Holy Redeemer Provides Support to Christmas in April

By David Tully

In Luke 12:36, we are reminded that “to whom much is given, much will be required.”  This scripture reading was lived out by several members of Holy Redeemer Parish on Saturday, April 28th. Six members of the parish community participated in the 30th annual Christmas in April service day. Christmas in April was established to provide support to families in need across the state of Maryland whose homes require attention and renovations. 

David Tully, Rosemarie Tully, Alayna Calabro, Sean Ballantine, Don Badrak, and Joe Miko graciously gave up their Saturday to renovate a single-family home in Hyattsville, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Neal for the past 40 years.   

Holy Redeemer volunteers arrived at the site at 7:30 a.m., ready for action!  We immediately went to work painting the living room, central bathroom, guest bedroom, and basement; installing new door hardware, garbage disposal and smoke detector, and cleaning up the interior rooms and front lawn. 

By 2:00 p.m. that afternoon, a house that was in need of some love got a much-deserved refresh!  We achieved the mission of Christmas in April, which is to leave the home better than the way we received it when we arrived.  Closing the day out was a brief guitar sing-a-long, led by Mr. Neal himself.