As the Holiday Season approaches, many of our regions find the time to give back to their communities in one way or another—they hand out holiday cards to residents and customers, sponsor gift-giving and tree-lighting programs, and much more. Below are what several crews from our Residential Division have done lately to help out this Holiday Season.
From Curt Hills, Director of Residential Property Management – Eastern Division:
Last week, the Rochester Community Manager’s took part in the annual “Festival of Trees—A Celebration of Giving”. The success of each year’s Festival of Trees allows the Hiawatha Homes Foundation to give financial support to children, adults, and families with: developmental disabilities, Physical impairments, brain injuries, specialized medical needs, limited mental health issues, autism disorders, and other health disabilities.
IRET and other business from the community sponsor trees of the Festival to be professionally decorated, and the proceeds from the sale of each tree directly benefit Hiawatha Homes. The “Festival of Trees” is a five-day affair at the Civic Center here, and many thousands of people turn out to view the dozens of trees on display. A very worthwhile cause and one that IRET should be very proud to have taken part in.
from left to right: Frankie Bergeson, Peggy Betting, Judine Hills, Linda Blanshan, Rachel Aljets, Katherine Bauman, Valerie Pastor.
From Kristin Speldrich, Community Manager – Legacy Apartment Homes and Valley Park Manor, Grand Forks, ND.
We wanted to send you some photos, of what our wonderful Legacy residents and staff did when we came together to help the North Lands Rescue Mission—an organization that aims to provide a place of hope where people can recover from homelessness, pain and addiction, restoring their dignity and improving their lives.
Our residents and staff worked together to gather and donate canned foods, non- perishable items and clothing to the Mission. We delivered the bags to the mission on November 18th and had over 60 bags of items to give. According to the staff of the Mission, this was the largest donation they’d received from one organization.
A special thanks goes to Hugo’s for the bags they provided and special thanks to Emily Bakke and Lindsey Nelson for organizing the donation.
from left to right: Shawn Jerome, Karen Green, Lindsey Nelson, Tina Ness, and Chelsey Finnison. (sneaking in to the photo is a cook from the Mission)
IRET 