Sheet Metal helps out needy kids in Madera CA by collecting coats and jackets every year. Help out needy kids in Madera CA by donating coats and jackets.

Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning

232 S. Schnoor Street
Madera, CA 93637

View Map

 

Continue Reading

Coats for Kids 2016!

Tuesday, October 25th, 2016

Start saving those winter coats from last year! Winter months are on the horizon and will be here soon. Don’t throw away any coats that are too small for your kids! Donate your coats to help keep another child warm in the winter! All donations stay in our own community and help children in our area.

Continue Reading

Coats for Kids – 315 Coats Collected!

Friday, January 29th, 2016

THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO DONATED!

Purl’s Sheet Metal wrapped up our 2015 Coats for Kids drive with a total collection of 315 coats. Our customers, employees and the kids at Lincoln Elementary School in Madera collected coats. coats_for_kids_logoThis has been a very cold winter and every coat collected was desperately needed.

We celebrated at Lincoln School with the class who collected the most amounts of coats. The pizza party with Mrs. Bowser’s 5th grade class gave us the opportunity to thank for the kids for their part in bringing in a total of 315 coats.  We appreciate the hard work of the students! We visited with the class about the importance of helping others in our community and how we can all make a difference!

Coats_for_Kids_2015_Pizza_PartyAll of the coats collected stayed in Madera County and were distributed by our local Salvation Army Office. What a great way to celebrate successful Coats for Kids drive in Madera and we look forward to another great year in 2016!

Thank you!

Continue Reading

Coats for Kids 2015

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

IMG_6196_reduced Start saving those winter coats from last year! Winter months are on the horizon and will be here soon.   Don’t throw away any coats that are too small for your kids! Donate your coats to help keep another child warm in the winter!   All donations stay in our own community and help children in our area.

Coats for Kids 2015 kicks off their local campaign November 5th  – December 4th. Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning is proud to join Kiss Country and the Salvation Army as a collection location for the 2015 Coats for Kids drive. Each year the community and local businesses work with the Salvation Army to collect gently used or new winter coats to keep kids warm in the cold winter months.IMG_6334_1_reduced

For more than 30 years this campaign has brought together organizations, schools, businesses and members of the community with the single goal to donate to children in need. Kiss Country has been part of Coats for Kids in the Central Valley for more than 20 years. Their efforts to bring this issue and coat drive to the forefront, has made a real difference in the lives of so many young children

Banner_Coats_for_Kids_1

We are open to the public as drop off location for coats Monday – Friday from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm. We encourage our customers and members of the community to get involved and help keep the kids in our Valley warm. Our goal is to collect hundreds of coats in the hope that no child will have to be cold

Continue Reading

When New Year’s Day Was Not on January 1st

Thursday, January 1st, 2015

Some holidays fall on shifting calendar days for every year, such as Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November) and Easter (the first Sunday after the first full moon to occur on or after March 21). Other holidays, such as Valentine’s Day and Halloween, are fixed. No holiday has a more solid calendar date attached to it than New Year’s Day. It has to fall on January 1st because it celebrates the first day of a new year. That only makes sense…

…except that, like most things that at first appear obvious, there is a bit more to the story. The beginning of the year was not always on the first of January. As with an enormous numbers of traditions in the Western World, the establishment of January 1st as the inaugural day of a new year goes back to the ancient Romans.

The modern solar calendar is derived from the Roman model, but the earliest Roman calendars did not have 365 days in a year spread over 12 months. Instead, there were 304 days spread over 10 months. The Romans believed this calendar originated with the mythical founder of the city, Romulus. If Romulus were a real person, we can credit him with a poor understanding of the seasons, as this abbreviated calendar soon got out of sync with Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Numa, one of the Kings of Rome (probably also fictional) receives credit for creating a longer year with two added months, Ianuarius and Februarius, bringing the number of days in the year to 355. The new month of Ianuarius, named after Ianus (Janus in contemporary spelling), the god of beginnings, would eventually be known in English as January. But when this new calendar was instituted, January was not the first month. March, named after the god of war, remained the first month, and March 1st was New Year’s Day.

This extended calendar still did not keep in synch with the seasons. In 45 BCE, Julius Caesar instituted reforms to align the calendar correctly according to calculations of astronomers, with an additional 10 days distributed across the year. January also became set as the first month, and offerings to the god Janus on this day started the tradition we now know as New Year’s. The date still fluctuated during the ensuing centuries, with a number of Western European holy days treated as the beginning of the year instead. It wasn’t until the next calendar reform in 1582, the Gregorian Calendar, that the date of the New Year was fixed at January 1st.

However you choose to celebrate the beginning of the current calendar, everyone here at Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning  you have a wonderful 2015!

Continue Reading

Why Do We Hang Up Mistletoe?

Wednesday, December 24th, 2014

IMG_6332_1_Purls_xmas_cardOf course, you probably know part of the answer to this question already. You hang up mistletoe so that the people standing underneath can share a romantic holiday kiss! But what you may not realize is that the origin of this longstanding ritual predates many of the other holiday traditions we celebrate today. Why would a plant that has many poisonous varieties (most types sold for use in the home have few negative effects, but you can wrap it in netting to prevent children from consuming any fallen berries or leaves) be used as a symbol of holiday affection?

There are a couple of ways to explain the positive associations of (potentially hazardous) mistletoe. For one, this semi-parasitic plant has long been hailed as a treatment for illnesses and pain. The ancient Greeks and Romans used it to cure cramps, epilepsy, and more. Even today, mistletoe extracts are one of the leading alternative medicines studied for their effectiveness in killing cancer cells. And because the early Celtic Druids saw it as a sign of healing and life, they may be the first to bestow upon the plant its romantic associations, deeming it worthy of treating the infertile.

But it is Norse mythology that is likely responsible for a majority of the modern traditions associated with this small hanging bunch. One of the powerful Norse god Odin’s sons, named Baldur, was said to be invincible due to an oath his mother took to protect him from harm. But Loki, a god who often set out to make trouble for the gods, set out to find the one thing that could do some damage, and eventually discovered that Baldur’s mother Frigg had never included mistletoe in her invincibility oath. When mistletoe was finally responsible for her son’s demise, the grieving Frigg vowed that the plant would never again be used to hurt another living thing, and that she would plant a peaceful kiss upon anyone who walked underneath it.

And that is one of the reasons that, today, kissing under the mistletoe is viewed as a source of good luck. From our family to yours, we wish you a safe holiday season, and we hope that you and your family are full of joy and good fortune—mistletoe or not! Happy holidays from Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning!

 

Continue Reading

2014 Coats for Kids Drive ~ Thank You Parties!

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014

IMG_6457_1_2This week Purl’s Sheet Metal wrapped up our 2014 Coats for Kids drive with pizza parties at St. Joachim and Lincoln Elementary schools in Madera. The pizza parties gave us the opportunity to celebrate with the classes who collected the most amounts of coats for The 2014 Coats for Kids drive.

We had a great time at the schools and had a chance to take a class photo to send home with each of the kids. Brian Driggs and Kurt Davidson of Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning took a moment to thank for the kids for their part in bringing in 435 coats. All of the coats collected stayed in Madera County and were distributed by our local Salvation Army Office. Mr. Driggs also talked about the importance of helping others in our community and how we can all make a difference. During the party he also announced that most of the coats collected had already been given to kids in need.

What a great way to celebrate successful Coats for Kids drive in Madera and we look forward to another great year in 2015.

Merry Christmas!

IMG_6464_1 IMG_6420_1IMG_6334_1

IMG_6427_1

Continue Reading

Coats for Kids 2014 – We THANK YOU for your contributions!

Wednesday, December 17th, 2014

This week Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning wrapped up our 2014 Coats for Kids drive. We had a great time working with our community and collecting coats. We are proud to announce we collected 435 coats! All of the coats collected will stay in Madera County and will be distributed by our local Salvation Army Office.

We want to thank our customerthank-yous and friends who brought in both new and slightly used coats for this drive. Thank you to the teachers, parents and students at Lincoln and St. Joachim Schools! We were overwhelmed by the donations and generosity. Huge thank you to our local Salvation Army for all the great work they do! All of the coats collected will be given to children who need them most.

Continue Reading

Christmas Light Parade 2014

Tuesday, December 9th, 2014

Purls Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning employees and their families had a fantastic time at the 2014 Parade of Lights in Madera, CA. The 21st Annual Madera Light Parade was held on Thursday December 4, 2014. The annual light parade is a tradition in Madera that begins Christmas Light Parade 2014the Holiday Season with a spectacular Christmas celebration of lights. Each year the event is coordinated and hosted by the Madera Kiwanis Club and the Downtown Association.
The light parade began 21 years ago as a procession of farm equipment and tractors down historic Yosemite Avenue in Madera, CA. Today, the parade route continues down Yosemite Avenue and still includes tractors and harvesters as well as fire trucks, cars, semi-trucks, flatbed trailers and just about anything else you can put lights on. There is only one qualification to enter … each vehicle must have a minimum of 100 lighted Christmas lights. Madera residents lined the streets of Yosemite Avenue and cheered for their favorite entries.
Purl’s Sheet Metal entered the parade again with their fleet of antique fire apparatus decorated and loaded with Purl’s Sheet Metal employees and families. It was a great evening for us to bundle up and barbeque hot dogs, drink hot cocoa and sing some Christmas carols. The Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning fleet includes, 1979 Crown Fire Coach Pumper, 1951 American LaFrance Pumper and 1948 American LaFrance Aerial Ladder Truck.

Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6199_1Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6261_1_1Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6200_1Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6202_1Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6205_1Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6228_1Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6260Christmas Light Parade 2014 IMG_6265_1

 

 

 

 

 

Continue Reading

Will Thanksgiving Turkey Really Make You Sleepy?

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

We’ve all heard it before: you feel so sleepy after a Thanksgiving meal because of the main event: the turkey. For years, people have credited extraordinary levels of tryptophan in turkey as the reason we all feel the need to nap after the annual feast. But contrary to this popular mythology, tryptophan is probably not he largest responsible party for your post-meal exhaustion.

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, which means it’s something that our bodies need but do not produce naturally. Your body uses tryptophan to help make vitamin B3 and serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that sends chemicals to the brain to aid in sleep. But in order to get this essential amino acid, we have to eat foods that contain it.

Turkey has somewhat high levels of tryptophan, but so do many other foods, including eggs, peanuts, chocolate, nuts, bananas, and most other meats and dairy products. In fact, ounce-for-ounce cheddar cheese contains a greater amount of tryptophan than turkey. In order for tryptophan to make you feel sleepy, you would have to consume it in excessive amounts, and serotonin is usually only produced by tryptophan on an empty stomach.

The truth is, overeating is largely responsible for the “food coma” many people describe post-Thanksgiving. It takes a lot of energy for your body to process a large meal, and the average Thanksgiving plate contains about twice as many calories as is recommended for daily consumption. If anything, high levels of fat in the turkey cause sleepiness, as they require a lot of energy for your body to digest. Lots of carbohydrates, alcohol, and probably a bit of stress may also be some of the reasons it feels so satisfying to lay down on the couch after the meal and finally get a little bit of shut-eye.

If you feel the need to indulge in a heaping dose of tryptophan this year, go ahead! Turkey also contains healthy proteins and may even provide a boost for your immune system. Here at Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning, we hope your Thanksgiving is full of joy and contentment this year. Happy feasting!

Continue Reading