Lorraine Thomas, a longtime member of CityLights, distributed Walmart gift cards for the purchase of electric fans to sixty residents of Southwest Philadelphia last week. “The cards were paid for by donations from the generous members of Wayne Presbyterian as part of its CityLights ministry. CityLights is an on-going urban-suburban faith-based partnership between the Wayne Church and its friends in Southwest.
“By my count, it’s been about 15 years we’ve been making city residents safer and more comfortable on the hot summer days,” said the lively Thomas.
Thomas has been a vital part of our CityLights ministry in Southwest since it started. At the outset, she represented the Health Annex clinic which provides affordable medical care in that community – now awaiting reopening in its expanded premises in the Woodland Plaza.
In addition to the Walmart gift cards, Thomas arranged for delivery of the six air conditioners and another 10 fans donated by WPC members. “This summer is surely one of the hottest I’ve experienced,” added Thomas, presently the office manager for Southwest Community Development Corp., another original CityLights partner. “It’s worse for children and the older folks who have to spend more time indoors because of the virus.”
Thomas also caringly organizes the teams of Wayne church families that travel down to the Philadelphia Presbytery senior apartments on 58th Street every Thanksgiving Day morning to deliver hot dinners put together by the Rotary Club of Southwest – Eastwick.
To learn more about CityLights, visit: www.thecommonplacephilly.org/social-service/citylights-network/
