December 2020
Southern New Hampshire Ecclesia
Nashua, New Hampshire
Recipient: Greater Nashua Mental Health   Initiative: Bags of Love

Because I work with elderly/disabled in subsidized housing, I’m in continual contact with our local service agencies and their case managers. I knew right away who could and would distribute the sleeping bags most effectively to the people who needed them the most. The Greater Nashua Mental Health Center works with clients both staying in shelters and living on the streets. My contact there is the Director of Community Outreach who had just received an urgent request from staff for more blankets the morning my husband, Peter, and I delivered the sleeping bags. She was overjoyed and couldn’t thank us enough; it was a very timely delivery.

I think of 1 John 3:18: “…let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” The Garden Project has made doing something so meaningful and necessary so easy, we didn’t think twice. 20 sleeping bags arrived within 48 hours of my request, the pre-printed postcards for inserts followed immediately, and we were off and running. My ecclesia, the Southern NH Christadelphian Ecclesia, was anxious to participate, and I was appreciative of the opportunity to get it done!

In the attached photo, I’m on the left with the blue mask, Susan Mead from the Greater Nashua Mental Health Center, with the blonde hair, is on the right. Peter is the photographer. It was a cold, windy day— one of the first of many!