Spreading Kindness This Holiday Season

Published: December 15, 2021

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As a result of a generous luncheon donation to the Bridgewell Roseway Day program, program participants passed forward the holiday spirit by donating toys for children connected to Bridgewell’s services.

After running out of options for affordably catering the program’s annual Thanksgiving luncheon, Program Director Amanda Murray called George at Brother’s Deli in Lynn, who donated the entire meal. Due to the generosity of George, Amanda quickly thought of passing the kindness forward.

“We typically spend $350 on a Thanksgiving meal for the Roseway Day Program, whose members had not had a meal together since before the pandemic. To make this happen, we had been cautiously saving all month, making sacrifices where possible,” Amanda said. “When George so graciously provided our whole Thanksgiving meal as a donation, the Roseway Day program wanted to forward the kindness.”

 With the extra money saved from the Thanksgiving donation, the day program thought that giving back to their community would be the best use for the funds. The group decided to donate gifts for children whose parents are connected to Bridgewell’s Affordable Housing or Recovery Services. More than 35 children will be receiving gifts through this toy drive.

Amanda noted that she used the toy donation as an opportunity to teach two program members, Helen and Walter, about the value, worth, and cost of items compared to their budgets by bringing them to Walmart to buy gifts.

“I enjoyed that all the gifts were different, this made me feel good,” Helen explained.

“Watching them buy items for the kids was so rewarding,” Amanda said. “When we arrived at the office to drop off the gifts, it reminded us of Brother’s Deli’s generosity and the ability to pass along the holiday spirit.

“We are all thrilled to see these gifts bring light to so many kids this Christmas.”

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