We’re approaching the end of the year — the time when many Americans start thinking about their upcoming tax bill and wondering where they might make an end-of-year charitable contribution.
If like many folks, you’re looking for a way that your year-end contribution could make a positive impact on the lives of others, you might consider making a donation to Episcopal Retirement Services’ Good Samaritan Mission Fund.
What is the Good Samaritan Mission Fund?
The Good Samaritan Mission Fund subsidizes all of the care and services that Episcopal Retirement Services provides to seniors in the Cincinnati area.
It was developed as a fund to subsidize care for elders who had outlived their retirement savings. As an organization, we maintain (and take very seriously) our promise never to ask a resident to leave our retirement homes due to financial hardship.
Over the years, as our role has expanded — to community-based services like Deupree Meals On Wheels and Living Well Senior Solutions, and to developing Affordable Living apartments for elders of limited means — the Good Samaritan Mission Fund has accordingly expanded its role.
Today, the Fund supports services to ERS residents, funding for spiritual care services and wellness programs, and money for our Partners in Care program.
All of that costs quite a bit. Last year, ERS provided $19 million to cover expenses that weren’t otherwise covered by resident fees. So, each year, we appeal to the communities we serve for assistance in caring for our cherished elders.
Why should you donate to the Good Samaritan Mission Fund this year?
Here are 4 compelling reasons:
- Your $75 gift can provide 30 homebound Cincinnati seniors with a hot, nutritious lunch for a day, through our Deupree Meals On Wheels program.
And the need for those lunches is astoundingly great.
For the past two years, Deupree Meals On Wheels has smashed its own record for annual meals delivered — we served 102,688 meals in 2016 alone — and we fully expect to equal or surpass that in 2017. Doing that math, it took nearly $260,000 to provide those meals.
Moreover, each time we deliver a meal, we perform a critical wellness check and serve as a social lifeline for seniors who are aging alone in their own homes.
- Your $150 gift provides critical transportation services for 30 lower-income seniors for a month.
Many of the folks who live in Affordable Living by ERS's senior apartment communities lack reliable transportation for even the most basic activities of daily living: grocery shopping, medical appointments, household errands and more.
We provide that transportation to them. Because we believe that seniors of limited means shouldn't have to spend an exorbitant amount of their often-fixed incomes on taxi transportation.
- Your $300 gift provides spiritual care services to 30 retirement community residents for six weeks.
We know that senior care involves more than just looking after an elder's physical health. Person-centered care requires looking after a senior's entire well-being; that includes his or her social, emotional and spiritual health.
Donations to the Good Samaritan Mission Fund help us to continue providing comprehensive wellness programs, including spiritual ministry, for elders in our Tristate retirement communities, including Deupree House and Marjorie P. Lee.
- It's just the right thing to do.
There are so many options out there for making a charitable contribution. And many of those opportunities are with worthy causes.
We can think of no cause worthier than ensuring that Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana seniors receive the person-centered, dignified, expert care that they deserve.
Will you help us meet our mission?
Click here to donate to the Good Samaritan Mission Fund, and help ERS to continue providing the care and services that Tristate seniors and their families have relied on us to provide for over 60 years.
ERS is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, so donations made to our Good Samaritan Mission Fund are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
We — and our residents and community-based service beneficiaries — appreciate your kind support. Thank you, from all of us!
