| WHAT: |
The employees, volunteers and physicians of St. Joseph Medical Center (SJMC) are providing a brighter Christmas for 47 families who they ‘adopted’ through Catholic Charities. Various departments and units throughout St. Joseph Medical Center signed up to adopt a needy family, and the result is that thousands of wrapped presents will be delivered tomorrow. Each family submitted a wish list that has been fulfilled by the generous St. Joseph staff. All families were identified by a Catholic Charities social worker.
|
| WHEN: |
Thursday, December 15, beginning at 10:30 a.m., SJMC Facilities staff report to begin putting presents stored in St. Joseph’s Spiritual Care area onto pallets and carts. At 11 a.m., they will start loading a 24-foot rental truck that will leave at 2:30 p.m. to drop off the gifts at Villa Maria School on Dulaney Valley Road in Timonium, Maryland. From there, Catholic Charities will ensure the presents are distributed to families.
|
| WHERE: |
St. Joseph Medical Center, Spiritual Care department,
1st floor lobby and Discharge Entrance (to the right of the hospital’s main entrance)
7601 Osler Drive, Towson, MD 21204
|
| WHO: |
Susanne DeCrane, PhD, St. Joseph Medical Center’s VP of Mission Integration, coordinated the campaign.
|
Bill McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, has called St. Joseph Medical Center’s campaign to adopt 47 needy families "unbelievable and unprecedented."
“Our staff at St. Joseph Medical Center has been particularly moved by this experience. Employees have had shopping and wrapping parties. Their children have even participated. Some have told me that it was an eye-opener for their kids to appreciate that some of the Adopt-a- Family kids were asking for things like, a big box of snacks,”’" says Susanne DeCrane, VP of Mission Integration at St. Joseph Medical Center.
###
St. Joseph Medical Center is a 263-bed nonprofit, regional medical center in Towson, Md., and a member of Catholic Health Initiatives. Founded in 1864 by the Sisters of St. Francis, St. Joseph is the only NCI Community Cancer Centers Program in Maryland and has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s best orthopaedic facilities. For more information about St. Joseph Medical Center, visit www.StJosephTowson.com.