The Knights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 was able to raise $750 in donations thanks to the generous support of the Parishioners of the Church of the Infant Saviour and its mission church Our Lady of the Valley along with the very generous support of the wider Pine Bush community who responded so kindly to our direct donation fundraiser that raised $650 toward Christmas Meals for the Needy.
Each year we purchase gifts cards to feed needy families and people on Christmas. Our Annual Christmas Meals for the Needy Program is a key initiative for our council and one we have done for over a decade. These gift cards from our Council gives dignity and nutrition to those who otherwise would not have a full Christmas dinner. Families are located throughout the Pine Bush Central School District area (covering some five towns throughout Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties). This includes our Church of the Infant Saviour Parish community area and other adjacent areas. Families are selected by the PBCSD social workers and school nurses through the district’s food security program. We partner with the PSBCD each year to get them the food they need to feed as many families as they need us to support in a given year.
On top of that, we also received an additional $100 from Hannaford of Pine Bush, NY who generously offered to add two $50 food gift cards to the fundraiser. We also got an additional $50 Visa gift card from another donor.
We were able to use $750 of the funds toward Hannaford food gift cards that were turned over the Pine Bush Central School District Head Social Worker in early December 2023. PBCSD in turn distributes these $50 gift cards to needy families in the school district through its school’s nurse. This means 15 families were given a $50 food gift card for Christmas meals from our portion of the fundraiser alone. With the additional other non-profits and civic organizations in the area that also donated gift cards to the fundraiser the PBSCD was able to raise even more than this and support many more families. We are thankful for your assistance though in making sure our assigned 15 families were fed for Christmas and greatly appreciative of your support!
The remaining $50 Visa gift card was put into our “Jerry’s Jar” and we will be providing a separate update on that donation in the near future.
Beyond this we also sold over 120 “Keep Christ in Christmas” lawn signs. This fundraiser brought in over $1000 that we are going to use towards our winter/spring charity initiatives. Again this was thanks to the parishioners at Infant Saviour and the larger Pine Bush NY community that responded so positively to the signs. We did not expect the demand we got and we are so happy to see the initiative resonated so well with our faith community along with the larger civic community. We expected to sell the signs over the course of several weeks and were completely stunned when we instead sold the first 50 signs in less than one week! Again we plan on using this money wisely and will update you as we move through our various charity initiatives in early 2024.
We cannot express our gratitude enough in words for your continued support and we are truly grateful for your donations that helped so many in our community enjoy a meal on Christmas. May God bless everyone who donated and all those in need who received donations because of this charitable work!
You must be logged in to post a comment.