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Lord’s Place Angel Tree

During the holiday season our employees supported one of our charity partners, The Lord’s Place, by contributing items for the homeless rather than exchanging gifts with co-workers. What began as a request for items to assist individuals through angel tree donations turned into results no one anticipated. 

The Lord’s Place provided us 50 Angels with gift ideas on each angel.  Basic necessities such as women’s and men’s socks and undergarments, backpacks, wallets, blankets, watches, sleeping bags, and portable CD players were requested.  The response from our employees was overwhelming. As a result, our office provided 200 items (not including toys and games for children) for the area’s homeless. 

One of the gift suggestions drew questions about the need of the homeless – watches.  We discovered that watches are necessary because many services offered to the homeless must be accessed by a certain time.  Limited availability of shelter beds in Palm Beach County means if the homeless are not at a shelter location by a certain time they will not be able to take advantage of basic housing needs.

The gifts collected were donated to The Lord’s Place Engagement Center on Friday December 19, 2008.  The Lord’s Place Engagement Center promotes a relaxing home-like environment for individuals and families operated during untraditional hours.  It acts as a single “point of entry” so that the “visitors” can access community resources and receive community referrals.  The innovative programming provides a hot meal, peer mentoring, and a resource center in a home-like atmosphere. The Engagement Center is open six days a week, Tuesday - Friday, 2pm - 6:30pm and on Saturdays from 8am - 1pm.  Hot meals are served every evening from 4pm – 5pm and on Saturdays from 10am – 11am.