Holiday Drive 2023 – wrap up
We are sooooooo very thankful for ALL the support offered to our neighbors for this year’s Holiday Drive. There have been so many groups and individuals offering to purchase gifts or gift cards, or to make financial donations so our volunteers could make those purchases. We have enjoyed working with the many volunteers who came to St. Johns to help wrap and organize all the gifts. We thank all those who are making the deliveries to the families – one of our favorite “jobs” of the year – often filled with tears and hugs. And of course – we can’t say thanks enough to (1) St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Devon for once again allowing us to take over their carriage house for almost a week and (2) the amazing committee led by Jeanne Swope and Doreen McGillis – chairs beyond extraordinaire. Each committee member (list below) is so caring in doing her job in a professional manner – it’s such a team effort and a job very well done.
See below for notes of thanks, various photos of the event, and for the list of those organizations and businesses who stepped up to lend a hand. And again – thank you all!
Notes of thanks:
I am truly so grateful for your time and help this morning when you delivered my holiday gifts . it was so cheerful to our family to receive all these gift cards and all GREAT gifts from T&E CARE.
Thank you sooo much for everything! We really do appreciate it!!
Thank you so much for your generosity in helping us with Christmas this year. I wish I knew how to repay your kindness. T&E Care has been an indescribable blessing in our lives. With much gratitude.
Thank you again for all you do! Hope you know how grateful we are for you and your family.
I wanted to thank you for your generosity, times had been a little rough for us.
One family said they could not get over the generosity. The family was filled with emotion at the amount of packages delivered. The children that were home squealed with delight as each of the packages were brought in.
Thanks for your help.” Also May God’s blessing be yours at Christmas and always. Thanks for all the love and patience. You are very special.
Thank you for being a blessing.
Organizations and Businesses to thank
Below is the list of various local organizations and businesses that have gone above and beyond to help out with this year’s drive. We can’t thank them enough – as they take a big load off our individual donors and bring in some of the fun “extras” that make our drive so special!
- Wegmans (Malvern) – sponsored a number of families
- Plaid Pajamas Project – all the pjs for the kids
- Tredyffrin and Easttown Girl Scout Troops – LOTS of cookies to give to the families
- Four Counties Garden Club – all the homemade wreaths
- Paoli Village Shoppes – gift cards and financial support
- Stillwater Capital Advisors – financial support
- St. Norberts – gift cards through their “support a family” program
- WSFS – financial support
- Wegmans (King of Prussia) – gift card
- Lockheed Martin – food and cleaning supplies
- Homecooked (Paoli) – financial support
- Valley Forge ES – food bags and gift cards
- Beaumont ES – food bags and gift cards
- Devon ES – card games, blankets, and gift cards
- New Eagle ES – new books for the kids and gift cards
- Hillside ES – kitchen items and gift cards
- Hillside ES staff – financial support
- Valley Forge MS – food bags and gift cards
- Tredyffrin Easttown MS – cleaning bags and gift cards
- T&E Care School Representatives – coordinating all the school donations
- CHS Project Wellness – toothbrushes and toothpaste and other dental supplies for all the kids
- Ashley White and the VFES 3rd graders – decorated gift card envelopes for families
- The Philadelphia Foundation – financial support
- CHS Cross Country Team – college and cleaning bags
- CHS Sailing Team – cleaning bags
- CHS Boys Lacrosse Team – cleaning bags
- Cross Fit Mainline – gift cards and gifts
- Keller Williams Real Estate – gifts
- Whole Foods – financial support
- Forge Wealth Management – gifts
- Penn Radiology (Berwyn) – gifts and gift cards
- CHS Football Team – financial support
- CHS Field Hockey Team – gift cards
- CHS Girls Soccer Team – cleaning bags and gift cards
- CHS Girls Lacrosse Team – college bags
- CHS Girls Basketball Team – gift cards
- CHS Wrestling Team – helped move and sort heavy boxes of food
- Tarleton School – food bags
- FC Europa Soccer Team – gifts
- CHS T&E Kids Care Club – college bags
- TE Administration Office – gift cards
- Now You’re Cooking – financial support
Enjoy the photos from our Holiday Drive. Click on the first photo and you will then enter the gallery and can click the arrows to scroll through the whole group.
Food and cleaning supply bags
VFMS donations
Wegmans donations 2023
Packages
Volunteers checking bags
More packages
Even more packages.
And more!
Presents in another part of the church, too.
Thanks to the girl scouts for all the cookies.
Yummy cookies for all the families
Who could resist!
Our amazing chairs!
Snowman Soup from the girl scouts, too!
Wreaths courtesy of the Four Counties Garden Club
Delivering the wreaths
Some of the committee members
Volunteers working on the gift cards.
Fun envelopes for the gift cards.
Holiday Drive 2023 Committee
Thanks to all those who helped to plan this year’s Holiday Drive. What an incredible and amazing group!
Doreen McGillis, Co-Chair
Jeanne Swope, Co-Chair
If you’d like to get involved with this great group for future drives, let us know at Holidays@tecare.org.
The 2023 Holiday Drive
Here are the basics:
- In October, we ask families being supported to complete their wishlists for the Holiday Drive.
- Volunteers will take those requests and add them to a SignUp Genius.
- You may select your donations from the Sign-up Genius. Select one item, a whole family, or anything in-between! The Sign-up Genius will be available to the community from November 9th to December 1st
- We WILL be asking for food and cleaning bags this year. We have put together a specific list of items for each bag to make the shopping easy (see downloads section).
- As in the past, we will be looking for gifts and gift cards for each family.
- If shopping isn’t your thing, we are happy to accept general donations via check, Venmo, or credit card/PayPal. Our committee members will use those funds to purchase gift cards or requested gifts.
- We ask you to drop off the gifts at St. John’s Presbyterian Church – 217 Berkley Rd, Devon. Drop off times are Saturday, December 2nd (8:30am-noon) or Sunday, December 3rd (noon-3:00pm). If you cannot make these dates work, contact us for another option.
- As in the past, we are asking donors to wrap their gifts in advance and label them with the appropriate family number and what is inside. Please do not wrap gift cards. If you need assistance with wrapping, we are happy to help. (See example below for wrapping details.)
- Given potential shipping delays, please allow for extra delivery time for any online purchases.
- Please print and complete the Donor Form (see downloads section) and drop off with your gifts or gift cards.
- One other option – if you want to do even more to help local families this holiday season, consider a small additional donation to go towards general “day to day living” support (housing, utilities, transportation, etc), you can make a general donation as well. Any amount will go a long way.
- Questions, PLEASE contact us at holidays@tecare.org
If you are only donating gift cards, there are 3 options for dropping them off:
- You can drop them off at the church on Dec 2 or 3, see address above.
- You can contact the gift card committee at giftcards@tecare.org and arrange for a drop off in advance of December 2.
- You can mail them to T&E Care-Holiday Drive, PO Box 2111, Southeastern, PA 19399 (be sure to mail them well prior to Dec. 2, to avoid any mail delays).
Monetary Donations for the T&E Care Holiday Drive
Thank you very much for your donation; we will use your monetary donation to cover the families’ unclaimed gifts and/or gift cards. If you are selecting the option to contribute a small additional donation for general “day-to-day living” support, please indicate “Additional Holiday Drive General Support” in the note area.
DONATING WITH VENMO:
- You can use Venmo to make a donation
- Our logo is:
and our ID is @tecare - The last 4 digits of our phone number are 1068.
- IMPORTANT NOTE – if you are new to T&E Care, we need your email to send a note of thanks. Venmo does not automatically provide this information. Please send us an email at venmo@tecare.org to alert us of your donation. If you want a mailed receipt, please also send your mailing address.
DONATING WITH A CREDIT CARD OR PAYPAL:
The button below is for CREDIT CARD/PAYPAL donations and prize tickets purchases
. 
- PayPal charges approximately 2.5% processing fee for each dollar donated. If you would like 100% of your donation to go to T&E Care, please add this fee to your donation.
- You do NOT need a PayPal account to make a donation; any major credit card will work.
- T&E Care will NOT be given any of your personal credit card information.
DONATING WITH A CHECK:
- Checks should be mailed to T&E Care, PO Box 2111, Southeastern, PA 19399, attn: Holiday Drive.
FORMS FOR HOLIDAY DRIVE
Forms to download for this year’s Holiday Drive:
2023 Holiday Drive Donor Form – if you are making a donation of gifts and/or gift cards to the Holiday Drive, please include a copy of this form when you drop off your items.
CLICK HERE for the 2023 Donor Form.
Cleaning Bag list – If you want to donate a cleaning bag for a family – please use this list. We are trying to make all bags somewhat consistent. Thanks!
Click HERE for the cleaning supply list.
Food Bag list – If you want to donate a food bag for a family – please use this list to help make bags more consistent. Thanks!
Click HERE for the food bag list.
College Bag list – If you want to donate a college bag to a college student – please use this list to help make the bags more consistent.
Click HERE for a sample college bag list.
Donation Receipt – if you made a donation to the Holiday Drive you should receive an email or letter of thanks. But if you want to just print out a receipt, you can download one here.
Completing the SignUp Genius Form
Once the SignUp Genius link is ready – here are the general directions for completing that form:
- You will see multiple tabs for different sizes of families from which to choose, plus a tab just for generic gift cards. If one tab is fully claimed – be sure to check out options on other tabs.
- Choose a family(s) and/or item(s) from a tab. Check the box beside each item you select to donate. To select the entire family you must check each box in the family’s section.
- If you want, you may continue to select more items or families from that tab, or from any other tab, but you must click on “Submit and Sign Up” at the end of each tab to confirm your selections before you move to another tab.
- You will receive an email from SignUp Genius confirming your choice(s). If you have selected families or items from multiple tabs you will receive multiple emails.
- Completing your selections is as easy as providing your name, email and phone number.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
We will be looking for assistance on five different days in December at St. Johns Church (217 Berkley Rd., Devon) to help with this drive. Please see the details below for more specifics.The SignUp Genius link will be posted soon.
- Saturday, Dec 2 – help with unloading donations from cars (8:15-noon)*
- Sunday, Dec 3 – help with unloading donations from cars (11:45-3:00)*
- Monday, Dec 4 – sorting and wrapping of gifts (9:00-5:00)
- Tuesday, Dec 5 – sorting and wrapping of gifts (9:00-5:00)
- Thursday, Dec 7 – help load cars for delivery drivers (7:45-5:00)
You can sign up for various shifts as time allows. Please be sure we have your cell phone numbers, especially for Tuesday, Dec. 5. We may be exceptionally well organized and get done sooner so we’ll want to contact you and free up your time! Please, due to the confidential nature of this event, these volunteer opportunities are only for adults*. Thanks for understanding!
*If you have high school-aged kids who could help unload cars, please send a note to holidays@tecare.org and we can discuss.
Sign Up HERE to volunteer for the 2023 Holiday Drive!
Holiday Drive Summaries
For summaries of past holiday drives, including pictures and the list of sponsors and donors, go to the Archived Holiday Drive page.
The mission of T&E Care is to maintain a network of people providing short-term financial and other material assistance to persons in need who live in and around the Tredyffrin and Easttown township areas.
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T&E Care is an IRS recognized non-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. The official registration and financial information of Tredyffrin & Easttown Care may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll free, within Pennsylvania, 1 (800) 732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.