Monthly Newsletter - November 2023

106 Ballantyne families will have a Thanksgiving meal because of you!  

A big THANK you for your support of our holiday food drive!  You are making a HUGE impact on our community!

To support the holiday food drive for Thanksgiving and the December holidays, we surpassed our goal and collected over $21,000 and 350 food bags to make holiday meals!  Amazing!   So many volunteers and groups came together to make this effort happen.  A special shout out to Brighthouse Financial!   Their employees made over 75 encouraging notes, created 228 bags, and gave over $3425 in grocery gift cards!

For Thanksgiving, every identified family will receive 2encouraging notes from the community, Thanksgiving/Fall napkins and a resource guide.  In addition:

Thanksgiving food support will be delivered to the school counselors/social worker on November 16.   We are still in need of volunteers to help with this effort – www.tinyurl.com/bfvolunteers2023-2024

We are so thankful for all your generosity and support in making the holidays brighter for our families in need!   Please take a look at the THANKS section below.   It is unbelievable to see how many people came together to help our neighbors in need!   I’m continually amazed by our incredible community! THANK YOU!

Tammy Menzel and Jen Smith are the dynamic duo who oversee the Holiday giving which is our largest community-wide effort of the year!  

They have done an amazing job coordinating with multiple groups to create food bags to make a holiday meal and have led the communication efforts across the schools and across the Ballantyne Families’ communication sources. These efforts take a lot of time and effort, especially for the 1st time! 

Tammy is also one of the Pantry Manager Assistants. We are thankful for Tammy’s and Jen’s can-do attitude, dedication and passion to make a difference in our community!

   Nicki Elkins - Ballantyne Elementary School Counselor 

Tammy Menzel and Jen Smith are continuing to do an amazing job leading the Holiday Food Drive!

A HUGE thanks to Brighthouse Financial employees for donating 225 holiday bags of food and $3400 in grocery gift cards along with writing over 75 notes of encouragement!  WOW!!   A special thanks to Crystal Dunham for spearheading and coordinating the effort.

Thanks to Elon Park Elementary for collecting 28 holiday bags of food and $400 in grocery gift cards!  A special thanks to Morgan Gardner and Amber Brown, Elon Park’s counselors for leading the effort.

Thanks to Rea Farms STEAM Academy for collecting 20 holiday bags and $190 in grocery gift cards!  A special thanks to Jennifer Sanford (Rea Farms teacher) for leading the effort!

Thanks to Community House Middle School’s National Junior Honor Society for collecting 20 holiday bags of food.  A special thanks to Valerie Johnson, one of CHMS’s counselors and Ballantyne Families’ Board Member, for leading the effort!

Thanks to Ardrey Kell High School’s Student Government Association and Inter-Club Council for collecting 57 holiday bags of food and $791 in grocery gift cards. A special thanks to administrator, Bridget Ritch, teacher, Lauryn McCain, and student, Allie Black, for leading the effort!

Thanks to the following people who made Thanksgiving encouraging notes and decorated envelopes: Brighthouse Financial,Forest Hill Ballantyne, Community House Middle School’s National Junior Honor Society,Darci Giglio, GS Troop 1768, Alyssa Pupo, Pupo Family, Ann Del Vecchio, Ajita Bakshi and Family, Adarsh Ananth, Joseph Piedra, Ella Piedra, Yuni Piedra, Cathy Gamble, Lisa Hunt, Agastya Kumar, Twisha Shetty, Lauren Testerman, Olivia White, Sidra Shirolkar, Andrea Davids and Family, Ilyas Ahmed, Logan Morrow, Peyton Collins, Vimmi Borkar,Ishaan Mandal, Mini Kartha and Family, Vidhya Anand, Trina Ridenhour and Family, Aidan Miller, Ashwin Guru, Valentin Joyson Abraham and Family, Angelica Flanigan and Family, Owen Mechem and Natasha Murillo-Gill.  A special thanks to Julie White who coordinates all of these volunteers!!

Thanks to the following people who volunteered to help with receiving the holiday food: Jackie Gyoerke, Dylan and Alyssa Cowell, Gabrielle and Stephanie Owens, Peyton Collin, Harshini Madabhushini,  Sara Seamann, Kim and Riley Robilotto, Ishaan M., Raghav Arun, Elliott Parish, Lauren and Caleb Rosenbaum, Liza Brand, Molly Jones, Ilyas Ahmed and Dakota Davids.

Thanks to our Ballantyne Families’ School Champions for helping share the Holiday Drive information with their schools.   They play a VITAL role by communicating to all of the school communities: Lauren Rosenbaum (Ardrey Kell), Denise Oswald (JM Robinson), Debora Pupo (Community House), Maggie Webb (Rea Farms), Darcey Meus (Ballantyne), Beth Patterson (Elon Park), Amy Rothwell and Sheila Matthews (Endhaven),  Diana Sepulveda (Hawk Ridge), and Shannon Denholm and Merete McMaster (Polo Ridge).

A HUGE thank you to Geoff Parish for creating our new website: www.ballantynefamilies.org   We are grateful for his willingness and generosity to share his time and talents!!

Thanks to the following people who volunteered this month in the food pantry: Denise Oswald, Melissa Graham, Amulya Deepak, Dominique Greve, Vicky Irvine, Sara Seamann, Vimmi Borkar, Kerry Doub, Heather Fray, Susan Medina, Kim Robilotto, Susan Hicks, Brooke Schonfeld, and Sheila Matthews.  An extra thank you to our amazing pantry team: Tammy Menzel, Sheilah White, Erin Furey and Audi Naftzger!

Thanks to the many people who have purchased food items for the pantry through the Amazon Wish List.    You have really helped to fill our pantry shelves!   

A special thank you to Forest Hill Ballantyne for allowing us to share our mission and holiday food drive with the congregation!  They helped raise over $1500 towards our holiday drive.

We’d also like to recognize True 180 Personal Training for supporting our holiday drive.