Emory Healthcare employees demonstrated their generosity and support for Atlanta's homeless community by contributing more than $12,000 in monetary donations and toiletry items to Mercy Care Atlanta. These items include shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, socks and other basic hygiene necessities, which are distributed by Mercy Care throughout the year to homeless shelters and outreach initiatives in the metro area.

Mercy Care needs more than 500 kits each month to assist people who are experiencing homelessness, and this year, Emory Saint Joseph's employees collected $9,819 in toiletry items and monetary donations, equaling 3,273 kits, which is enough for a six month supply.

Beginning in 2014, employees throughout Emory Healthcare have joined Emory Saint Joseph's campaign in 2014 in support of Mercy Care's street medicine program. This year, Emory Healthcare employees donated an additional $3,158 for overall contributions totaling more than $12,000 systemwide.

This longstanding tradition started at Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital in 1985, when employees began collecting toiletry items in observance of Mercy Day, as a way of extending the Mercy mission of the hospital by serving the poor and vulnerable at Mercy Care Atlanta.

Mercy Day is held annually in recognition of Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy. Saint Joseph's Hospital was in turn founded in 1880 by four Sisters of Mercy who traveled from Savannah, Ga. to Atlanta to establish the city's first hospital.