Visit Delco PA partners with Drexelbrook to provide food for hospitals

UPPER PROVIDENCE » Visit Delco PA, the official tourism promotion agency of Delaware County, announced the launch of their ‘Food for the Frontline’ campaign. The Delaware County tourism agency has organized and funded 600 nutritious, protein-based meals to be distributed to the frontline heroes at six Delaware County hospitals on Sunday, April 12 in time for the Passover and Easter holidays. The meals will be prepared and fulfilled at cost by Drexelbrook Catering in Drexel Hill.

Visit Delco PA is inviting other business and individuals to join them in their support and multiply the impact. They have set up a website to support this fundraising effort – www. DelcoDelivers.com which launched yesterday morning and is now accepting donations. A $9.50 donation will fund one nutritious meal for a healthcare worker in Delaware County. A donation of 25 meals will feed an entire medical department, and allow the option to write a message of encouragement that will be delivered as part of the meal.

Visit Delco PA is responsible for marketing Delaware County to residents, business and leisure travelers, meeting and convention planners, in addition to promoting the development and expansion of business, industry and commerce. For more information, visit https://visitdelcopa.com.

Danielle Foster Creations visits Delco neighborhoods with Easter Bunny mobile

HAVERFORD » Danielle Foster Creations, 1717 West Chester Pike, Havertown, is a family owned and operated portrait studio. Owned by Danielle Foster and her husband Tim, the business offers portraits with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus to thousands of local families each year. When non-essential businesses were ordered to shut down in the beginning of the month, Danielle Foster Creations had to temporarily suspend business operations.

“Of course I was worried about my business being closed this long, but what hurt more was the thought of so many of our families who would be going without seeing the same Easter Bunny that they have been seeing for the past six years or parents missing their child’s first portrait with the Easter Bunny,” Foster said.

For two weekends, Foster hosted Zoom calls featuring a virtual Bunny dance party and Bunny magic tricks so little ones could see the bunny. The Fosters then decided to drive around to some the neighborhoods where they knew most of their clients resided. This past week, the Easter Bunny visited the neighborhoods of Drexel Hill, Clifton Heights, Glenolden, Briarcliffe, Springfield, Media, Middletown, Upper Providence and Broomall. On Friday and Saturday, with the help of Haverford Township’s fire departments, bunnies will be going throughout Havertown with fire truck escorts. The bunny will also return Saturday to more neighborhoods in Pilgrim Gardens, Drexel Hill and Springfield.

“The outpouring of gratitude from these communities has been amazing and my heart is so incredibly full,” Foster said. “I only just wish I could have visited more neighborhoods.”

To check for updates, people can follow Danielle Foster Creations on Facebook, along with each fire department’s social media to find the routes they will be taking with the Easter Bunny. Danielle Foster Creations is letting everyone know they are practicing social distancing, so people are advised to only come out to their lawns and wave to the Easter Bunny. For more information, visit www.daniellefostercreations.com

Ridley Township sanitation workers honored with complimentary breakfast

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP » Ridley Township resident Joanne Leary donated $100 in Wawa gift cards to the Ridley Township sanitation crew in her neighborhood in a show of appreciation for their continued dedication to their jobs during the pandemic. Leary says that after seeing news reports of trash piling up in Philadelphia neighborhoods, she wanted to show her gratitude for the hardworking crews picking up trash in Ridley Township.

“Did you hear on the news that the trash is piling up in so many cities? Not in Ridley Township!,” Leary wrote in a post on social media. “Our guys are out there three days a week. They come on Tuesday and Thursday to pick up trash and every Wednesday for recycling. There’s a group on Facebook called ‘Feeding Delco ‘Essential workers’ but who is feeding these guys that are on the road all day long?’”

Leary gave the gift cards to Bill Burke of the Ridley Sanitation Dept. who went into the Wawa at MacDade Blvd. and Rte. 420 in Folsom to buy

40 Sizzli breakfast sandwiches and three big jugs of coffee to place in the Sanitation Dept. office on Thursday morning. The sanitation crews start their day and leave from the fenced-in township facility across the street from the Wawa.

The manager of Wawa, after finding out what the purchase was for, donated the balance when he saw the purchase topped the

$100 mark. Leary said, although it’s very important to recognize and reward local healthcare workers who are on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, sanitation workers are also out there, bravely serving the community, and they deserve residents’ gratitude and appreciation.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Easter Bunny ‘Jelly Bean,’ AKA Gena Tully of Drexel Hill, waves to children, from a distance, while visiting neighborhoods in Delaware County. She volunteered more than 20hours to bring children Eastertime joy. Danielle Foster, of Danielle Foster Creations in Havertown, is driving, while Lydia Tully, Gena’s 14-year-old daughter, rides along in the back seat, posting the vehicle’s route on social media and playing music to add to the bunny-mobile’s ambiance.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Bill Klienz, left, director of operations, and Chef Derrick Wills, right, of The Drexelbrook, create a protein power meal as part of the “Food for the Frontline” program sponsored by Visit Delco, PA.