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ABOUT US
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*WHY *WHAT *WHERE *HOW *WHO *HISTORY
WHY
Each year, millions of people spend their holidays confined to institutions ... and, as our population ages, that number is increasing. Many of these people have outlived relatives and friends, or for some, those people have moved far away. Life can be a lonely experience with few opportunities to make a difference.
At the same time, many other people look for ways to make their holidays more fulfilling ... ways to return themselves to the true spirit of the season. The Holiday Project provides an opportunity that satisfies both these needs.
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WHAT
The Holiday Project is a national nonprofit organization comprised of thousands of volunteers who visit with thousands more people spending Christmas, Chanukah and other holidays during the year confined to hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.
What makes The Holiday Project so special is that our visitors not only contribute to others, they also allow others to contribute to them.
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WHERE
Volunteers in local areas who want to participate organize Chapters. Chapters choose if they want to operate as 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations. At this time, most Chapters do not operate with this status. All Chapters register with The Holiday Project by annually completing a Form and paying a $20 registration fee.
Most Holiday Project visits occur in nursing homes because that is where people who have the greatest need reside. Each community Chapter chooses the facilities where volunteers visit. In some communities, volunteers also visit with people who reside in Independent and Assisted Living, hospitals, psychiatric institutions, group homes, and even prisons.
See Where Holiday Project Chapters are organized.
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HOW
In communities throughout the United States, volunteers join together on holidays to visit with people who live in institutions.
Find out How to start a Holiday Project if one does not already exist in your community.
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WHO
We are all volunteers. The national organization and each local Chapter enroll people to help with management tasks. Our Team Leaders are the people who organize individual visits in local communities.
See Who is on our Board of Directors.
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HISTORY
The first Holiday Project Visit occurred on Christmas Day, 1973 when eight people joined together in San Francisco to visit patients at Laguna Honda Hospital. Afterwards, as the volunteers enjoyed lunch together, they decided, the following year, they would do it again and ask others to join them.
For the next seven years, more and more people, in communities all over the United States joined in what was then called The Holiday Hospital Project.
In 1980, the Board of Directors decided to register as a 501(c)(3) non-profit called The Holiday Project. Participation continued to expand. At the pinnacle of its growth, in the mid-80s, Holiday Project volunteers were organizing Visits in 36 states.
On one Christmas Day, snow fell heavily in New York and some of the Visits had to be canceled. One large psychiatric institution asked The Holiday Project if they could still come, on another day, as their residents had few visitors and rarely received gifts. In February of that year, the first non-December Holiday Project Visit took place, on yet another snowy day, as volunteers took the NYC subway and trudged 1/2 mile through snow, carrying large black plastic garbage bags filled with more than 1,000 gifts. Thus began the tradition of Holiday Project volunteers visiting institutional residents on holidays other than Christmas and Chanukah.
In the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s more and more community groups began organizing visiting programs on their own and individual volunteering in nursing homes and hospitals increased dramatically. The Board of Directors of The Holiday Project decided to transform it’s function from program management and oversight (including statistical counting) to a more open-ended educational organization. Although national management still supported existing Holiday Project Chapters, they gave equal focus to sharing programs and procedures with anyone who wanted information.
Most recently, the Board engaged in another discussion about organizational change. Some people felt that The Holiday Project had, over the past 37 years, achieved it’s goal to ensure that people in institutions were visited on holidays and that volunteers were offered the opportunity to experience contribution. Others felt that without a national organization, the program would not continue to survive and, even though many other organizations now organize Visits, The Holiday Project still plays an important role as a champion for this activity.
The decision was made to not only continue national operations but to redesign the national structure and revitalize the national organization’s role in community growth and local program support.
In this, our 30th year operating as a non profit organization, The Holiday Project remains committed to ensuring that people all over the country, people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and economic, levels have the opportunity to contribute to each other and bridge the gap between generations through our program of volunteers visiting people in institutions.
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