St Simon – President Tom Adkins
Just a few things for this report.
1. We had 3 new St Simon SVDP members attend the Ozanam training at St Matthews.
2. With the new people joining the conference we have filled two important positions for the conference, Terri Schueth will take on the VP role and Jeff Dahltrop will head up our marketing and communications.
3. Preparing for Thanksgiving Baskets, currently at 75 but likely we will deliver close to 100 baskets! The largest number ever for our conference.
4. We recently received a $10,000 donation from a “friend of SVDP”. Really has helped as requests are at an all time high.
Tri-County Good Samaritan (Richmond, IN) – President Tony Talbert
Many blessings have been received here in eastern Indiana. Our parishioners and priests are incredibly supportive of us. A few highlights:
1) We raised $318,000 and were able to purchase a building that is 7,330 square feet. We have opened the facility for our furniture ministry and will be opening a thrift store mid-February and a food store later in 2026. We have an open house scheduled for December 7th 11am-1pm. This should make our conference self-supportive once all programs are running.
2) We have altered our home visits and we now along with the detailed conversations we have with neighbors, at each visit we ask for 2 short term goals to make their life better and 1 long-term goal, what they want their life to look like 5 years from now. The home visitors will give resources to help with the goals and stay with the family as long as they allow us to or they get off all public assistance. As they complete budget, parenting or other workshops they will receive a credit voucher for our thrift store. Peter and Mark came by
and gave us some great ideas.
Our Lady of Lourdes – President Paige Gervan
Recent news- we are in the midst of our SVdP Christmas program for our neighbors in need. We have giving trees for families with children. Each child will receive two gifts – a clothing gift and an age-appropriate gift. They will be wrapped and tagged. We call each family and get the information for their child so they receive what they want and need. Additionally, each family receives a Christmas food basket with a ham and the sides to complete the meal, along with a gift card to Kroger. Delivery is December 21, beginning at 12pm. It’s a great day for us and our neighbors.
St. Mary – Interim President Jeni Christoffersen
We continue to be rebuilding our conference as our newest leader who stepped into the vacant role of President in July 2025 unexpectedly stepped down in September due to personal health issues. Also the conference has been in need of new members for several years as we have lost members when they leave the parish (this has been a trend given the significant turnover of priests we’ve had over the last 5 years at St Mary parish). In October we managed to run a coat & hat donation drive by partnering with the St Mary Youth Group. All donations benefited SVDP Indy and it was such a success! We had 2 truck loads of donated winter weather clothing. We also were able to land about 6 interested parishioners ( 3 are bi-lingual) who may want to join our SVDP conference. This was a terrific outcome and helped us gain powerful momentum as we strive to rebuild.
St. Lawrence – President Eleanor Williams
St. Lawrence Conference provided 40 families with turkeys, pies and side dishes for Thanksgiving. Our Resurrection Choir sang at two funerals and we served lunches at both to 63 people. We were blessed with two large donations from the closing of our K of C Council and from the estate of a former SVdP member. Our completed Annual Report has been submitted. The Distribution Center received 2 shipments and 3 van loads of items from a deceased neighbor of a Vincentian.
Holy Spirit – President Theresa Igel
Holy Spirit is trying to stretch its funds to provide utility /rent assistance as well as provide Christmas help.
St. Philip Neri – President Bob Jareczek
St. Philip briefly ran out of funds but the parish provided $3,800 and St. Maria Goretti donated $3,000. We are in desperate need of young members and new volunteers in general.
Little Flower – President Frank Mackell
The Little Flower Thanksgiving Food program had 110 bags filled by parishioners and 85 have been claimed to date. The balance will be offered to folks at Giving Tree distribution. Our Giving Tree program will assist 52 families and 147 children. We instituted/tried a new computerized registration process to reduce stress on office staff and it seems to be a success. Distribution will be Dec. 20. We are getting requests to volunteer from several neighbors, which at this time is uncomfortably tough to accommodate.
