Locations: Cornerstone Foundation Soup kitchen, South Park Inn, Saint Elizabeth House & Friendship Center, Bernard Park

Locations: St. ELizabeth’s Friendship House, Cornerstone Soup Kitchen, South Green BArnard Park

This weekend was by far one of our busiest and most successful weekends yet!  

The Day before the Events:

This week, we gained two new partnerships with companies that we haven’t previously had.  Panera Bread in Manchester is now on our weekly donation pick-up list. We also added King’s Donuts in Manchester to our list as well.  This week we received so much and were blessed to have been able to donut a full box to each shelter and soup kitchen!  We did our typical pick up from Dunkin Donuts and we were able to get 3 full trays of assorted bagels, munchkins, and donuts.  Panera blessed us with 3 full boxes of bread, cookies, and an assortment of treats.  Between our meeting, finishing the care packages, and getting everything ready for the next day we were busy from about 6:30 p.m. till almost 2 a.m. that morning. 

The Day of the Events:

The next day we had an event helping the SOCS Organization which stands for Saving Our Children’s Souls.  We volunteered with them to clean up the streets of the Northend of Hartford. We met up with them at 8 a.m. that morning in the Ra Fitness Center and kept going till about 11:00 a.m. We would like to also thank the two volunteers we had with us for the garbage clean-up: Sarah and Gerson, hopefully, we will see them again soon at another event. Once we were done we went back to the Ra Fitness Center and had lunch and chatted with the group. We hope we will soon collaborate on an event so stay tuned. At 12:00 p.m. we said our goodbyes and headed to do our first drop off at the Cornerstone Soup kitchen. We were able to give them a box from Panera, a tray of assorted donuts, and some other donated food items. Due to the fact that we had the clean-up scheduled that morning we had made prior arrangements to drop off our items at 12:30 p.m. that day.

From Vernon, we headed back to Hartford and set up our table by the garden and benches located on the South Green Bernard Park.  It was a beautiful day for us to be outside and we weren’t the only ones set up at the park either.  Not even 5 mins into setting up we witnessed an unfortunate accident happen but both drivers involved were safe and taken in ambulances to the ER.  Thankfully no one was hurt, but in a time of crisis, we were able to watch the community of Hartford gather at the crash and make sure anyone involved was ok.  “Hartford Community Stands Together” is a phrase that is going to stay with me for a long time; watching people come together regardless of who it was is something every community should be.  That is how people should be in general, it shouldn’t matter who you are, what you do; it doesn’t matter.  We are all human and all cut from the same cloth and should be there when we see someone else is struggling.  During this park event, we were able to hand out not only the essentials care packages but also water, cookies by Panera, hand sanitizer, and munchkins from Dunkin. We are excited for next month and hope we can give the same if not more.

After the event, we ran into the PSL-Connecticut group which was also handing out care packages and clothing.  We then went to South Park Inn as well as to drop off the box of cookies, more bread, and a tray of donuts.  From that point, we went to St. Elizabeth’s House and Friendship Center, and I brought in the box of donuts and treats.  When going inside I saw the entryway which consisted of a big chalkboard with a positive quote and what was going on there.  It was nice to see it look so homey and welcoming.  As this week was extremely eventful we also want to give a shout-out to everyone we met and who was interested in partnering with us or helping us out in any way they could.  We hope everyone enjoys the beautiful week to come and don’t forget the sunscreen.

Until our next event on 05/22/21,

Stay Safe and Stay H.O.P.E.F.U.L.

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