Happy New Year! As we’re getting ready to thrive in 2025, we wanted to take a minute to look back on and appreciate some of the best parts of last year:

Partnerships

We love building partnerships, and 2024 was full of great ones! PDG was thrilled to partner with Pets on Wheels, who brought some pawsitivity to our Day Program Participants when they brought several dogs to visit in February. 

We also continued our partnership with Greenspace Health, which allowed us to gain insights from patients in real time so we can provide targeted, highly informed clinical care. The best news? It’s helping our patients! After just a few months of using these services, 64% of consumers reported mild, minimal, or no anxiety symptoms, and 42% of consumers reported mild, minimal or symptoms of depression. 

Events

PDG was proud to receive recognition from our peers again this last year when we were awarded the Platinum Bell Seal for the second year in a row, which is the highest level presented by Mental Health America. It celebrates and honors organizations that create positive work environments that support mental health. 

Many people know us from our fundraising events around Baltimore, and this year’s were exceptional: tickets sold out to our 13th annual Crab Feast fundraiser at the gorgeous Kurtz’s Beach. Attendees were treated to beautiful views of the Chesapeake bay, fun raffle prizes, a great DJ, endless beer and of course, all-you-could eat crab. It was great to see so many happy people coming together to support some of Maryland’s most vulnerable. 

Our supporters don’t just come together to eat; they also come together to feed the community! We deeply appreciate everyone who donated to our annual holiday food drive, which provided holiday meals to over 41 different Maryland families.

We were also thrilled to come together with our consumers at our Consumer Thanksgiving Meal and Talent Show, where we enjoyed being in community, eating a delicious meal and watching some great performances.

Staff

This year PDG is proud to have instituted an employment based internship program, sponsoring six interns in the past 12 months. 

We love our employees, so some of the best parts of 2024 were celebrating them and all of the meaningful work they do in our community. Some of the fun included getting comfortable with an office-wide pajama day in April, honoring and celebrating our diverse staff with a Pride Lunch in June, our second annual Chili Cook-off (great job Sondra!) and working together to escape a chilling haunted house in October.

The holidays also brought several fun perks, like a tightly contested Ugly Sweater Contest (great job Janelle!), cookies, new polos, and a holiday party at Guinness Open Gate Brewery.

Whether you have taken part in PDG services, sponsored an event, are a staff member, have donated, or are just a fan of our work: thank you! 2024 was a great year, and we couldn’t have done it without you. We can’t wait to see all the exciting things to come in 2025.