Servant’s Heart Club members recently decorated and filled 80 Valentine’s Day gift bags for residents living in the Haven House, a senior assisted living facility in Cape May. The gift bag project was completed at their February 9 monthly meeting and the bags were delivered to Haven House on February 12, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Club Advisor and ACS parent Mrs. Jennifer DiMaio said the bags were filled with candy, chocolate, mints, tissues, tea, hot chocolate, word find books, and cookies. The students also included a Valentine card with the John 3:16 verse.  During the meeting, Mrs. DiMaio and the club members also discussed assisted living facilities and prayed for the individuals receiving the bags.

“While working with intense eagerness and diligence, the students radiated absolute joy,” said Mrs. DiMaio. She also thanked 10th graders Allison Schlundt and Alli Lushina for helping the 2nd to 5th grade students in the club with the project.

Mrs. DiMaio said the club’s efforts were part of a larger project initiated and organized by ACS alumnus Ani Karabashian (’12) that blessed over 350 seniors on Valentine’s Day, including residents living at Victoria Towers in Cape May and seniors who are members of Beacon Evangelical Free Church in Galloway.

“At a time when so many people, and especially seniors, are feeling isolated and alone, we wanted to do something to let our seniors know that people are thinking of them and that they are loved,” Karabashian said.  According to Karabashian, the other volunteers who were part of the larger project and made Valentine’s cards for seniors were middle school and high school youth group and Sunday school children at Beacon Evangelical Free Church in Galloway and members of the South Jersey Young Adults group.