AVE has donated food and toys to make the holidays brighter for those in need for over a decade during the holiday season. In 2021, we formalized
AVE’s Holiday Spirit of Giving, adding new partner
Kellys Kidz. This past December wrapped our second consecutive year, and it was a huge success across our entire portfolio of 15 communities nationwide!
All AVE communities supported
Move For Hunger, a partner of 8 years. While the donation receipts are still being totaled, so far, AVE has collected 2,514 pounds, which equates to 2,095 meals. Move For Hunger is a national non-profit that operates on a local level by arranging food donations via moving trucks to local food pantries to fight food insecurity across the country. "AVE has been an incredible partner to Move For Hunger,” says Adam Lowy, Founder and Executive Director of Move For Hunger. “From Season of Giving Food Drives to unique projects that benefit our organization, they always go above and beyond to give back to food insecure communities. We couldn't be more honored to have them as our partner.”
All communities in the
Greater Philadelphia Area and
New Jersey again supported Kelly's Kidz, a nonprofit that provides children with toys, comfort items, and other essentials during their stay in the hospital. We celebrated our drives with resident, partner, and team events at
AVE King of Prussia and
AVE Florham Park. Our King of Prussia event night had a large turnout and featured appearances by Kelly’s Kidz founder Bob Kelly,
The Upper Merion High School Choir, and even Santa, who arrived on a firetruck from the
King of Prussia Volunteer Fire Company outside the main lobby to greet the youngest residents. “For a second year in a row, AVE’s team members and residents have partnered with Kelly’s Kidz and have made the holidays brighter for so many patients at
St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. It was an honor to once again have such a well-known, family-owned company team up with us for this year’s toy drive,” shares Bob Kelly. “Their dedication and excitement toward our mission shows at the various events that are held during December, and they make it so easy for the residents to get involved by having a drop-off location in the lobby at all their communities. Our overall impact over the last two years at St. Christopher’s has grown thanks to their support, and we are so grateful to the Korman family for choosing Kelly’s Kidz each year to give back to locally.”
Our AVE communities in other locations partnered with local toy drives, including
Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, and in
Texas,
AVE Los Colinas partnered with
Irving Police and Fire Blue Christmas. “We are so grateful to Move For Hunger, Kelly’s Kidz, Irving Police and Fire Blue Christmas, and the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation for being local heroes and for giving us the opportunity to be part of their important work,” says
Lea Anne Welsh, COO of Korman Communities; president of AVE. “It brings our teams and residents so much joy to give back, especially during the holiday season. We were excited by the opportunity these past two years to take our holiday giving drives to the next level with AVE’s Holiday Spirit of Giving and create something special with our partners nationwide.”
