A Season of Giving, Rooted in Community

Jan 12, Alissa Sauer

At Leisure Care, we’re committed to giving back to the places where we live, work, and play. It’s something we focus on year-round, intentionally seeking out opportunities to engage our residents and employees in fun and meaningful philanthropic events. These moments bring people together around a shared purpose and reflect the care, generosity, and connection that define our communities.

A Tradition of Giving

Each holiday season, Leisure Care supports Treehouse, a nonprofit dedicated to meeting the unique needs of youth in foster care. The Leisure Care home office and communities join together to help children feel supported and remembered at a time when it matters most. This year, through generous donations and fundraising, we were able to positively impact foster children in Washington state. We are thankful for the communities, employees, and residents who supported Treehouse this holiday season!

That same spirit of giving takes many forms across Leisure Care communities, often growing into traditions that reflect deep, long-standing connections to the places we call home.

For one Leisure Care community, December marks a nearly decade-long tradition of giving back to their local community. For the past nine years, MacKenzie Place-Fort Collins partners with Realities for Children, an organization that serves local abused, neglected, and at-risk children and families, for the Festival of Trees.

The Festival of Trees invites residents and employees to decorate a tree or a wreath, which will be donated to a family who would otherwise not have one. The trees are kept in MacKenzie Place until they’re ready to be delivered, filling the community with color, creativity, and purpose for an entire month. Trees and wreaths line the lower level, each one decorated with care by sponsors who want to bring joy into a child’s home.

Then, trees and wreaths are delivered to families so children can experience the holidays with something beautiful of their own. Families keep them, and they bring them out year after year. The community provides storage boxes, and trees are reused annually. No family has requested a tree or wreath twice, implying the trees are something families value and protect.

This tradition has grown over time, involving an increasing number of community members. The first year the community hosted the Festival of Trees, they had 23 trees, and six people attended the sponsor appreciation party. This year, they donated 152 trees and wreaths, reaching 341 children. They welcomed nearly 300 people to their sponsor party. This simple idea has become a powerful, community-wide effort that continues to grow because people believe that no child should be forgotten during the holiday season.

One of the most powerful parts of the Festival of Trees is how involved the teams become. Each department works together to choose a theme, gather decorations, and decorate their tree as a group. It becomes a shared project, a moment of creativity, and a reminder that the work we do is better when we do it together. Residents and families take part too. You might see a group of residents teaming up to decorate a tree or family members decorating alongside grandchildren, reflecting a culture where connection and contribution are part of everyday life.

Life at Leisure Care, Beyond the Job Description

If you are exploring a career at Leisure Care, this is what working here looks like.

It looks like teams that care about their work and about the world beyond their workplace, and residents who want to give back alongside the people who care for them. It looks like traditions that grow because they are meaningful, not because they are required.

These efforts remind us why we do this work. We are here to serve, to uplift, and to create spaces where people feel connected and valued.

That includes the people who choose to work here. And during the holidays, that truth feels especially clear.

Interested in joining the mission? Check out our available career options.