For the eighth consecutive year, clients at Jewish Family Service of Tidewater have been adopted by members of the Catholic Church of St. Stephen in Chesapeake.
Carol Ehrbar, who coordinates this project for St. Stephen each year, helped collect more than 3,000 gifts for JFS clients in the Personal Affairs Management (PAM) Program. People in the program are often indigent and have no friends or family to care for them.
JFS rented a U-Haul to bring the gifts to its offices to sort. In addition to the U-Haul, five cars were filled with bags of gifts.
PAM clients are at least 18 years old, and usually have an intellectual, developmental, or mental health condition that prevents them from being able to make decisions on their own. JFS is appointed guardian for these folks.
From a ‘tree’ of wish list items for specific clients, church members selected a list and then purchased those items.
The case workers who had completed the wish lists with their clients, will deliver them the gifts.
“In addition to all these gifts, we have the knitted and quilted items from the knitters group and Ohef Sholom’s Quilt Group—enough so that everyone gets something to help them know they were not forgotten,” says Kelly Burroughs, JFS CEO.
“This interfaith project shows the meaningful impact of collaboration. Thank you, St. Stephen’s Catholic Church!”