Lakewood Health System helps families celebrate the holidays

 Lakewood Health System has completed the sixth year of its Holiday Giving program which was started by the Special Events Committee in 2010. In those six years, 28 Lakewood departments have “adopted” 104 families for the holidays. 

The Holiday Giving program began when the committee was looking for a way to give back to the communities it serves, so they decided to ask Lakewood employees to “adopt” a local family for the holidays. The committee partners with social workers from the following organizations who match Lakewood departments with area families: Staples-Motley School District; Browerville-Eagle Bend School District; Pillager Family Center; Todd County Social Services; Wadena County Social Services; and Lakewood Health System Home-Based Services.

Each department receives a list of items their family needs, and/or gift ideas for each family’s children. The departments are responsible for purchasing, wrapping and either delivering gifts to the families, or delivering them to the school to be picked-up. The gifts are all received by the families during the week of Christmas.