The Christmas Mitzvah Project united the Jewish community during the holiday season as hundreds of Jewish volunteers lent a hand on Christmas Day, relieving hundreds of employees at local charitable organizations and various senior living facilities so that they could spend Christmas with their loved ones.

For 21 years, the Christmas Mitzvah Project has been coordinating and providing volunteers to support various charitable organizations during the busy holiday season. This year, JEWISHcolorado teamed up with 17 sites, throughout the metro-Denver area. More than 300 volunteers relieved employees at these sites, allowing them to spend Christmas with loved ones.

Denver area Christmas Mitzvah sites, included:

• Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora
• Christian Living Communities, Centennial
• Christmas in the Park Program for the Homeless, Denver – After Hours program – South High School kids along with many other community members volunteered by handing out jackets, clothes, toiletries and art supplies in Lincoln Park to those in need.
• Denver Health – Newborns in Need, Denver
• Denver VA Medical Center, Denver – Inpatient Psychiatry Unit – Volunteers worked with veterans admitted to the hospital in acute psychiatric crises, whose diagnoses range from PTSD and major depression to schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder, etc.
• Delores Project, Denver
• Family Tree, Inc. Shelter for women and children, Wheat Ridge
• Gender Identity Center of CO, Denver
• JEWISHcolorado, Denver
• Kavod Senior Life, Denver – Volunteers brought in the holiday spirit and led Hanukkah menorah lighting, sang songs, etc.
• Littleton Adventist Hospital, Littleton
• Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue, Denver – Volunteers cleaned the shelter and visited/played with the cats
• Ronald McDonald House, Denver
• Shalom Cares Senior Living Home, Aurora
• Sloan’s Lake Rehabilitation Center, Denver
• Sunrise at Flatirons (senior assisted living facility), Broomfield
• Zuma Rescue Ranch, Littleton – On Christmas Day, volunteers helped care for the 40 rescue horses, feeding and cleaning for this provider of equine therapy, which serves as a sanctuary and place of healing for both humans and animals in the Denver area.  Here is a Denver Post article about this project.

For more information, visit http://www.jewishcolorado.org/christmasmitzvahproject .