I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Happy Kwanzaa and are looking forward to a wonderful 2026!

In last month’s Heartbeat, I wrote how truly grateful I am for the New Hope community. Each of you play such an important role in our mission and we are thankful every day for you! Today, I offer special thanks for all of you who went above and beyond during New Hope’s end of the year campaign. This season we have raised over $52,000!!  You can still get your 2025 gift in if you contribute by midnight tonight with the link here!

We are grateful to each of you who are so committed to New Hope’s mission. This year was the first year for the ugly sweater contest as part of our campaign. I hope you enjoyed it on social media as much as we all did! Thanks to everyone who participated either as a fundraiser or a donor!

Our end of the year campaign is generally made up of individual donors, who, with their combined efforts, help make New Hope the special place it is for those we serve. As most of you know, New Hope services are reimbursed by Medicaid. However, Medicaid is not enough to fund our services from operations. Your donations are extremely important to continue the high level of care, across all programs, for which we are known.

We also want to thank all of you who volunteered at New Hope during the holiday season! We had lots of fun things going on and we needed each of you to help bring the fun! It truly takes a village, and we are glad we have so many people in our New Hope village. Thank you, Dick Hester and all of the Columbia Club members who helped make Christmas extra special for our AIM members. Thank you to Gregory & Appel for providing 90 gifts for our Day Service individuals at our holiday party! Thanks also to all of our elves from Ascension St. Vincent who helped Santa with gifts for over 67 of the individuals we serve! Ascension St. Vincent’s Hope for the Holidays program has helped individuals from New Hope, who otherwise do not have family, have a Merry Christmas for over 30 years.

Finally, I want to thank our dedicated Direct Support Professionals who worked tirelessly during this cold, snowy holiday season!  They are an amazing group of people who directly provide 24/7 services to the individuals we serve.

New Hope is looking forward to 2026! We have exciting things that we want to share as the new year unfolds so be watching this column for those announcements.

Take care and thank you again for all you do for New Hope of Indiana!

Cheers to a happy and healthy New Year-

Allison