The holiday season is here! And every year Gloria Dei chooses a worthy cause for their annual holiday drive. This year, Gloria Dei Estates’ residents raised $146 and donated twenty-four boxes of winter coats, blankets, scarves, hats, and gloves to Marie’s Closet Thrift Store through the St. Francis Soup Kitchen in Kensington. With the money raised, they purchased additional hoodies, more hats, scarves, and gloves to add to the donation boxes which they brought to Marie’s Closet Thrift Store on December 7th. The St. Francis Soup Kitchen, in addition to supplying 200 meals daily to the homeless, also gets a voucher for free clothing, which they use to help clothe the homeless during the winter months.

Taking part from Gloria Dei Estates were: Fern Russell (Administrator), Floss Carberry (Houskeeping), Ken Wiley (Maintenance), as well as our residents including: Annie McGovern, Helen Saracino, Jerri Watson, and Ronni Carpinetta. They’re collective effort will help many stay warm during the cold weather, and we can’t be more proud of these special individuals within our community! Thanks for being bright examples of what that holiday season is all about!

In addition to this wonderful act of kindness from the Estates, The Manor and Manor Courts also had their own holiday drive. This year they raised money for gifts to give to those less fortunate. Gloria Dei Manor residents partnered with St. Albert the Great Parish in Huntingdon Valley, PA in order to purchase script cards for 16 families in need. Through their combined efforts, $480 was sent toward making those families’ Christmas holiday brighter!

Another community also made some wonderful contributions during the holiday season. The Plaza chose United Service Organizations (USO) of Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, Inc. (Liberty USO), which for over 7 decades has served the needs of the active duty, National Guard and reserve military personnel and their families. Their 2015 Claus program will deliver gift cards to military families that need a helping hand this holiday season, particularly those with a deployed loved one. The Plaza’s residents and staff donated $340 worth of Giant gift cards and $40 worth of various other gift cards! All collected gift card donations will be distributed the week of December 14th, just in time to make the holiday a little more special.

The Plaza residents also donated $28 this holiday season to the Bucks County Opportunity Council in Doylestown, which helps low income residents remove obstacles and solve problems that block their path to economic self-sufficiency.

We also cannot forget the work of the Towers! Gloria Dei Towers held numerous fundraising activities in order to raise money for their holiday campaign. They sold handheld American Flags for Veterans Day to residents raising $80. Pins were another hot item that attributed another $97.00 to the holiday funds. Lastly, the residents also purchased hot ham and cheese sandwiches raising $250.00. All in all $427.00 go to support our Veterans though the Wounded Warrior Project!

As always, the charitable nature of our residents makes us proud of everything they do! They truly care about giving back to their community and revealing the true essence of the holiday season.