Charity Committee Meeting Report--December 2, 2001

Attendees: Matushka Denise, Maha, Julie, Gail, Ted, Bonnie, Mary, Barbara, Diane

Purpose:  Getting ideas and making plans for charitable projects in 2002, and finishing projects for Christmas 2001.

    The committee decided on several charitable projects for 2002.  As in previous years, we will collect school supplies at the beginning of next school year, and later collect Christmas gifts for children at the Tri-Cities Homeless Shelter.  There will also be a collection of food and cleaning supplies for the nuns at the Kazan Skete in Santa Rosa.  We decided not to collect Easter basket items this year, because Orthodox Easter is much later than Western Easter this year.

    Several new ideas were brought up.  With the choir's help, we would like to make a trip to the Livermore Veteran's Administration Hospital to sing songs and entertain the elderly there, at the beginning of the new year.  (It might also be possible to visit St. John of Kronstadt nursing home near old-calendar Christmas.)  --Father Leo visited the Livermore Veteran's Hospital and asked if the staff had any ideas for small gifts for the wards there.  They suggested baseball caps, pencil boxes, or white boards with erasable markers.  Expect a collection of baseball caps, pencil boxes, and white boards with markers for the Livermore VA Hospital soon!

    Many people want to send donations to the orphans at the Hogar Rafael Ayau orphanage in Guatemala.  However, the Guatemalan government has made it difficult to send boxes of donated items to the orphanage at this time.  Hopefully that will change, but for the time being, we will periodically ask for small collections for the Guatemala orphans when we hear of people traveling to the area.  (One parish family is planning a trip in June, others might go at other times.)

    With the help of our Church School students, we plan a fund-raising Bake Sale or two.  Proceeds will go to a charity interesting the Church School students.  One Church School student is working on setting up a "book drive" to collect books of all kinds for the homeless shelter.

    A few committee members plan on visiting Rafael House in Oakland, to see their work with the poor and homeless.  We also discussed interesting and worthy organizations including Truck of Love, Sacred Heart, Tri-Valley Haven, and the Heifer Project.

    For more information about these projects, and ideas, or to add your own projects or ideas, contact Father Leo Arrowsmith, Bonnie, or any of the other Charity Committee members listed above.