I can’t help but think that Helen Viviand is proud. 

It has been over a year since the passing of our long time Angels Everywhere Coordinator, Helen. In that year, our Angels Everywhere Team has moved through the difficulties of the pandemic with grace and grit. And so, we should ALL be proud. Proud and grateful.

We just finished distributing 5,000 backpacks as part of our 17th annual Backpack Drive. 5,000 backpacks! That is 5,000 smiles on children’s faces, over 5,000 sighs of relief from parents and guardians trying to figure out how to manage the beginning of the school year.

It can be hard to believe that when we first began this program, our goal was to distribute 200 backpacks. Thanks to the collective efforts of our community and the wonderful partners we have been blessed by, we are now nearing 50,000 backpacks delivered as part of this program to children in South Florida, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and many more places in need around the world.

Thank you to all those who contributed to these efforts. Your generosity - financial and with your time - made it all possible.

We raised over $48,000 to be able to provide stuffed backpacks to over 40 nonprofits to give to children in the community.

We want to especially thank our amazing leadership team for the Backpack Drive, starting with Renee Schaffer, Veronica St. Albin and Steve McCoy. Thank you also to our Board President, Eddie Dominguez and City National Bank that continue to partner with us in this and other programs for our spiritual community. Thank you to Bill Gorman and the whole Turnberry family of hotels, our biggest partner for our Backpack Drive. To our other partners and volunteers, we could not do this without you. Thank you. 

We are grateful for the spirit of generosity that is so alive within our ministry. Take time to either watch the video above or look at the pictures below.

Rev. Juan del Hierro
Associate Minister