Republic Bank Lends a Hand to Serve New Visions’ Patrons
Contact:
Heather Kato
Annual Giving & Marketing Manager
(609) 699-4139
BURLINGTON, N.J. – Friday, September 10, 2010 –Employee volunteers from Republic Bank’s Pennsylvania and New Jersey branches gave a proper ‘goodbye to summer’ party by planning a picnic-style BBQ lunch for the patrons of New Visions Homeless Day Shelter in Camden on Friday, September 10th.
The room was festive — complete with checkered tablecloths and decorations. In it, more than 125 homeless individuals from Camden who rely each day on the staff and services provided at New Visions. In 2009, Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey (LSM/NJ) became the managing agent for New Visions, a homeless day shelter for men, women, and children in Camden. Each weekday, the shelter provides a nutritious breakfast and lunch to many of Camden’s homeless individuals. It also provides its patrons with access to a hot shower, laundry facilities, a food pantry, a clothing closet, mail services, and social services, including assistance in obtaining jobs.
Standing left to right: Kevin Moran, Executive Director of New Visions Homeless Day Shelter, Rob Worley, SVP/NJ Market Manager for Republic Bank and Theresa Spencer, REPUBLIC Bank employee-volunteer. Seated: New Visions patron, Robert Johnson.
“New Visions Homeless Day Shelter is fortunate to have many significant corporate and business partners, like Republic Bank, whose assistance and volunteerism enables our organization to continue its mission of serving those who hurt, who are in need, or who have limited choices,” explains Kevin Moran, Executive Director of New Visions. “When Rob Worley, SVP / NJ Market Manager of Republic First, reached out to me to see how he and his employees could offer their help and support the shelter, I explained that one of our biggest areas of support is having “helping hands” to prepare and serve our patrons breakfast and lunch each weekday,” continued Moran.
The menu of selections for the lunch, which included BBQ chicken, corn, pasta salad, lemonade and iced tea, were graciously donated by Republic Bank and served to the patrons by a team of employee volunteers. The community-focused bank recently kicked off a re-branding campaign featuring a red “R” logo; therefore the entire BBQ picnic theme creatively tied Republic Bank’s re-branding campaign into the employee-volunteer event at New Visions.
New Visions is the largest of the day shelter centers in the city and is the only shelter that accepts men, women and children. From January 2010 to June 2010, New Visions provided 22,691 meals to its patrons and has had the assistance of 1,000 volunteers investing 7,000 hours of volunteer support. “We are so very grateful to all the individuals, organizations and congregations that come out and support us, but we can always help more people with the assistance of other organizations as well – especially as we head into the holiday season and winter months,” adds Moran.
As the shelter prepares for the most demanding time of year, the holidays, LSM/NJ begins it annual Holiday Turkey Fund Appeal. The appeal raises money to purchase turkeys to distribute to nearly 300 low income families in Camden, many of which come to the shelter. “LSM/NJ is blessed to have the support of various congregations, organizations, individuals and employees who care,” explains Susan Arnold, Vice President for Fund Development and Marketing at LSM/NJ. “With their support, through donated items and financial contributions, we were able to deliver more than 200 frozen turkeys last year during the Thanksgiving holiday and over 300 frozen turkeys for Christmas. With the support of others, we hope to once again provide enough turkeys to feed Camden’s families this holiday season.”
If you would like to offer assistance to New Visions Day Homeless Shelter through donations, financial contributions or as a volunteer, please contact Kevin Moran, Executive Director, at (856) 963-0857. If you would like to make a contribution to LSM/NJ’s Holiday Turkey Fund, visit www.www.lsmnj.org and click on “Please Donate Now.”
New Visions Homeless Day Shelter is a program of Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey (LSM/NJ), a faith-based, statewide not-for-profit provider of compassionate, quality senior care services, as well as community programs such as adoption, immigration & refugee resettlement, community residences for developmentally disabled women & affordable housing for seniors and families. For more information, call (609) 699-4108 or visit www.www.lsmnj.org.