Hands On Hartford

Holiday Happenings

January 6, 2020

Dear Friends,

Does anyone feel breathless from the holidays? We certainly do here at Hands On Hartford! What a wild and wonderful ride the holidays have been for our team as we gathered in the community to make things brighter for our neighbors. And we are so grateful for the support of our sponsors, donors and volunteers without whom none of this would be possible.

Our Housing Services program’s holiday shindig. Toy Shoppe’s family party and shopping extravaganza. Christmas Day meal. New Year’s Day event, ringing in 2020. All fun, festive, and heartwarming events that served and connected the community, thanks to all of you. Your work, your time, your talent, your donations made all of this possible!

Here’s a brief recap of the last month’s celebratory and heartwarming activities:

The season kicked off with a lively group of housing tenants and HOH staff dancing to our dear friend DJ Jon’s music (and of course enjoying good food)
Nearly 400 kids enjoyed holidays gifts this season in large part due to the record-breaking funds raised by Avon Old Farms School – and more will benefit this week with the Three Kings Day gift distribution
Over 100 families partied together enjoying holiday crafts, activities, dancing, pizza, and visits with Santa at Toy Shoppe. Toy Shoppe was sponsored this year by First Church Simsbury, United Healthcare, Synergy Financial Planning and Infoshred.
Christmas Day saw 266 of our neighbors, including dozens of children, at HOH enjoying a bountiful Christmas dinner and gifts for all- with special thanks to Max Cares Foundation for providing a full roast beef dinner and to the Goodman Family for tasty treats.
The New Year was welcomed in at HOH with over 150 guests and nearly 40 volunteers enjoying yet another delicious meal as well as good company – and special thanks are due to First Church Simsbury for, once again, providing snacks, a rousing Bingo session, fresh salad and scrumptious desserts.

No wonder we’re breathless.

I sincerely hope that you were blessed with a wonderful holiday season, and I want you to know how grateful I am, how excited I am, that we start this new year– this new decade — working together to serve and connect this beloved community!

With warmest wishes to each and every one of you,

Barbara A. Shaw, Executive Director

This post was written by Kate Shafer, Communications Manager at Hands On Hartford. You may contact the author at kshafer@handsonhartford.org.