SLV Health Employees Help Families Celebrate the Holidays

SLV Health employees adopted families within the Adelante group at La Puente in Alamosa.

San Luis Valley Health staff stepped up to help others this holiday season, and chose two groups to assist by purchasing gifts and other items.

One of the groups was the Adelante Family Resource Center, a La Puente program based in Alamosa. It is a family resource center that offers housing, case management, skills development and resources to families in need of support in the San Luis Valley. SLV Health staff helped 10 families in the Adelante program.

The second group was helping Mary Hennessey’s Kid’s Place, a group made up of grandparents currently taking care of grandchildren due to unforeseen circumstances. This year, SLV health helped nine families with the purchase of Christmas gifts.

SLV Health also adopted families to assist with Mary Hennessey and her efforts to help grandparents.

“We had 24 participants and groups from SLV Health that participated this year,” said Ressa Gonzales, an executive office assistant for SLV health. “A couple of them even took on more than one family. Two leaders helped gather items for five families this year.”

Gonzales has been organizing this event since 2017, when SLV Health first adopted the migrant program and Adelante. Starting in 2018 and over the last three years, SLV health has adopted Adelante and Kid’s Place.

“Each year it gets easier as I organize the Adopt-A-Family event,” she said. “It is rewarding to help families in need for the holidays, and to see our organization come together for such a great event. Without our contribution, some of these families wouldn’t have anything under their trees, so a special thank you to those who helped with wrapping items and the last-minute organization.”