At St. Tammany Health System, generosity and compassion reign all year round. They are baked into the place’s DNA that way.
But for the past 43 years, there’s been one special time every year – right around when the air gets cooler, the days grow shorter and moods get merrier – during which that generosity overflows among the health system’s 3,000-plus colleagues.
Which brings us to today’s ho-ho-holiday-inspired installment in our 70-part series highlighting key moments from the health system’s history.
Installment No. 68: Ghosts of STHS Christmases past
Today’s artifact: A clipping from the November/December 1984 edition of The Scanner, an early iteration of St. Tammany Health System’s internal newsletter, chronicling the forerunner of what would become the health system’s annual holiday Adopt-A-Family program.
Why it is significant: Traditions are important. But remembering their origins is important, too, and until recently, few if any colleagues currently at St. Tammany Health System were really sure exactly how or when the annual Adopt-A-Family program – a highlight of the holiday calendar among the STHS team – got its start.
Luckily, the editors of The Scanner employee newsletter recorded it for posterity.
As they spelled out in black and white in the November/December 1984 edition, credit belongs to former STHS nurse Jo Dupré. It was she who, in 1982, pitched to her co-workers the idea of assembling holiday food baskets for local families in need as identified by local welfare offices. As good ideas tend to do around here, the program took off.
By its third year, hospital employees had teamed with a local food bank to donate 22 food baskets and another $730 cash in that year alone.
Fast forward 43 years and that annual display of generosity has evolved to become a beloved yuletide tradition among health system colleagues.
In recent decades, they have teamed with the Department of Children and Family Services in Covington, which provides them with wish lists from local families in need. Departments in the hospital then “adopt” a family – or families, plural, depending on the department’s size – and then go into elf mode, with colleagues donating their own money to purchase items from those lists, for children and caregivers alike.
Those gifts – literally truckloads of them – are then all wrapped and delivered to Family Services, which ensures they find their way beneath the proper Christmas tree.
In 2022, it was enough to brighten the Christmases of 39 local families, including more than 100 children. Last year, it reached even more: 45 families, including more than 150 children.
And this year?
Smart money is on those numbers going up as STHS colleagues once more seize the opportunity to give back to the community that founded the health system 70 years ago.
“This is one of my favorite times of year, and this program is one of my favorite things we do for the community,” STHS Chief Operating Officer Sharon Toups said between carrying armloads of presents from the hospital’s Board Room to a caravan of awaiting vehicles during the 2023 holiday season. “It’s so amazing how generous our colleagues are. I can only imagine what it feels like on Christmas Day for these families. It’s just so heartening.”
Do you have a St. Tammany Parish Hospital story or item to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at CommDept@stph.org.
Next week – Installment No. 69: The (new) family stone
Last week – Installment No. 67: When COVID came calling