BOROUGH PARK — Maimonides Medical Center donated 46, $1,000 grants to local churches Dec. 2, at its 30th annual “Celebration of Light” event, a month-long series of tree lightings held at churches throughout the borough. Its purpose is to provide support to neighborhood houses of worship in their fundraising efforts and parish tree-lighting ceremonies, where parishioners have the opportunity to dedicate Christmas trees to lost loved ones.

Celebration of Light, established in 1995 and sponsored by Maimonides, began with a donation to Visitation Monastery to help decorate their grounds for the Christmas season. Since then, the initiative has welcomed new parishes every year. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral are new to the initiative this year.

The event, held in the Maimonides Administration Building’s fifth floor boardroom, brought together the hospital’s clinical leaders with various representatives from churches in the surrounding communities. The tree lightings will run through the end of December.