Annual Thanksgiving Tribute

November 10th, 2022

At the Accelerator Space

Scroll below for more details and for the 2021 event recap

The Annual Thanksgiving Tribute is out biggest event of the year! Celebrate GEDCO and its mission with festival fare, open bar, food, raffles and the camaraderie of friends who share your commitment to GEDCO.

GEDCO’s Annual ThanksGiving Tribute is a fundraiser in which we gather our various networks of supporters, including our corporate sponsors, individual donors, community stakeholders, volunteers, neighbors, and friends, to raise awareness of our organization. Furthermore, the event highlights the significant accomplishments of our programs throughout the year through various formats, including personalized, inspirational testimonials from our residents and clients.

GEDCO seeks the resources to enable individuals to not only survive, but to thrive. We need YOUR help!

2021 Honorees: Reverend Joe Muth (Jack Sharp Award), Magda Westerhout (Vision Award), M&T Bank (Leadership Award), Laurel Peltier (Tenacity Award), Huff/Pasqualini Family, Greg, Pam & Andrew (Compassion Award), Perry Savoy (Spirit Award)

Click here to watch the live streamed 2021 event

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Father Joe Muth is a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and recently retired Pastor of St. Matthew Church and Blessed Sacrament Church. He served as President of the GEDCO board 2012-2015 and continued afterwards as a member of the GEDCO Executive Committee, and an active volunteer and advisor. Father Joe is active in the Baltimore community with a focus on helping those who are forgotten or in. He is the founder of the Immigration Outreach Service Center, which provides tutoring for immigrant children, computer literacy training for immigrant women, helps people toward citizenship, and reuniting with their families. He is also founder of LEAD (LGBTQ Educating and Affirming Diversity), which serves as a voice of acceptance for those who have been rejected or marginalized by church and society.

Father Joe Muth—Jack Sharp Award

Laurel Peltier is a Baltimore-based independent journalist and energy advocate. In 2018, Laurel co-wrote an Abell Foundation Report which laid out Maryland’s dysfunctional residential deregulated energy market and the low-income data was sourced at GEDCO CARES. With GEDCO’s advocacy, Maryland recently signed into law an energy supplier protections bill for families receiving state energy assistance. Laura holds an MBA from UVA, is a member of the Church of the Redeemer, and is an AARP Maryland volunteer advocate. As a long-term volunteer at CARES, Laurel provide clients assistance with their utility bills as well as advocates for them in the event of questionable activities. She also works with CARES staff to advocate against predatory practices of third party energy provides against Older Adults.

Laurel Peltier—Tenacity Award

Perry P. Savoy, past President and Chair of the Board of Directors for GEDCO, is the President and Founder of Peristyle, an interior design and space planning firm. He is a member Baltimore City Community Advisory Board and chairs the annual campaign for Baltimore City. Perry serves on the Head Start Subcommittee and has chaired the MLK Jr. Memorial Breakfast Steering Committee.

Perry Savoy—Spirit Award

Greg Huff and Pamela Pasqualini’s first involvement with GEDCO was 20 years ago when the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen bulletin soliciting volunteers to help at GEDCO’s CARES food pantry. Greg brought his son Andrew to help, and he soon became involved as well. Greg later became a member of the CARES Ministry Board and GEDCO’s Leadership Development Committee and has chaired the annual GEDCO Golf Tournament. Pam has served on the GEDCO Board of Directors for two terms as Treasurer and continues to be a member of the Finance Committee. Andrew organized a new GEDCO fundraiser at Full Tilt Brewery, the NFL Kickoff, in 2019 and 2021.

Huff/Pasqualini Family, Greg, Pam &
Andrew—Compassion Award

Magda Westerhout, Vice President at Moseley Architects, is an expert in senior housing design with over 30 years of experience. She is responsible for designing most of the buildings at Stadium Place (formerly Memorial Stadium) for GEDCO, which provides affordable housing for over 425 older adults, and has assisted GEDCO with other community housing needs. Other projects under her direction include numerous Erickson Retirement Communities, and seven senior living projects for Catholic Charities. She is currently the Principal in Charge for the Erickson Ashby Village Retirement community in Loudon County Virginia, a 1,500 unit Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). In 2017, she was recognized as the Maryland Affordable Housing Commission Person of the Year.

Magda Westerhout – Vision Award

With more than 90 bank branches throughout Greater Baltimore, M&T is focused on being the bank for all communities it serves, providing not just financial services but also other resources a community needs to thrive. M&T contributes more than $3 million annually to nearly 300 nonprofit partners in the Baltimore area, including GEDCO. Since 2009, M&T has given nearly $70,000 to GEDCO, and its employees have volunteered to support the organization in various ways. For several years, M&T assisted GEDCO with the packaging and distribution of Thanksgiving baskets for the city’s homeless, lower-income families, older adults and individuals with chronic mental illness. Representatives of the bank also have served on GEDCO’s board and assisted GEDCO in securing emergency funds during the pandemic.

M&T Bank– Leadership Award