Volunteer Honored for Service at Morris Hall Gift Shop

Editor's Note: The following is a news release that was issued by .

Mary De Candido of Ewing Township recently received the 2011 Loretta Haggerty Volunteer Award from the Community Service Board of Morris Hall/St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center. 

Located in Lawrence Township, Morris Hall is comprised of St. Mary's Assisted and Residential Living and St. Joseph's Skilled Nursing Center.  It has been serving the community for over 100 years. 

A New Jersey native, De Candido has been a 12-year volunteer at Saints Corner Boutique, the gift shop at Morris Hall.  With previous volunteer experience at a local gift shop, she brings her considerable skills of purchasing, managing, and selling merchandise at the boutique, which is an integral part of the social fabric of the facility. 

Not only do residents and staff gather there to shop for toiletries or to purchase greeting cards and small gifts for friends, they enjoy the interaction with each other and delight in discovering the tempting new merchandise on display.

Proceeds from the shop support activities of the facility’s 18-member Community Service Board, which sponsors events and services for Morris Hall’s 175 residents.  Since the inception of the volunteer program nine years ago, volunteers have contributed well over 100,000 hours of service to the healthcare facility. 

“Mary is such an important part of the gift shop at Morris Hall.  She takes pride in her work and personifies the best of a volunteer.  She is selfless, dependable and focused on doing good for others,“ says Karen Dwyer, chair of the Community Service Board.  “She is such a giving person and truly cares for others.”

Other recent Volunteer Award winners include Jackie Randelman of Lawrence, and Mary Bedard of Ewing.