The Heart to Heart and Lending Closet offices will be closed for Christmas on Tuesday, December 24 and Thursday, December 31.
Laurie and Sr. Susan are so grateful for the volunteers, donors, and all the friends and members of our community. You have shown us what Incarnation -- Jesus being born among us -- is all about. We wish everyone much joy during this season of light and love.
Heart to Heart is a ministry grown at St. Gertrude that serves some of our most vulnerable residents in Edgewater—our senior citizens. Staffed by director Sr. Susan Quaintance, OSB, the outreach program’s mission is to help seniors who need minimal assistance to enable them to remain independent in their home. Heart to Heart completes assessments and connects our seniors in need to community services and agencies that can assist them with financial and home care functions.
With the help of these dedicated staff and volunteers, we've been able to help hundreds of older persons live quality, dignified, independent lives in their own home.
Equally as important as tending to basic needs is the human connection that Heart to Heart provides to the lonely, poor, or those in need. Social Services at St. Gertrude is about showing love and care to them through a listening ear, a smile, a kind word, or a helping hand. It’s about putting faith into action by loving our neighbors and tending to their needs.
If you are a senior in need or care for an older person that may need Heart to Heart’s services, please call the Heart to Heart office at 872.296.2537 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 am-4:00 pm, OR to leave a voicemail message when the office is closed. Voicemail is checked regularly.
Additionally, Heart to Heart offers a medical lending closet, managed by Laurie Hasbrook. Available items include standard walkers, rollators, crutches, wheelchairs, shower chairs, tub transfer benches, and portable commodes. Please call the Lending Closet at 773.973.5464 to schedule an appointment, or to drop off donations.
Please consider supporting our work by volunteering or making a donation to Heart to Heart in church, at the Rectory, or online here: https://www.givecentral.org/location/8/event/606. Donations made with a check should be made payable to St. Gertrude Parish with Heart to Heart written in the memo line. Thank you for supporting our work!
Heart to Heart Office
6214 N. Glenwood Ave.
Chicago, IL 60660
872.296.2537 - Heart to Heart office
773.973.5464 - Lending Closet
Our Heart to Heart staff works on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 am-4:00 pm.
Staff
Sr. Susan Quaintance, OSB - Director
Laurie Hasbrook, Lending Closet Manager
Call 872.296.2537 to speak to the Heart-to-Heart team during regular office hours, OR to leave a voicemail message when the office is closed. Voicemail is checked regularly.
Please call to schedule an appointment with the staff, particularly if you need to get or drop off durable medical equipment from the Lending Closet. Do not drop off these items at the Rectory.
Requests for Hospital Visits
If you (or a family member) is hospitalized and want a visit by a church staff member, please call the Heart to Heart office. Because of government regulations, hospital, nursing homes, etc. cannot contact us with this information. Heart to Heart staff will then notify the Rectory.
The Heart to Heart Lending Closet is looking for donations of wheelchairs, transport chairs, and rollators to loan to those in need.
If you know of anyone no longer using this equipment, please contact Laurie Hasbrook at the Lending Closet office at 773.973.5464.
Do you have a busy schedule, but your faith is calling you to action? Join the Heart to Heart Telephone Visit Ministry. Phone visits are a huge benefit for homebound individuals. Winter is around the corner making it difficult for the sick and elderly to get around. It just takes one check in call a week to visit with your assigned Heart to Heart member.
Call 872.296.2537 for information.
Volunteers are the backbone of Heart to Heart. We are in special need of drivers to take seniors and disabled individuals to Mass.
Call 872.296.2537 for info.
In 1986, social worker Mary Ann Collins and a few other women from St Gertrude parish realized that their older Edgewater neighbors needed broader community assistance with grocery shopping and getting to/from medical appointments and procedures. Thus, the Heart to Heart Seniors Ministry was born.
The mission of Heart to Heart is to provide screened and caring volunteers who assist older adults throughout the Edgewater/Rogers Park neighborhoods so that they can remain independent and connected to our community for as long as possible. This contact with our staff and volunteers also reduces feelings of isolation and loneliness which so many of our seniors are experiencing. Additional volunteer services can now include visiting seniors, making well-being telephone calls to them, and sending greeting cards celebrating important events in their lives. When needed, we also make referrals to supportive services and/or public agencies on behalf of seniors who need them.
All Heart to Heart staff members and volunteers have completed VIRTUS training, a program created by the Catholic Church and monitored by staff of our Archdiocese to protect vulnerable populations such as Seniors. Additionally, our volunteers and staff must also complete ongoing monthly VIRTUS trainings to maintain compliance with this program. Each volunteer and staff member has received all COVID-19 vaccinations currently available.
Our volunteers thus enrich their own lives by sharing their abilities and talents to make a real difference in the lives of the seniors they serve.
Did you know that there is a special and valued ministry that needs participants, particularly our homebound and physically-restricted parishioners? There are no meetings or dues required, yet the members have a valued connection to parish life by enriching others and themselves through their own dedicated, daily prayer time!
It works like this—we provide our committed participants with a prayer book and a monthly guide sheet reflecting some of the prayer requests taken from St. Gertrude Church’s Prayer Wall. Our prayer angels become an unseen blessing for so many! We welcome anyone’s interest in this caring ministry.
Call 872.296.2537 for more information.
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