SOS presents Compassionate Samaritan Awards

Sonoma Overnight Support’s Compassionate Service and Good Samaritan Awards express SOS’s gratitude to some of the wonderful businesses, nonprofit organizations, individuals, churches and congregations that have given hope and made a tremendous difference in our community. Together, they’ve helped SOS provide the homeless and the food insecure with more than 16,000 meals so far in 2022.

Compassionate Service Awards are given to a church or congregation, a business or civic group and an individual.

SOS presented the 2022 Compassionate Service Awards to:

•Congregation: Congregation Shir Shalom

Volunteers from Congregation Shir Shalom headed meal deliveries to homebound individuals in the Springs. These deliveries have even blossomed into friendships.

•Business: Elaine Bell Catering

Elaine Bell generously donated many delicious meals in 2021, and she and her staff took over feeding all the unsheltered housed in hotels every weekend for the entire month of February.

Bell thanked this writer and SOS for giving her the opportunity to learn how important it is to feed the less fortunate among us. On one occasion during the pandemic she encouraged a wedding customer who wanted their deposit spent to feed hungry people by cooking for SOS, and feed the hungry they did.

And when SOS needed to feed people in emergency hotel rooms, Bell got her very best meat purveyor, Bryan Flannery, to donate more than 200 pounds of meat, and got similar reactions from her other vendors, while she voluntarily paid her staff to prepare the food delivered several weekends.

•Individual: Andrea Gonzalez

Through the pandemic during the past two years, Andy has worked tirelessly as a volunteer to coordinate SOS’s many active volunteers.

Good Samaritan Awards are given to organizations that go above and beyond to support the homeless and SOS.

The 2022 Good Samaritan Awards go to:

•Sonoma Valley Hospital, Sonoma Valley Community Health Center and Fox Home Health

All three of these organizations, through their incredible efforts to make sure that SOS clients are vaccinated, have played an essential role in making our community a healthier, safer place.

On Saturday, May 7, as part of their Spring Supper event, SOS will share a video made by Associate Director Francisco Kilgore that highlights each winner’s important contributions to the Sonoma community.

We will also hold a Spring Supper Online Auction, with a variety of exciting items available. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to buy a unique item and also help SOS.

To order one of the great dinners or just contribute to SOS, call 939-6777 or go to SonomaOvernightSupport.org and click on the green Spring Supper button.