Whew! It seems like the past few weeks at RCI have been a whirlwind as we went from celebrating Thanksgiving, to Christmas to New Years here at our Linden Street Community Center. As we enter 2020 together, we have been reflecting on all of the wonderful opportunities that we were given to engage with our wider Allentown area through the end of 2019.

The holiday season kicked off with a Thanksgiving Day meal. We were able to provide a fresh made, hot meal for everyone. One of the highlights was at least three different kinds of pie to end the evening!

Next, Pat Bolden and her friends hosted an incredible Holiday meal for us on December 5th. They brought with them a HUGE turkey and all the fixings and served several dozen of our community center members. This incredible gift kicked off the MANY holiday festivities hosted by our Allentown friends.

The third week of December was RCI parties! On Tuesday, December 17th we had a retelling of The Night Before Christmas thanks to our friends with the Parish Nurses. Several of our community members dressed up: one of our community helpers even dressed up as Santa Clause (with a bit persuasion :) )

On Wednesday the 18th one of our volunteers, Ripple Pastor Angela Moyer chose to celebrate her birthday with us complete with cake and popcorn. We were thrilled to be able to sing to her and embarrass her just a bit with our antics!

December 19th closed out our ‘party week’ with a holiday party hosted by ‘The Zumba Ladies’ who are some of our weekly volunteers. They brought us gifts of blankets, handwarmers and other goodies! A highlight of that day was having one of the volunteers lead us in several games of BINGO.

On December 24th, we were given the opportunity to have a Christmas Eve extravaganza which included being able to give our Community Members a few gifts provided by the external community. Each member got a Christmas stocking filled with goodies and each a pair of weatherproof boots for the harsh weather months. It was a joy to be able to provide this basic comfort that many of us take for granted!

On Christmas Day, Johnny’s Bagels, a local eatery on Hamilton Street catered a GORGEOUS spread for our friends and community members! Please support them with your business if you get the chance!

The New Year began on a great foot with a donation of fresh deli sandwiches from a private donor. It feels special to continue to be supported throughout the year by the Greater Lehigh Valley and not just through the ‘official’ holiday season.

As the New Year begins, we have had and will continue to have some exciting events at RCI. Along with our continued partnership with St. Luke’s Parish Nurses and LVHN Street Medicine, VAST, Caring Dam Hearts and many others, we were also able to offer free haircuts on January 9th to our community members through our partner, Stephen Flowers! This amazing opportunity continues to allow us to offer important services to our Allentown friends. Thank you all for your continued support and we look forward to collaborating in this new year!

A retelling of ‘The Night Before Christmas’ complete with our own Santa Clause!

Ripple Pastor Angela Moyer and her mother celebrating Angela’s birthday at RCI (photo taken by community partner, Denise)

Holiday BINGO led by the Zumba Ladies, pictured here!

We were able to gift around 85 pairs of boots on Christmas Eve!

A Christmas Day feast provided by Johnnys Bagels!

Stephen Flowers offering free haircuts! (Photo by Community Partner, Maria)