Student, volunteers wrap gifts, raise $21,000 for clinic
Andrew Carlone and his mother, Tami Carlone, have no idea how many presents they wrapped this holiday season as volunteers at Laurel Park Place mall in Livonia.
But they know that it helped raise money for a great cause.
Andrew recently presented a $12,500 check to the Hope Medical Clinic, part of $21,200 raised by the Carlones and other volunteers who wrapped gifts at Laurel Park Place every day between Black Friday and Christmas Day. The volunteers received donations from shoppers for wrapping gifts for the shoppers. The Hope Medical Clinic provides medicine and other prescriptions for families in Wayne County. The clinic needed to find a new location after the W.C. Frank Furniture store explosion next door to their office one year ago. The clinic is currently in Wayne, but is expected to open an office on Palmer in Westland in the spring, according to Mary Dekker, clinic coordinator for the Wayne satellite clinic.
The clinic has been operating for 30 years and is based in Washtenaw County.
Serving the community
Andrew Carlone, a junior at Northville High School, serves as a youth administrator with the U.S. State Department.
“Part of the agreement of being a youth ambassador is to do some service in your community,” his mother said.
Andrew said he and his mother spoke with church members at Ward Presbyterian Church in Northville and they came up with the gift-wrapping idea.
“I went to a Bible study at church and one of the ideas was to wrap,” Andrew said. The U.S. State Department provided $1,000 for the gift-wrapping supplies, Tami said.
Andrew specifically requested that the money assist those who need insulin for diabetics and inhalers for those with respiratory ailments.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Dekker said. “It’s a big boost for us, especially with a new location for us. We have more patients who need help. It will help those who don’t have health insurance.”
Approximately 1,000 patients have visited the Wayne satellite, Dekker said.
A gratifying experience
Tami and Andrew said the community service gave them gratification for helping others in need.
Tami said 420 people volunteered from the church and local schools, including Livonia Franklin, Churchill, Mercy, Ladywood and Garden City high schools.
“It took us away from our traditional Christmas stuff,” Tami said. “We didn’t overdecorate, overshop or overeat. It put our focus on an organization that really needed it.”
Andrew was pleased with the fundraising effort.
“It feels good to raise all that money,” he said. “We got a lot more than I expected.”
kabramcz [at] hometownlife [dot] com (313) 222-2591
Share and Enjoy
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 8th, 2012 at 6:08 am and is filed under Gifts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.