My name is Angela Degliantoni and I’m an outreach supervisor at Hospitality House. I manage the outreach case managers here and while I don’t work in direct case management as often, I still help with calls for service as needed.
One such call came in recently from a homeless family that I’ll refer to as the Smith family. The Smiths were homeless and would be moving in with family soon, but heard about our Pet Program at Hospitality House and reached out for help for their dog, Pongo. For those unfamiliar, Hospitality House offers not only services and care to people, but to pets too—such as food, shelter, licensing, veterinary care, shots, spays, and more.
The Smiths discovered 10-year-old Pongo had a very large growth but did not have the funds to get Pongo treatment. The Pet Program came in and we connected the Smiths and Pongo to our friends at Pine Creek Veterinary Care for an exam and biopsy, which confirmed Pongo had a malignant tumor and a secondary, smaller tumor.
We covered the costs of the surgery to remove the tumors and provided Pongo after surgery pet care too for recovery. Today, Pongo is doing great, and the Smith family and Pongo are back in housing. I’d like to thank people for donating to Hospitality House, which makes specialty care like the Pet Program possible.
If you’d like to further our work, we’re gearing up for our popular artist- and restaurant-driven benefit, Empty Bowl. The event’s primary objective is to raise awareness and support for individuals and families struggling with homelessness. Every dollar received from Empty Bowl is a donation toward Hospitality House’s emergency operations and every dollar makes a difference in someone’s livelihood.
Empty Bowl takes place in two parts: first, ticketholders will dine at one or more featured restaurants between Sept. 9-23 where they will receive a beautifully donated artisan bowl that is then filled with a donated meal by each restaurant; second, on Sept. 24, patrons will be invited to an Empty Bowl Art Extravaganza, which is an exclusive opportunity for ticketholders to come together to shop bowls, participate in an auction and raffle, listen to live music by Mark Vieaux and enjoy a no-host happy hour from 4-6 p.m. at Peace Lutheran Church. Tickets are on sale now (https://emptybowl2022.rsvpify.com/) and are subject to sellout. I’d like to thank our artist community for donating hundreds of artisan bowls to make the event possible—a few returning artists include Randy Panos, Bill Juhl, Edson Holmes, David Nelson, Carlos Angulo, Karin Paustell, Kenny Frerichs, Patrick Speer, and Candace Ekstrom, among many more. I’d also like to thank our eight host restaurants for donating meals to fill every bowl with sustenance. A special shoutout this week to Alexander’s Station Steakhouse and Event Center and Golden Gate Saloon at The Holbrooke Hotel, two of our featured restaurants. A big thank you also to County of Nevada (Better Together) and Whitewater Naturopathic for being return sponsors again this year.
And while I’m giving thanks, I’d like to give a shoutout to our volunteer food shopper, Hilary Dart, for helping us with shopping needs every Tuesday and Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains for cooking last Friday night their scrumptious enchilada pie for all of our guests. If you have an interest in volunteering, we have several opportunities available in our culinary department. Call us at (530) 615-0852 or email info@hhshelter.org to learn about our opportunities. A special thanks also to our partners for providing ongoing food and/or financial support: SPD Markets, BriarPatch Food Co-op, Telestream, Interfaith Food Ministry, the Bishop Store (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nevada City) and Food Bank of Nevada County. To everyone who donated our most needed items last week, thank you as well! Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the week:
- Depends / adult diapers
- Pillows and pillowcases (pillows must be new/packaged; we are unable to accept used)
- Bottled water
- Towels
NEW DONATION HOURS: To streamline our donation process, donations are no longer being accepted at our shelter (unless it’s food). Please drop off items from our needs list on Tuesday or Thursday, 830am – 5pm at our admin office, located at 488 Crown Point Circle, Suite 100, Grass Valley, Ca 95945 (admin is closed weekends and all major holidays). We greatly appreciate the community’s help at such times of uncertainty. In the words of Utah Phillips, “If we all stick together, we’ll get what we need.” Thank you!