One of The Villages newest groups made its first donation in its history.
The new group, the Village of DeLuna Social Group, was formed the earlier this year in one of the development’s newest villages located south of State Road 44.
Most of the members have recently moved to The Villages. Peggy Ligoria started the group to help give the village a sense of community and her neighbors quickly responded. The group began to meet at the Water Lily Recreation Center outdoors so they could practice social distancing.
As the group grew to more than 200 members in the last few months, they moved their meetings to the much larger Everglades Recreation Center. They meet the second Friday of every month.
Last month, the members decided to aid the SCSO Christmas toy drive which enables disadvantage kids to have Christmas gifts. The group chose Tracey Whiston to head the toy drive. Whiston, who moved to The Villages from the Atlanta area earlier this year, rose to the occasion.
Whiston’s neighbors donated a station wagon full of toys along with $450 worth of gift cards and cash to the SCSO Christmas program. When Whiston arrived at the SCSO Village District Office at County Road 466 and Morse Boulevard to deliver the gifts, she was greeted by SCSO Community Outreach Coordinator Theresa Cooper, who was very grateful for the DeLuna group’s gifts.
The SCSO Christmas program is continuing to accept donations for both their Christmas programs as well as an emergency food bank at the local sheriff’s office on a year-round basis. Cooper can be reached at (352) 689-4604.