Gordon Hospital employees donate their Christmas gifts to charity

From Gordon Hospital:

Gordon Hospital’s Staff Nurse Advisory Committee (SNAC) partnered with the Gordon County Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) this holiday season to organize a group donation benefitting local children and families this Christmas.

Pictured from left to right: Jessica Gallman, Tonya Turner, Shanna Guess, and Sonya Lesesne set up a booth during the employee Christmas reception.

“The hospital gave our employees Wal-Mart gift cards for Christmas,” said Shanna Guess, RN, BSN, SNAC Chair. “We decided to organize a way for people to donate their gift card to those in need. It’s a way for our hospital family to stand combine our effort and help those struggling this time of year.”

“The holiday season is a difficult time for the children who are in foster care,” said Gordon County Resource Development Case Manager Garrett Pierce. “The children who are placed in DFCS foster homes do not get to spend the holidays with their families the way that other children do. We try to schedule family time with their families, but as you can imagine, it is not the same for them. Gordon DFCS makes every attempt to provide normalcy for our youth. This includes making sure that at Christmas, they feel that they belong and are loved by the people around them.”

“We just wanted to make some Christmas mornings a little brighter,” said Tonya Turner, RN, BSN, SNAC Co-Chair. “The donations were strictly voluntary, and employees from all departments participated, not just nurses.”

“We choose to ask for community involvement because this can be a difficult task for foster families, who may be caring for several children, siblings, or are not even sure how long their children will be with them,” said Pierce. “We feel that it is also important to get the community involved because as a community, we are all responsible for the care and support of the children around us. This is a great opportunity to get those people involved with helping our children as well as making the cause known and letting these groups know what kind of services and help we try to provide to the children in our care.”

SNAC raised more than $1500 in employee gift cards and donations.