(Susan Philips) Mark and Wendell Presgrave with some of the collected food that will be distributed to needy people in the D.C. metropolitan area.
Readers Share Stories of Giving Back
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DECEMBER 24, 2009
James Eng, MSNBC

As founder of a successful Virginia plumbing and heating company, Wendell Presgrave counts himself among the fortunate — but it wasn’t always that way.
While growing up the northern Virginia town of Chantilly, his family was “a little poor” — so much so that his mother would re-dye his jeans and hand them down to his brother every time the school year started. “My brother didn’t realize he never got new jeans,” Presgrave says.
“I was raised poor, but I didn’t know the difference. I just thought that was the way people lived.”
Now that Presgrave is living a more comfortable life — and able to afford new pants — he feels compelled to give back to the less fortunate. Every holiday season, My Plumber Heating and Air, the 130-employee Manassas, Va.-based company he runs with his son Mark, collects food from customers (in return for service discounts) and distributes it to needy people in the area. The company has distributed more than 70,000 pounds of nonperishable food in the past six years, and has set up a Web site to encourage other service businesses to follow suit.
Presgrave’s motivation for giving back is simple: “Cause it’s much more fun to give than it is to receive.”
“The D.C. metro area is awash in the same horrible economy the country is experiencing,” says Susan Phillips, the company’s community outreach coordinator. “People are struggling to make ends meet, worried that they may be laid off tomorrow, if they aren’t already trying to pull necessities for their family out of thin air.”
The charitable deeds of Presgrave and his employees were among more than 200 stories sent in by msnbc.com readers — some fortunate, others less so — describing how they are giving back during a holiday season fraught with economic uncertainty.
To view a gallery of images and read more stories, click here.
© 2009 msnbc.com
Reproduced with permission of MSNBC, from ‘It’s much more fun to give than it is to receive’ - Msnbc.com readers share stories of giving back this holiday season by James Eng, December 22, 2009; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
You can read this story in its original location and view more photos at: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34394661/