from our Director of Marketing & Public Relations, John Drebenstedt
Published January 9th
Following the tradition started in the mid-1950s during the tenure of Superintendent Orville Miller of the then-named Allen County Home, we celebrated Christmas with our Christmas Gift Angel parties on December 19th & 20th.
2018 celebrated the 26th anniversary of the Byron Health Center Gift Angel program which was started as a way to personally recognize each and every Byron Health Center resident during the Christmas season. The Gift Angel program has become a popular way to make the “most wonderful time of the year” even more enjoyable for our residents, many of whom have no other family except for special friends or the Byron Health Center staff.
The Byron Health Center Gift Angel program reaches out to individuals, groups and organizations throughout the Fort Wayne community to help provide each of our residents with a personalized gift for the Holidays.
Throughout the fall, our residents were asked what they might want for Christmas. Using these “wish lists”, friends of Byron Health Center were invited to become Gift Angels by adopting a resident (or residents) and providing a Holiday gift for them.
There are too many groups, organizations, congregations, businesses, families and individuals that adopted residents in 2018 to mention them all individually. But, there were a select few who stood out by adopting a very large number of residents including Agape Church of the Brethren, Alpha Delta Omega Sorority, American Legion Riders Chapter 82, Centier Back, Covenant United Methodist Church, Cross Point Power & Refrigeration, DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Eel River Elementary School, Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, Goodwill Industries, Oak View Elementary School, Parkview Hospital Radiology, Pathway Community Church, Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Summit Consultants, United Methodist Women and University of Saint Francis Nursing Students. Generous donations from the Frank J Smith Endowment Fund and the Opportunities Fund of the Community Foundation of greater Fort Wayne also help fund the Holiday celebrations.
I would like to personally thank each and every one of our Christmas Gift Angels for the contribution that they made to the program this past Holiday season. All of our residents were adopted several times and received many wonderful gifts due to the generosity of our Christmas Gift Angels.
Thank you so much from the entire Byron Health Center team. All the best to you in this joyous New Year!