Panorama Community Magazine
A Letter From Brandon's Forever Home I’m sure when we all look back on the past year and a half we can all agree that our lives were thrown into a tailspin and no one expected it. So many aspects of our day to day lives went from routine to upside down. While the world struggled to adjust to the new norm of life during a pandemic, Brandon’s Forever Home, our staff and programming also redirected to meet the demands that COVID-19 set upon us. We saw a community of people suffer sickness, job loss, family loss, and hidden child abuse and with every new need we quickly planned to face it head on and continue to provide our services to now a much broader client base. For those unfamiliar with our mission, Brandon’s Forever Home was created in the heart of downtown Hazleton to serve the surrounding community’s abused and neglected children. What once was the drop off of a few donations in a founder’s garage has grown into its own site, a hub, for activities, services and material assistance. Brandon's Forever Home offers free clothing, school supplies, hygiene products and more to children in foster care. We also provide tutoring, scholarships, and free monthly activities for families and those in our mentoring program. We offer a support
group as well lead by a licensed therapist. Additionally, our food distribution which operates weekly is income based and open to the general public. With all of this said, we could not have accomplished any of these tasks without the outpouring of help from volunteers, the tremendous amount of donations we received, and the unity of other local non-profi t agencies. Each time the storm became stronger we would rise up to meet it. Thank you to CEO, who we have partnered with to feed our local families each week without pause, the local organizations such as Leadership WilkesBarre, Junior Leadership Wilkes-Barre, Saint Jude’s Church Mountain Top, our devoted staff and volunteers, our teen mentors, and all of the individuals who reached out to us privately with monetary donations, material assistance, clothing, diapers and more. We have been behind closed doors for much of this time due to health and safety restrictions but please know that every effort you have made to support this mission has made all the difference. We truly could not have continued to provide what we had without this support. Please continue to spread the word of our mission, pray alongside us for the health and safety of the world’s
community and make your own Calcutta. “Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick and suffering a n d the lonely right there where you are in your own homes, in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, where ever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for just rejected by society, completely forgotten, completely left alone.” -Mother Theresa
With gratitude and love, Lorine Angelo Ogurkis, Esq. Executive Director
215-284-2555 760 Switze Rd. Nescopeck, PA Thurs-Fri 11-7 Sat-Sun 11-4 GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE Unique clothing and fashion accessories for women, children and men Home décor and handmade crafted items Handmade and refurbished furniture A variety of food items, candles, paint and health and beauty products The place to come for all your holiday decoration and gift giving needs
187 N. Church St,, Hazleton
Visit us on Facebook or at brandonsforeverhome.com and sign up with our Virtual Tree… Check back often as children are added daily and we accept children all the way to the end! All gifts must be wrapped with the child’s name and dropped off at Brandon’s Forever Home by December 20th For more information, please send your questions to missybfh@ptd.net.
DECEMBER 2021
FINE DINING & BANQUET FACILITIES
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1 mile north off I-80, Conyngham Exit 256, 6 miles north off I-81, West Hazleton Exit 145
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