Helping Hands 2007
One hundred twenty people gathered together for Quality
Progressions Helping Hands 2007, a day of community service at
Project Share on Monday, March 19th in honor of March Mental
Retardation Awareness Month. Consumers,
family members, Quality
Progressions Board and Staff members, Philadelphia County Office of Mental
Retardation Services and Philadelphians who
heard about the event, ,joined each other in volunteering their time, energy,
enthusiasm and hard work as a way of giving back to their community.
People of all ages, with varying experiences, and work skills worked
side by side to weigh, fill, make boxes and pack healthy food for distribution
to families at host sites throughout the city. Each participant received a
Quality Progressions “goodie bag” that included a QP T-Shirt, a Hall
Mercer Community Cookbook and other gifts from generous donations from Commerce
Bank, Genesis Asset Protection Staples,
Graphic Arts, Quality Progressions
staff and Advisory Committee members. A
lunch of pizza and soft drinks, provided by Quality Progression also gave
everyone the opportunity to” break bread “and laugh together.
Maudie told her supports coordinator she had so much fun
that, “If you ever do it again, I want to be part of it”.
Stephanie Michele said, “Me and my friend, we had a good time…the
people were nice and treated me with respect, and I loved the pizza”.
A parent felt that this day was a wonderful way for people in the
community to observe Mental Retardation Awareness Month and that it was also a
wonderful way for everyone to meet new people and make new friends.
SHARE, (Self Help and Resource Exchange), located at 2901
W. Hunting Park Avenue, is a program working to make food more affordable for
individuals and families, while at the same time encouraging volunteer service
in the community. Eloise McBride,
their Volunteer Director, told us that the work done that day was a tremendous
help to their program and that SHARE would love to have us back again.
Adrienne Hill
, Program Director at Quality Progressions mentioned “seeing individuals
share their phone numbers and addresses with one another is the best thing we
can do to foster friendship and a sense of community belonging.