There is Work to be Done

Annual Gifts Drive Our Day-to-Day Work


Last week, we received several heartbreaking calls from dear friends of Angels' Place. Their acquaintance had suddenly passed away in Northern Michigan and were hoping we might consider opening a new home there including the acquaintance's special needs son. 

Sadly, before they fully posed their idea, their own words helped them understand that the hands-on, in-person nature of our work - recruiting caregivers, training and mentoring them, managing complex reporting and compliance, working in collaboration with families and healthcare providers, providing resident enrichment activities, managing home maintenance = made the distant location impractical. 

We offered two imperfect solutions - add the son to our waitlist for future residential consideration, or leverage our experiences as consultants to create their own version of "Angels' Place" in their area. 

Unfortunately, this story is not uncommon. Every week, parents come to us with requests to place their child - often with urgency created by their own confrontation with mortality.

In the last edition of our newsletter, the feature story and this column were dedicated to the launch of an ambitious, multi-year "Abundant Lives" Campaign. This campaign sets the organization up for the future. So far, donors have been generous and we have momentum. 

The premise of the campaign is to generate incremental support for specific, long-term needs while not eroding critical annual giving. The hands-on, in-person nature of our work requires a constant stream of annual income. 

Recently, two new men became Angels' Place residents - your annual support keeps them safe, comfortable, and fulfilled every day.

In the last two months, longtime residents Robert and Carol Ann passed away - because of your annual support, they and their families were at peace in their final days. 

In the past inclement week, your annual gift helped clear walks, repair vehicles, and keep the houses at a comfortable temperature.You motivated caregivers to travel icy roads to fulfill their mission.

While many people donated during the Christmas season and Angels' Place remains financially strong, we fell measurably short of our year-end fundraising goal. We'll need to dip into our reserves.

So, with humility, we ask that you please consider an unrestricted gift to support the men and women of Angels' Place today. 

Now is the perfect time. Making a gift during Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month has twice the impact - all unrestricted gifts will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to a total of $30,000. 

The hands-on, in-person nature of our work requires this consistent stream of annual income. 

On behalf of the men and women of Angels' Place, thank you for your past generosity and for your ongoing consideration. There is much work to be done. 

Popular posts from this blog

God bless us in our Holy Work

Hello Everybody. Yesterday, we held our service for Robert at the Maxwell Home -- you may know, Robert is currently under hospice care.  Program Director Tony Dickerson, led the service.  His words were so beautiful, we thought you might like to read them here. My Dear Friends in Christ, Today we gather together at the Maxwell Home to support and pray for our brother and friend Robert Grant.  Robert has been a resident of the Maxwell home for the 30 years Angels’ Place has been in operation.  In regards to the Maxwell home, it was the first home of the Angels’ Place organization.  For me as a program director, it’s an honor to serve this home because of the legacy surrounding it.  I like to call it the “flagship” of the organization.  It’s not the most modern or fancy of our 21 homes, but it is our first and has stood the test of time.  For example, the United States Navy has advanced ships powered by nuclear power, but the flagship of the fleet is the U.S.S Constitution. Despite havin
Read More »

Pull the Weeds When There are Few

 Dear Friends: My late dad would be happy. After a lifetime of caring for his Mother and then our family, he was able to retire. One of his favorite post-retirement hobbies was maintaining a good-size vegetable garden in his yard. Some days, he could be found sitting on a small cement bench near his garden, the morning sun warming his back, a glass of tomato juice in hand, and a statue of the Blessed Mother before him. It was his meditation place. He told me: "Tommy, if you don't pray today, you never will...". When we bought the new Hylane Home, the front garden needed a lot of attention, but it echoed the setting of my father's yard. And when the moms and daughters of Orchard Lake St. Mary's offered the proceeds from their brunch to the residents of Angels' Place, a Marian garden seemed to be a providential investment.  As contractors configured the interior, volunteers weeded, and trimmed, and mulched, and watered. Old shrubs were removed, bricks were stack
Read More »

The People You'll Meet in Heaven

If you were at our It’s a Miracle Dinner last year, you will recall our guest speaker, Mitch Albom.  You may also recall some of the stories from his bestselling books that were part of his remarks.  Stories about Morrie Schwartz, Pastor Henry Covington, and others. He spoke about a book he published in 2003, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  This book is not about the obvious people you hope to meet in heaven.  It is about the people who impacted your life and they didn’t even know it. That storyline has always been important to me as I think about the people who have impacted my life (and maybe didn’t even know it).  It is particularly relevant in the work of Angels’ Place.  So many people.  So much impact.  It really is a miracle. Our residents are certain to meet people like you in heaven when their time on earth ends. Rebekah Harahan recently share a $500,000 gift with Angels’ Place.  Here is a little of the backstory to Rebekah announcement: About a year ago, Blessed Assurance
Read More »