The Allison Rose Worobetz Memorial Garden
Donation protected
UPDATE 12/18/2020
Hey, I hope you are doing well! As you may have seen, the generous donation you made to the Allison Rose Worobetz Memorial Garden fundraiser earlier this year was refunded. This was due to a breakdown in communication between myself and the site - aka I didn’t know there was a time limit to withdraw and all their emails to me were going to my spam
The fundraiser was such a great success before, and we raised much more than I imagined, because of you and the other donors wanting to give in Alison’s name to create something she would have loved here in Philly. Just thinking of all the support still makes me swell with gratitude. Despite this inconvenience we still plan on moving forward. I’ve spoken to the DePaul House and they’re really excited about creating Alison’s garden after the last winter frost as planned. We’ve even starting designing it!
If you are still able, could you please resubmit your donation to the fundraiser through the below link. I’m sorry for the inconvenience and would really appreciate your help in fixing this. Thank you so much and have a wonderful holiday
OLDER MESSAGE:
While today is my birthday, last week was the birthday of someone very special to me, Allison “Aly” Rose Worobetz. She would have turned 31 on August 11th. She and I met through a mutual best friend in Philadelphia, where she lived for many years. On June 12th, 2018, the world lost a true champion of love and acceptance; anyone in her orbit knows this and won’t ever forget it. She passed following the love and happiness she always deserved living her best life in a Costa Rican paradise.
In an attempt to bring part of her back home, I reached out to the last place she worked in Philly, Depaul USA. Depaul USA serves men and women experiencing homelessness and works with them to improve their health, increase their economic well-being, and attain and sustain housing.
In 2019, Depaul Philadelphia served over 220 men and women and offered services that were recovery-oriented and trauma-informed. 80% of their clients exited the programs to their own housing, with the help of dedicated social workers and caregivers. Like Aly, Depaul believes that everyone should have a place to call home and a stake in their community.
When I contacted Depaul to ask about setting up a memorial in Aly's honor, they came up with the idea of creating the “Allison Rose Worobetz Memorial Garden”. They said that when their clients are dying, they worry that no one will remember them; that they were not important. So, each time a client moves on, a tree or a perennial will be planted in Aly's garden for them; in this way their and her memory will live on. The garden will grow over time and it will be a place of peace for people who need it most. We will buy a bench in her name, a plaque, trees, and infrastructure for the garden.
I think this idea is fitting in many ways. Everyone mattered to Aly, and she had a way of making you feel like the most important person in the world. I know she loved the clients that she worked with at Depaul and would want them to continue to feel love, even in death. She nurtured everything around her to grow and bloom, whether it was a person, plant, or animal, anything living was made better by being in her presence.
If you want to learn more about the mission of Depaul House, pleaser follow this link: https://depaulusa.org/programs/philadelphia/
If you did not know Aly but would like to, or if you did know her and want to reminisce about her, I wrote the below eulogy about her for a public speaking class last year. She is such an important piece of my life, and I know I am not alone in this feeling. Thank you!
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:a8621ec5-efe7-4882-89fd-c9a685546312
In an attempt to bring part of her back home, I reached out to the last place she worked in Philly, Depaul USA. Depaul USA serves men and women experiencing homelessness and works with them to improve their health, increase their economic well-being, and attain and sustain housing.
In 2019, Depaul Philadelphia served over 220 men and women and offered services that were recovery-oriented and trauma-informed. 80% of their clients exited the programs to their own housing, with the help of dedicated social workers and caregivers. Like Aly, Depaul believes that everyone should have a place to call home and a stake in their community.
When I contacted Depaul to ask about setting up a memorial in Aly's honor, they came up with the idea of creating the “Allison Rose Worobetz Memorial Garden”. They said that when their clients are dying, they worry that no one will remember them; that they were not important. So, each time a client moves on, a tree or a perennial will be planted in Aly's garden for them; in this way their and her memory will live on. The garden will grow over time and it will be a place of peace for people who need it most. We will buy a bench in her name, a plaque, trees, and infrastructure for the garden.
I think this idea is fitting in many ways. Everyone mattered to Aly, and she had a way of making you feel like the most important person in the world. I know she loved the clients that she worked with at Depaul and would want them to continue to feel love, even in death. She nurtured everything around her to grow and bloom, whether it was a person, plant, or animal, anything living was made better by being in her presence.
If you want to learn more about the mission of Depaul House, pleaser follow this link: https://depaulusa.org/programs/philadelphia/
If you did not know Aly but would like to, or if you did know her and want to reminisce about her, I wrote the below eulogy about her for a public speaking class last year. She is such an important piece of my life, and I know I am not alone in this feeling. Thank you!
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:a8621ec5-efe7-4882-89fd-c9a685546312
Organizer
Arielle Gold
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA