It began back in 2018 with a day of service that was intended to inspire AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division team members to extend the healing ministry of Christ beyond hospital walls.

“With tremendous team member support over the years, our annual service opportunity has grown into a weeklong service event,” says Courtney Snyder, community engagement manager for AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division. This year’s effort, celebrated Nov. 6-10, included team members from throughout Florida.

All told, 1,220 team members volunteered nearly 2,500 hours to lend a hand to 76 community partners. Here is a just a sampling of what AdventHealth team members could be found doing during the 2023 week of caring:

• Serving meals
• Packing 100,000 meals
• Packing trail mix take-home bags for members of nine Boys & Girls Clubs in Volusia and Flagler counties
• Installing community gardens
• Installing a mental health mile at a teen home program
• Assisting at a mobile shower/laundry trailer for the unsheltered
• Writing letters of hope and support for those with mental health struggles
• Creating birthday cards for children in foster care
• Putting together family engagement kits
• Installing a little free library
• Decorating vocabulary flash cards for elementary schoolers
• Assembling dinner grab bags for a food pantry
• Helping clean and organize homeless shelter storage
• Cooking meals for a women's shelter
• Collecting toys for toy drives

“AdventHealth has a commitment to wholeness, which we believe means caring for our communities inside and outside the hospital walls,” Snyder said.