Cheltenham Helps 1600

We’re pleased to say that we believe that all residents who have requested assistance through community adoption have been adopted and are otherwise resettled.

Though this has been a tough year for our neighbors at 1600 Church Road, we again want to thank members of our community for the wonderful outpouring of support.

Even in difficult times, we have much to be thankful for with a community like ours.

Our best wishes to everyone, especially the residents, for a safe, happy and healthy holiday season.

To all of our friends and neighbors across the community:

The Cheltenham Helps 1600 team was recently presented with Community Service Awards by the Cheltenham Township commissioners.  We were unable to provide comments that evening, but we wanted to provide the following comments on behalf of the entire CH1600 team.

First, thank you for honoring us.

We know that each member of our team is grateful for the recognition and the support of the Board of Commissioners, as well as our entire community, in helping the residents of 1600 Church Road to get back on their feet.

Our work is far from finished, but it would have been made much harder were it not for the work of many others in the community who we’d like to honor.

A deep and heartfelt thanks to all of the first responders, police, fire, and rescue, who helped fight the fire and protect the residents.

Our thanks to the Emergency Management team of Cheltenham, and especially Ken Hellendall for his direct support and guidance to our team.

Our thanks to Arcadia University and to Cindy Rubino and her team of information technology folks who worked so quickly to help the residents and to support our donation website construction.

A special thanks to Ginny Kremer, a volunteer with the American Red Cross, who was there with us on Day 1 to provide guidance in the community response.

Thanks go to the School District, for housing the residents and supporting community events, and to the Township, including Commissioner Haywood, for leadership in drawing the community together so quickly.

Thanks go to the many groups who, even now, are helping residents to gather up their lives and get moving again.

And to the hundreds of community residents who have showed their support personally and financially to the residents.

You are all the real heros of our community and we share these awards with all of you for your dedication, hard work, and support.

Cheltenham is a wonderful community and all of us are proud to be here together.

Again, we thank the Board for this honor.

We are grateful for the support of our community, and we invite anyone interested in continuing to help the residents to visit our website at cheltenhamhelps1600.org.

Thank you, and Happy Holidays.

Light refreshments will be served.  We hope to see you there.

More groups have stepped up to assist residents at 1600 Church Road.  Glenside Bible Church, Westminster Seminary, Arcadia University, Bucks-Mont National Association of the Remodeling Industry, Glenside United Church of Christ, and Bridge Community Church have all generously offered their support and we are proud of their service to the community.  Please share your thanks and support as well.

We still need more adoption groups.  If you are interested in helping or know of a group that we could contact, please let us know.

Cheltenham Helps 1600 has been collecting cash donations from across our community since the day after the terrible fire that ripped open Unit B of 1600 Church Road on October 5th.  We have also been in direct contact with over 50 individuals, adults and children, affected by this tragedy.  We will begin distributions of the donations now through the remainder of November to those individuals with whom we’ve been able to contact.  If you or anyone you know has NOT been contacted by us, please contact us now at cheltenhamhelps1600@gmail.com. If you were a resident of 1600B Church Road, please make sure that the post office has a forwarding address for you as that is where we will send distributions.

Nearly every family or individual affected by the fire who was interested in being “adopted” has been adopted by a group in our community, but we still need help with some remaining adoptions.  If your are part of a group and are able to help out, please contact us today and we’ll assist with the adoption process.

So that you are aware, the Unit B building is still condemned. At this time a contractor is making one hour appointments for people to send a specially trained individual into residences to retrieve some items. Unfortunately, this is very costly and is not covered by the condo’s general  insurance. Insurance covers it for those who are insured. For those not insured this is just one more hardship. There is no word on whether the building will ever be deemed safe to enter.

Our continued gratitude to the Cheltenham area community for your support.  It is truly heartwarming to know that in only about one month, we have been able to assist each of the residents affected.  We’re proud of Cheltenham and our area friends and neighbors.  We know that the residents are grateful, as well.  Thank you so much for your continued support.

CH1600 Team

We want to thank the first two groups to offer direct help to individual displaced residents at 1600 Church Road under our Adopt-A-Family program.  New Life Church and Primex have both generously offered their support and we are proud of their service to the community.  Please share your thanks and support as well.  We still need many more adoption groups.  If you are interested in helping or know of a group that we could contact, please let us know.

Our food pantry and thrift store resource pages at http://www.cheltenhamhelps1600.org/resources have been updated with the latest information.  This information is helpful both to displaced residents at 1600 Church Road and also to community members who may wish to donate food or other items.  Our “Cheltenham Shares” page, where the community can post items they want to donate directly to displaced residents is working well and we continue to receive new items almost every day.  You’ll find a link to “Cheltenham Shares” under our Donate page on the website.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who continues to support the residents.  Cash and other donations are still very much needed.