By Kharisma McIlwaine
Tis’ the season for giving back, and senior citizens are one of the communities most in need this time of year. Candice Ray, the founder of Helping Hands Warming Hearts LLC, is doing just that by hosting the “Cheers to Seniors: Winter Wonderland Charity Gala.”
Cheers for Seniors is an event focused on celebrating older people in our communities and helping them thrive in their independence. Ray spoke with the SUN about her dedication to seniors in the community and behind the inspiration of the gala,
Her background in healthcare sparked Ray’s love for giving back.
“I’ve been in healthcare since I was 16,” she said. “My first job was working at a skilled nursing facility — and to think now I actually employ nurses. I’ve always given back to seniors as far as providing care for them. I’ve never done any kind of charity event, but I feel like I do charity every day in my businesses through free food, free services and advocacy helping people navigate the health care system.”
Ray’s decade of work as a healthcare consultant and experience as the owner of a premier home healthcare agency gave her a unique perspective and served as a catalyst to create the gala.
“I’ve had a non-profit called Socially Healthy for a year,” Ray said. “We focus on underserved communities. Most of them are Black and brown women, men and other minorities. Working in healthcare and being on all sides of it — the hospital and the insurance side — I literally see how people are discriminated against for economic status and the type of insurance they have, especially Medicaid. Even with me having a bachelor’s in health administration, a master’s in health care informatics, and a certificate from Villanova in Organizational Leadership, it’s still hard for me to navigate the system. There’s a lot of red tape and I feel like when it comes to us they change the mark. This year, I felt like I was doing a lot of advocacy work and giving back. That’s the goal for Cheers to Seniors — to give money to a nonprofit called The Community Grocer.”
The Community Grocer is an organization that helps provide hot meals to the underserved population.
“If you’re familiar with how SNAP benefits work, you cannot buy hot food with your EBT card,” Ray said. “The Community Grocer is bringing back the concept of a corner store, but with healthy foods. They created a model where you go into one part of the store and use your EBT card to buy the groceries. Then they pass the groceries to another part of the store, and you get a hot meal with the groceries you bought, but you’re not breaking any government laws.”
After doing a hard hat tour on the construction site for The Community Grocer, Ray realized their missions aligned and the partnership for Cheers to Seniors: Winter Wonderland Charity Gala began.
“Our mission is the same, it’s aligned. I wanted to raise awareness for what they’re doing.”
In addition to giving back to another worthy cause, the Cheers to Seniors: Winter Wonderland Charity Gala has wonderful things in store for all in attendance, including holiday activations like ornament making, custom-made shea butter hand massages, and live entertainment. Sharrie Williams of 6ABC will host the event and will feature special guests like the legendary Patty Jackson, Mina “Say What,” Mutha Knows, and world-renowned DJ Aktive.
“I wanted to look at things that were still festive, but not too messy because we’ll have people in gowns,” Ray said. “I also wanted things that weren’t too time-consuming but that people would still love. From a culture standpoint, we love shea butter and it has so many benefits. Of course, the ornament-making to me is a time to bond for the seniors and their caregivers, the other people that are there, and they’ll have something for their tree. The hand massages will be helpful, because a lot of seniors suffer from arthritis. They’ll be good for everyone because we’re all constantly doing things and working, and it’ll be nice to take a few minutes and enjoy a couple of minutes of a massage at a beautiful event. I’ll be giving awards. The grassroots award is for a company that does advocacy for seniors and helps them with the waiver system for Medicaid and Medicare. I’ll also be giving a Champion of Change award, a Community Impact award, and a Caregiver award. We’ll have snow angels dancing around and a live band… it’s going to be a great night!”
Cheers to Seniors: The Winter Wonderland Charity Gala will take place on Sunday, December 8 at Union Trust, located at 717 Chestnut Street, from 6-9 p.m. To donate, search Cheers To Seniors on Eventbrite. The direct link is also available @hhwhenterprise on IG.
The post Candice Ray, the woman behind ‘Cheers to Seniors: Winter Wonderland Charity Gala’ appeared first on The Philadelphia Sunday Sun.