The holidays are fast upon us, which means we have been busy planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas! This year, we will be providing each family currently enrolled at Ella’s Closet with everything they need to prepare a delicious Thanksgiving meal. We are also looking forward to our annual Christmas celebration with a special visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. It is so exciting to see the children’s faces when Santa arrives at Ella’s Closet with all the gifts for the good boys and girls.

For the 2019 “Ella’s Angels” project, we will not have an online sign-up. We have been blessed by a local church that has adopted all of our “Ella’s Angels”; however, there will be a list of other items needed that you may purchase and donate for our families to use throughout the year. Keep an eye out on social media for this list to be posted soon!

Near the end of October, The Light House Café/Ella’s Closet applied for the Great Charity Challenge (GCC). The GCC is a relay-style equestrian jumping competition held each year in which 30 riding teams are randomly paired with 30 charities that serve Palm Beach County. The winning team of riders is awarded $150,000 for their charity partner, plus every charity selected will win a guaranteed minimum of $15,000. The drawing of the applying charities to participate in the challenge will be done in early December – we are hoping to be selected to participate in this exciting and fun evening! Stay tuned for more details if we are selected!

Last, but not least, our New Beginnings program is doing great! We have multiple moms working and attending ESOL classes! They are all excited about these new opportunities and proud of their accomplishments.

Thank you for your continuous support! We are looking forward to another joyous holiday season!

God Bless,

 

Debra Allen

I hope everyone had a fantastic summer! We made the decision to close Ella’s Closet during the summer months as most of our families were gone, and supplies were low. We reopened in September with some new beginnings.

With the development of unique insight, we came up with the “New Beginnings” program. This new program requires the mothers to be actively doing one of the following: find a job or take a GED/ESOL class. They were very excited about this change! Most have found jobs and others are taking classes. We will continue offering workshops to those who can attend, and they will still have the opportunity to shop for the items they need for their children. Our role in this program is to advocate for the mothers by helping them with transportation to job interviews, getting appropriate work clothes, finding childcare, and even providing bus passes. This is an exciting addition to Ella’s Closet, and we can’t wait to see the positive impact this will have on the mothers.

Unfortunately, the long-awaited Mother’s Day event had to be canceled due to the death of my brother. We are still planning on an outing, but have not finalized a new date.

Ella’s Closet and The Lighthouse Café were honored on September 24 at the FFVA Annual Convention by receiving the Mike and Karen Stuart Humanitarian Award. We are very grateful to have been chosen for this award.

We are looking forward to the upcoming season with lots of fun activities for our children and families.

Please don’t forget us when you order on Amazonsmile.com. A percentage of your purchase will go to Ella’s Closet when you choose The Lighthouse Café as your charity.

God Bless,

Debra Allen

Dear Friends,

We had a busy April celebrating our risen Savior. The moms made beautiful hats that they could wear on Easter Sunday, and we also provided each child with an Easter basket that contained a plush animal, eggs, and, of course, candy!

Our annual Mother’s Day event is scheduled for May 9, and we are super excited! We don’t tell the moms what we are doing because we like to surprise them. We have a super day planned for them along with a special gift. We spend this day honoring them for the wonderful job they are doing with their children.

Once again our donors come through when we start to run low on supplies. We are so thankful! People like you keep the closet up and running.

Classes continue as usual, and we are planning on our annual refresher classes of Infant/Child CPR and Drowning Prevention to name a few. These are so important to reemphasize to help protect our littlest ones.

For those of you that follow us on social media, we will be down on May 7 in memory of Ella Pearl. No messages or emails will be answered during this 24 hour period allowing us to reflect on her beautiful life and purpose through Ella’s Closet. Thank you for understanding.

God Bless,

Debra Allen

Happy Spring!

The current “Cooking Matters” class finished! Each graduate received a certificate and a gift card as an appreciation of their continued effort to learn about eating healthy. “Common Sense Parenting” has just started and will be ongoing with different subjects being discussed each week. Bible Study continues on Wednesdays with good attendance. We would like to thank Heather Stevenson for volunteering to lead the study one day a month.

Our craft for April will be a Spring/Easter hat. I’m always amazed by the talent our moms have. This is one reason we continue with craft projects as it gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment, along with a little bit of “fun”. Be sure to follow us on our social media pages to stay updated with pictures!

Our annual Mother’s Day event is scheduled for May 9. This is the day when we not only pamper our moms but honor them for wanting to become better parents. Thanks to Pastor Eric Stevenson of the First Baptist Church in Belle Glade for driving the bus.

Ella’s Closet has been blessed on a monthly basis with anonymous donations through our Facebook page. Please know that we are extremely grateful and you have no idea how your donation is helping those less fortunate. Again, we thank you!

We hope each of you has a wonderful Easter as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. Happy Easter and please remember us in your prayers!

With Love,

Debra Allen

News from February 2019

In February, we celebrated love. Our parents created beautiful Valentine Love Boxes. They had a great time, and the boxes turned out so good! They look forward to craft days and expressing their talents.

Our Cooking Matters workshop is continuing and will be finished in March. We are so thankful to Glades Initiative for providing this class for our parents to learn how to cook healthy meals on a budget. We look forward to our next 6-week series as this one is always a big hit.

Tuesdays will be led by Clara Hessing with the Palm Beach County Youth Services. It will consist of helping our parents with their parenting skills. This is such an essential and informative class. It’s a proven fact that moms will listen to their mom’s/grandmother’s parenting advice over the pediatrician. As times have changed, we have come to realize that safety standards have also changed. We want to help our parents raise their children in a safe environment.

Bible study is an ongoing Wednesday class with a good turnout. It is led by Denise who takes extra time in converting her study sheets into Creole as most of our parents are Haitian.

We are busy planning a wonderful Mother’s Day outing for our moms. It will be a day of pampering and letting them know how proud we are of them.

We have received many donations of clothing and baby gear this past month, and we are incredibly grateful! Your donations help keep the closet open.

On behalf of everyone at Ella’s Closet, we thank you for your continued support, and kindly ask that you keep us in your continued prayers.

With Love,

 

Debra Allen