Every year, our neighbors look forward to our community events as a way to come together in the spirit of community-building. After the uncertainty of the last few months, we knew our Jubilee families needed the festivity and fun that these events bring, so when it became clear that our beloved community events could not happen as usual, we put our heads together and worked with our partners to create special, socially-distanced celebrations.
Back to School Bash
Our Back to School Bash was our first-ever drive-thru event! Although we knew that creating a brand-new drive-thru model for our community events would prove to be a challenge, canceling the Back to School Bash was out of the question. Every year, our community looks forward to the Bash as a way to mark the beginning of the school year and an opportunity to stock up on school supplies.
National Night Out
Every October, Jubilee joins communities from across the country to take part in a National Night Out, a celebration focused on strengthening and celebrating the relationships between the police and their communities. Given Jubilee’s longstanding partnership with the Dallas Police Department as part of our Safety pillar, this community event is near and dear to our community. In a typical year, Jubilee welcomes hundreds of community members into our park for a festival that lasts well into the evening! Although we could not gather in our park for the festivities, we are happy to report that this year’s National Night Out event was a success! Our families enjoyed live music, dance, and treats from our Jubilee team. It was heartening to see our families come together to celebrate their community.
Halloween
We knew that it was more important than ever to make Halloween “sweet” for our Jubilee kids. In place of our haunted house, we encouraged attendees to dress in their Halloween best and cranked up the spooky tunes. We were overwhelmed by generous donations from organizations and individuals from across the metroplex who gave Halloween decorations, spooky masks, and candy!
Senior Thanksgiving and Christmas Luncheons
Thanksgiving and Christmastime are perhaps the most beloved events for our seniors. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas luncheons provide a special opportunity for our seniors to come together as a community to celebrate the holidays as neighbors.
Conflicted between the need to keep our most vulnerable population safe and the desire to ease isolation brought on by the pandemic, it was important to find a way to bring our seniors together safely. With the help of volunteers and community partners, we were able to adapt our luncheons to a drive-thru model. Our volunteers donned their holiday best and passed out bags of food and basic necessities, catered meals, and a sweet holiday dessert!
I Believe in Angels
For our Jubilee families, the holiday season is a stressful time, now intensified by the pandemic that has caused so many of our families to lose their jobs or suffer decreased wages. Parents place letters to Santa next to the stack of bills, wanting very much to give their children the experience of unwrapping gifts on Christmas morning.
Through the I Believe In Angels project (IBIA), Jubilee gives parents the gift of seeing their children’s faces light up on Christmas morning. Under normal circumstances, this project is an enormous undertaking, and this year our volunteers were tasked with bringing Christmas cheer to their Jubilee neighbors in the face of a global pandemic. Volunteers worked around the clock, baking hundreds of loaves of gingerbread, visiting every Target in the metroplex to provide our children with gifts, spearheading pajama drives at their schools, and wrapping presents well into the night. Truly, the entire operation would have put Santa’s workshop to shame.
As a result of this hard work and astounding show of generosity, we were able to provide gifts for 330 children from 85 families. These gifts included a present and gift card for each child in the family and a beautiful grocery bag with a holiday meal and treats.
With our 2020 events officially wrapped, we want to give an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard to make the holidays a little brighter at Jubilee.
-The Jubilee Team