Our 5th annual baby shower and mass held on April 7th was a success, thanks to our many friends and supporters.  We collected enough donations to complete 110 layettes which will be donated to babies in need at  Overlook Hospital's HealthStart clinic.  Once again, the day was filled with a lovely sense of community and fellowship.  Thank you to our chairs, Linda Massengill and Ann Marvin, and their committee, for pulling it all together so gracefully.  

This year's Mary Virginia Merrick Award was given to Gery McKenna for her dedication and sense of volunteerism to the Christ Child Society of Summit and its many ministries. Gery was one of the original founding board members of this newly reinstated chapter and spent many hours with the board in creating the structure for our organization over these last few years.

Three years ago, as the board began to discuss different ways to help the community, Gery identified the need in Summit to help provide school supplies to children in need.  The first year of the program, supplies were delivered to the various elementary schools for distribution to those children whose families might have difficulty in getting these things new each year.  Since then the program has grown, with the help of our community partners, Bridges Outreach and in 2011, Westy's Storage, and now reaches over 350 Summit students.

In addition to her wonderful work with Christ Child, Gery is also an emergency room nurse at Morristown Memorial Hospital, volunteers countless hours staffing the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, along with her many other volunteer activities. Gery is married to John and they have four children: Jack, a graduate of Villanova; Connor, a senior at Holy Cross; Kylie, a freshman at the University of Richmond; and Terry, who will be attending Holy Cross next year. 

Congratulations and many thanks to Gery for all that she does!

The Knitting Angels have been hard at work knitting hats and blankets for our layettes.  With the help of the St. Teresa's Prayer Shawl Ministry and teachers from Oak Knoll School we have been able to include either a handmade blanket or hat in each layette.  In addition, each layette had a beautiful, warm fleece blanket.  This year several Girl Scout troops have donated their time and talent to help make these blankets.  As in the past, the teachers and students of Oak Knoll were our true angels!  Their donation to this effort makes it possible for us to be so generous.  We are currently looking for groups or individuals to make blankets for the layettes to be distributed next fall.  If you know of a group that would like to do this easy, fun project please let Janet Keller know.  She can provide the instructions (with pictures!) and walk you through this very easy process.  Individual donations are great, too!  If you want to make a blanket or two over the summer, contact Janet at [email protected].