Caring Hands News

What a great October-November-December our Caring Hands group had! Some tremendous volunteering by both the students and some of the adults involved. All the hard work and organization paid off. Read below about all the good stuff GVCO Caring Hands accomplished. And of course get ready for the new year. Plans are coming together for a great number of wonderful initiatives in the coming months. Some of which we have done for years and others that we are trying to put together for the first time. Stay tuned for the future messaging and sign up forms.

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." – Margaret J. Wheatley

SPCA: 

GVCO hosted their 2nd Annual Lend a Paw donation drive with the Brandywine SPCA and it was a massive success! Caring Hands volunteers managed to collect many lightly used items for the pets at Brandywine. They were additionally able to organize dozens of enrichments activities for the animals at the shelter! 

Charlestown Day: 

Caring Hands helped out at Charlestown Day on September 24. It was a beautiful day, and many people attended this event. Volunteers were called to help set up the event, and all the student volunteers gained 40 community service hours combined! 

Cradles to Crayons: 

GVCO was designated as a giving spot for Cradles to Crayons, and has been collecting lightly used children clothing and other items for the past couple of months. They collected a massive amount of donations given by the community. Caring Hands volunteers helped to facilitate the event making it a major success!

Turkey Trot

Thank you to all who came out for the 1st Annual Turkey Trot and brought donations for the Home of the Sparrow Winter White Out. Home of the Sparrow partners with women facing homelessness to secure housing, achieve long-term stability, and chart new paths for their futures.

Gift Wrapping

For 5+ years, the Great Valley Caring Hands volunteers have gotten together to wrap between 300-400 donated gifts for seniors/older adults involved with the Phoenixville Area Senior Center, Surrey Services for Seniors and the Great Valley Senior community. The presents are given out during their December Senior Luncheons. Often times this may be the only gift that some of these individuals will receive and the look of joy on their faces is priceless. Thanks to Mr. Mike Chain and the staff at the Desmond Malvern who provided a warm & dry space for the volunteers to wrap gifts.

Families in Need

Around this time each year, GVCO Caring Hands looks to support the local community through our Families in Need initiative. This year we looked towards another local non-profit "partner", Home of the Sparrow, to assist us in finding the proper families to assist during the holiday season.

Throughout the year, our student volunteer run Caring Hands foundation raises monies in a number of different ways to help support the local communities. This year GVCO Caring Hands contributed $1000.00 worth of Target gift cards to Home of the Sparrow to distribute to families they have identified as most in need. Read more about Home of the Sparrow to find out more about their mission and vision, and those that they support.

Pictured below delivering the gift cards is Tom Curran, GVCO Board Chair; Sandy Louderback, CH Advisory Board member; Joan Giombetti, GVCO Director of Funding; Michelle Venema, HOS Executive Director; Anvitha, one of our outstanding CH student volunteers; and Rena Walsh, CH Advisory Board members.

Coat Drives

Two of our elementary schools, General Wayne and KD Markley, partnered with GVCO Caring Hands and held Coat Drives during the months of November and December. Gently used and new coats were donated at the schools by the very generous families here in the Great Valley community. GVCO Caring Hands works directly with the administrators at several local Devereux Foundation locations to match up the coats with someone less fortunate who is in need of a winter coat.

GWES donated nearly 60 winter coats this year! KDM's drive ended just before the holiday break and we will know the number of coats being passed along to Devereux families shortly. Thank you to all the fantastic volunteers and donors involved in this year's coat drives.

In Ian's Boots is a Pottstown charity collecting new or gently used shoes, boots and sneakers. Look for more information about this donation drive in February.

In April, volunteers will create decorated flower pots for patients at Green Meadows.

A food drive will be held in May for the People's Pantry. Volunteers will be needed to collect and organize donations.

Caring Hands is a student-led volunteer group that supports the community through various activities. Students in grades 7-12 and their parents can sign up for the Constant Contact Caring Hands News distribution list for the 2022-23 school year. More upcoming event information can be found on Caring Hands News & Updates.

Business Sponsor

Charlestown Paving is one of GVCO’s longstanding sponsors over the past two decades. Drew Alleva, the company and his family have been instrumental in GVCO’s success through the years. We are thankful for all they have done and proud of the long time partnership.

Charlestown Paving & Excavating offers a variety of services including township/municipality work, industrial/commercial work and residential paving. They provide dependable solutions to your paving problems, and ensure that your project stays within your budget while minimizing any disruption to your operations.

Expect top-notch workmanship and service from Charlestown Paving because they have loyal, experienced employees, and they own and maintain a full fleet of trucks and heavy equipment. They have built our reputation on the referrals of satisfied clients and earned the trust of property managers, business owners, and homeowners throughout the region.

Call us at 610-644-1693 or visit us online at www.CharlestownPaving.com