We invited the Livingston police force to our day program for a casual meet and greet with the clients and to take part in an open mic Q&A session. The clients made two “We Back the Blue” buckets to present to the police, which included all types of blue goodies – bags of blue Doritos, bottles of blue Gatorade, and boxes of Fiddle Faddle (a butter toffee and peanut snack packaged in a blue box).

We chose Courtney and Jane, our most energetic Activity Specialists, and two clients – Jean and Joanie – to surprise the EMS team at their office in the St. Barnabas hospital. In keeping with our color theme, we created a yellow bucket of “sunshine” which had all kinds of yellow treats – bags of Lays potato chips, boxes of Swedish fish, and yellow starbursts. Clearly, these buckets weren’t related to our health and wellness day (but what was the alternative – a bucket of yellow squash and bananas? BORING!).

We also wanted to honor our selfless military servicemen and women by giving thanks to both the veterans close to our lives and to those afar. We have two military veterans on staff – Jose, our new Head RN (Army veteran) and Ken, a Physical Therapist (Air Force veteran). Our client Amber also had her brother Evan, an active Navy member, visit us for the day.

As a surprise to Evan, the clients created custom thank you cards for each member of Evan’s Navy battalion. In case that wasn’t enough, the clients and staff collected new pairs of socks to donate to the Warm Feet for Warriors organization, which delivers socks to active military members and veterans.

Whew – that was a lot of giving back to a lot of people, but no one deserves it more. To our heroes and heroines: we can never thank you enough for all that you do for us, but it doesn’t mean we won’t try our hardest.