Carols for Friends & Family

The holidays are hard on seniors who find themselves alone during the holidays. The GRACE Friends & Family program focuses on isolated seniors, 55 years old and older, and disabled clients to help them live comfortably and independently. Last Saturday, youth groups from Compass Christian Church joined GRACE in making Christmas jollier for some local senior women. A group of 14- and 15-year olds organized a caroling troupe and made the rounds to Friends & Family clients. Tom Panno, one of the adult volunteer leaders, said the troupe was a little timid at first, “but warmed up and eventually started asking for requests.” “Many [seniors] were singing right along with us,” said Tom, president of Independence Custom Homes in Colleyville. “One woman even offered us hot chocolate.” Tom recounted after they had left her house, “One of my boys said, ‘did we really just turn down chocolate?’.” What the troupe

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Year End Volunteers

It started earlier this week: cars lined up onto Scribner Street from GRACE Donation Station. The final weeks of the year always bring a great number of generous people donating clothes, household goods, furniture and more. Volunteers and staff are working furiously to keep up with the volume because they know next week will bring a massive wave of year-end giving. It’s all a good thing, though. Donations will help struggling families who need the gently-used donations and the remaining items will be sent to GRACE resale stores, GRACEful Buys in Grapevine and Euless and Style & GRACE to help generate funds for client programs and services. Twenty-five percent of the budget for GRACE Client Services is generated by resale revenues. As many as 250 generous donors are anticipated to visit Donation Station each day between Monday, December 26 and Saturday, December 31. A Call for Volunteers was issued last

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Texas Health Partners with Clinic

The GRACE Outreach to Health Community Clinic was selected as one of the first recipients of the Texas Health Resources Clinic Connect program. The program was established last July as a way for Texas Health Resources to support community health clinics that serve vulnerable populations. “Our goal is to create a collaborative relationship with local non-profit community-based clinics,” said Jamie Judd, program director, Community Health Improvement, Texas Health Resources. “Our mission is to improve the health of the people in the communities we serve.” Clinic Connect is designed to provide financial support, educational opportunities, information sharing, and expanded services to improve the quality and healthcare access for underserved, at-risk populations in the community. The GRACE Community Clinic will receive information in mid-January fully outlining the partnership along with the reporting metrics and outcome expectations. The GRACE Community Clinic serves patients at low or no cost to them, emphasizes preventative care,

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A Big Splash for the Food Pantry

Competitive divers prefer NOT making a splash. Yet the waves made by the GC Divers and their very first Holiday Food Drive are being felt all the way to the GRACE Food Pantry. The Southlake-based organization held their first-ever food drive for the GRACE Food Pantry as part of their annual holiday party. “We chose GRACE because it is focused on helping our local community,” said Kathy Doody, president of the GC Divers Parents Organization. “The holidays are a perfect time for GC Divers to reflect on giving back.” Nearly 700 non-perishable food items were donated by the divers and their families to stock the GRACE Food Pantry shelves. GRACE Community Clinic nurse manager Shirley Roberts, RN, BAS, CCM, and special events manager Chelsea Rose attended to thank the divers for their gifts. US National diving champion Krista Klein heads GC Divers. She is a former NCAA and USA Diving National

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Eagle Scout Gathers Coats for GRACE Clients

It’s an image straight from the pages of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: from under the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present tumbled two children—each was barefoot with only the thinnest fabric covering their shivering bodies from the winter cold. Dickens represented society’s abandonment of the poor and the consequences of that abandonment with these two children. He was a strong proponent of taking care of those in need, as evidenced in many of his novels, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, and many others. In the beginning of A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley admonishes Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge complimented the spirit on his business savvy. To which Marley responded “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business!” This was a lesson learned early in life by Eagle Scout candidate Adam Haddad. For his Boy Scouts

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Grapevine Chamber Celebrates with GRACE

Grapevine is the Christmas Capital of Texas, and members of the Grapevine Chamber are the jolliest and most generous of Santa’s helpers! The GRACE tables were overflowing with an abundance of toys, canned goods and other gifts last yesterday’s Grapevine Chamber Luncheon. Chamber CEO RaDonna Hessel and Chair Joe Szymaszek asked members to bring new, unwrapped toys and nonperishable food items to support GRACE Christmas Cottage and Food Pantry. An overflow crowd of more than 300 made the luncheon magical!! Carts-full of food items, clothing and new Christmas toys went to GRACE, ensuring no family leaves Christmas Cottage empty handed as it reaches its final days before Christmas. The day’s festivities were also highlighted by a moving tribute to the Grapevine Police Department. More than 30 members of Grapevine’s Finest attended and each received a special gift from the Chamber and Chamber member Bob’s Steak & Chop House. Guests were

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Christmas Cottage in Print

Society Life publisher Elena Ellis featured GRACE Christmas Cottage in her ’Tis the Giving Season issue with a two-page spread crafted by freelance writer Shannon Stewart Salinsky. Shannon began her story with a passage from the Gospel of Luke, used in the animated Christmas classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas, also the Christmas Cottage theme this year. In the show, frustrated with the commercialism surrounding the holiday season, Charlie Brown asks, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Linus steps forward and recites the beautiful and moving account of the Nativity that includes the joyous news: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Christmas Cottage, and the joining of donors and volunteers to make the season merrier for those in need, is the appropriate remedy for an avalanche of advertisements and avarice. “Nothing feels better this

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Go Greased Lighting Go!

GREASE IS THE WORD for the fourth annual CBI Brotherhood casino night, Saturday, January 14. Dust off your leather jackets and poodle skirts, and take your Chevy to the coolest shindig in town! Congregation Beth Israel will take us back to the 1950s with a night of gaming at Rydell High, also known as Good Shephard Community Hall, 1000 Tinker Road in Colleyville. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Last year, members of the CBI Brotherhood presented a gift of $6,000 to GRACE, and GRACE is honored to again be among the beneficiaries of this year’s event. Congregation Beth Israel, Jewish Family Services, and The Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation will also share in the proceeds. Back by popular demand is Mac’s on Main customized menu that promises to live up to last year’s wonderful reviews. Sponsorships begin with the $5,000 “Greased Lighting”. “The Sandra Dee” is a $2,500 sponsorship; “The Pink

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Last Call: All Aboard the Rogue Shadow!

Okay. Yes, the Rogue Shadow was actually the ship used by Starkiller and Juno Eclipse in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. And, of course, it was first used by Starkiller to hunt down and kill any surviving Jedi Knights that somehow lived through “Order 66“, but soon after became a part of the Rebel Fleet around 0 BBY (aka Year 1,000 after the Ruusan Reformation) after Starkiller was betrayed by his master, Darth Vader and became a Jedi Padawan to Rahm Kota. Still, it has the word “Rogue” in it and that is the point: The private screening of Rogue One, A Star Wars Story is almost sold out!! There is precious little time to hit this link: ROGUE ONE TIX and join us at Harkins Theatres Southlake on Sunday, December 18. Nicole and Mike Tesoriero of Southlake Style Magazine are hosting the event and asking their guests to donate at

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Year-End Volunteers Needed

The tradition continues! The last days of the year will bring a massive rush of people donating clothes, household goods, furniture and more at GRACE Donation Station. For volunteers and staff it is “all hands on deck” to help unload cars and trucks, move donations into the Station, and size, sort and classify materials. A public Call For Volunteers has been issued based on the anticipated volume of donations and the timing of the holidays. “With New Year’s Eve on Saturday,” said Dave Mowers, GRACE Director of Resale, “Donors will come earlier in the week and continue through the end of the year.”   Dave anticipates as many as 250 generous donors each day between Monday, December 26 and Saturday, December 31, will brave the chill and bring their gifts to Donation Station, 112 North Scribner Street in Grapevine. He believes Donation Station will need at least 10 more volunteers each

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