Tuesday, November 27, 2018 is designated Giving Tuesday— it is a day where various non-profit and charity organizations will reach out to you for charitable donation support. The day is described as:
“Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.”
There are truly many worthy causes to donate and support out there. A good portion of those are charitable Catholic organizations including the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council whose support for local communities in need and response to natural disasters this past year have been astounding. Supreme has routinely provided a positive impact to help heal those in need when they need it most. You can donate to Supreme Giving Tuesday fund here.
Locally, the Knights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329, also helps those in need throughout the Parish Community of the Church of Infant Saviour Church, its mission church Our Lady of the Valley, and the larger Pine Bush Central School District community area that encompasses the Towns of Shawangunk, Crawford, Mamakating, Wallkill, and Montgomery in New York. Our Council along with Supreme ensures that 100% of your donations go to those in need directly. Our Council is a 100% volunteered staffed. We rely on the charity of our Brother Knights to make the work we do happen throughout the year.
Some of the ways we have positively impacted Pine Bush just this past year are:
- We annually feed over 70 families Christmas dinner with our Christmas Meals program at no cost to those in need.
- We gave out coats to kids at no cost to those in need of them.
- We annually donate the Parish Christmas tree and decorate it.
- We volunteer and support various Parish events including setup and clean up. These are events such as Rosary Rallies, Masses, and Prayer Services.
- We provide low cost meatless meals during Lent to Parishioners and encourage Parishioners to attend the Stations of the Cross. We make little to no money on each meal and work to only cover the cost of the ingredients purchased.
- We support the Church of the Infant Saviour’s maintenance needs with volunteer time and with monetary support as requested by the Pastor throughout the year. An example of this is this past Summer we removed dangerous playground equipment from the old Pre-school playground area. We also donated money to purchase a new stove for the Parish kitchen in the Church Hall. This included building an enclosure for the oven again at no cost to the Church and through volunteer time from a Brother Knight.
- We donate $500 each year to the CCD Religious Education Program. That donation is matched by Supreme for a total of $1,000 that directly helps enrich our Parish’s Religious Education Program and Adult Faith Formation. We did this last year and this year again.
- Brother Knights collect extra change in their pockets at the end of the day into jars throughout the year. At the end of the year we collect all those jars of change and anonymously donate it to a person or family in need. The donation has annually amounted to several hundred dollars. We call this program “Jerry’s Jars”.
- We donated money and volunteer assistance to help a family in need to move into a new home over the Summer.
- We donated money to person in need whose mother was ailing and passed away quickly. We assisted with the mother’s funeral costs and donated to a fund to the daughter her continue education early in 2018.
- We provide books at no cost that are lent out to Parishioners through our “Bookshare” program. We added five new books this year to the library. We also provided no cost booklets to all Parishioners who wanted them called “The Family Fully Alive”. Those booklets could be kept and do not have to be returned.
- We annually support a Seminarian student with a monetary donation through the Refund Support Vocations Program (RSVP). This year’s Seminarian was ordained a Priest in the Archdiocese of New York. We supported that Priest as part of this program for three years.
- Our Annual Pine Bush Central School District Scholarship provides a Catholic student in the PBCSD with a $500 scholarship. Each applicant writes an essay and the one that is voted best by the Scholarship Committee receives the prize to support their college education needs.
- We helped to raise and take down the Parish Crucifix that sits in front of the Church throughout Lent and Easter. We also changed out the sash between Lent and Easter with the assistance of the Pine Bush Fire Department. We donated the money towards the building supplies needed for the Crucifix.
None of this is possible though without your monetary support. Currently we have a Super Bowl Pool raffle going on. You can find out more about this raffle here. Your donation of $50 per box will help support the above initiatives again for the coming year in 2019 and much more. Some things we are working on are:
- We are currently working on our Christmas Meals program for this year. Our goal is to once again feed over 70 families this year come Christmas time in December 2018.
- We are going to be giving out space heaters to those in need in December 2018. Cost for this was covered by a generous donation from two of our Brother Knights who own American Shoring in Newburgh, NY.
Our Council wants to do more this coming year– and that is why we are asking this Giving Tuesday to consider a donation to our Council. If you would like to purchase a $50 raffle Super Bowl Pool ticket please contact us. We will also accept any charitable monetary donation you can offer in lieu of purchasing a box in the raffle.
Thank you to all who have supported our efforts thus far. We appreciate your continued support and we hope others will thoughtfully consider giving to Council so we can continue these Works of Mercy in 2019.
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