To Those Who Make Our Work Possible
We at ImmaCare hope that as we move into the holiday season you and your loved ones are healthy and safe during these continuously uncertain times. We are reminded of how fortunate we are as an agency to encounter so many compassionate and generous people, all of whom we have met for unique reasons. Some have served meals as part of a shelter food group for as long as 40 years. Others helped their child with a school coat drive to benefit those served by our outreach program. And some simply have a desire to help end homelessness and found our agency and have been supporting us in ways big and small.
Not often do we get to know the family of a client closely, let alone have a client’s family member serve on our Board of Directors. The following is the story of how Board Secretary Jennifer Allis Vazquez came to be part of ImmaCare:
Prior to January 22, 2013, I had only heard of ImmaCare [at that time, the Immaculate Conception Shelter and Housing Corporation]. It was that fateful day when I learned my father, Bill Allis, had died, at the hospital where I had worked for more than five years. I was shocked. I sat in my car as it got dark, looking at the text repeatedly. I went home and cried for hours. I had not seen him since 2004.
My parents divorced when I was about 2 years old. I saw my father sporadically at my grandmother’s house. My last memory of him was when I was 3 or 4 years old and we went for a milkshake. After that, there were no visits, no phone calls. Click to continue reading...
