Making
Holiday Dreams Come True
The holidays are a favorite time of year for the 159 long-term care residents who call Good Shepherd home in Allentown and Bethlehem. This year is playing out differently though. Keeping our residents safe during the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to cancel several beloved group events such as Christmas tree decorating, special musical performances and holiday shopping at the local mall. But one tradition our residents still enjoyed was filling out their annual holiday wish lists.
Filling Santa sacks in 2018 with gifts purchased from the Resident Holiday Wish List Fund.
Every year, residents like Ed Miller, who lives at the Good Shepherd Home-Raker Center, receive $150 from a special donorfunded account to help purchase gifts for their holiday wish lists. Staff and volunteers
shop for and wrap hundreds of gifts, everything from body wash and cologne to CDs, DVDs, sports Ed Miller at a resident ball attire and cozy with his wife Jennifer and son, Nathaniel. comforters. The presents are then put in individual Santa sacks and distributed to the residents just in time for Christmas Day joy. For Ed, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was 23, and Good Shepherd’s other residents who live with traumatic brain injury, spina bifida, cerebral palsy and other disabilities, these presents are a poignant reminder that they are not forgotten by our donors at this special time of year. “He’s a good person with a good heart, and no matter what, he’s always smiling,” says Ed’s wife, Jennifer. This year, Ed is in for a special holiday surprise. Jennifer is installing a large canvas print of their 13-year-old son, Nathaniel, and their dog, Gigi, in Ed’s room. “It’ll be nice, especially if we can’t all be together for Christmas this year,” says Jennifer. “Ed is deserving of everything he gets.” n
Will you open your heart today and help make the holidays extra special for Good Shepherd’s residents by donating to the Resident Holiday Wish List fund? Giving is easy. Use the envelope in this issue; text GSRN to 91999; or on the web at SweetCharityOnline.org 17
