Kent Hospital staff will celebrate 33 years of the Kent Hospital Adopt-A-Family program this Friday at 8:15 a.m. in the Kent Hospital Doctors’ Auditorium.

The Kent Hospital Adopt-A-Family Program provides gifts to families in need. In 1980, one of the nursing units wanted to include a needy family in their gift exchange. The hospital chaplain recommended a family. On Christmas Eve, the head nurse and chaplain delivered the gifts to a tenement in Apponaug, creating the Kent Hospital Adopt-A-Family Program. The following year, another nursing unit asked to help a family and the program has continued to grow ever since.

Today, the program offers assistance to 50 or more local families each year. Families who may be in need of sponsorships are those who have received assistance from KEEP (Kent Employee Emergency Program), Kent Hospital Home Care and in-house referrals, and local agencies such as West Bay Community Action, St. Rita’s Parish and Elizabeth Buffum Chace Center.