St. Ann Indianapolis
We are trying to stay current on our Servware calls. Our Team is keeping up on home visits. Our financial calls are starting to stretch out due to our resources running low. We have a 5th Sunday collection coming March 30… so hopefully that will revive our ability to be more responsive and helpful on financial calls. We are participating in the 40 beds 40 days program.
St. Anthony
St Anthony is down to just 3 members now. We are able to serve our neighbors request with no problem.
St. Malachy
We sent a letter to the pastor notifying him that we are short of funds and have not received a response to our requests. We reduced the amount that we can help individual neighbors. The director of outreach and communication returned from maternity leave, and she was able to help us with our funding request. She also will help us with trying to get more active members.
We continue to use ServWare with double entry in the Hendricks County database that we share with other organizations in the county.
We had a meeting with the chief operating officer of Family Promise of Hendricks County to identify how the various organizations providing help to the needy can work together.
St. Michael
March 10th St Michael SVdP Conference celebrated with dinner and ceremony presided over by Father Kamwendo the new Conference Leadership. Andy Tramontana is the President, Daniela Klesmith is the Vice President, Renate Donahue is the Secretary, Kathy Cowden is the Treasurer and Kathy White is the Spiritual Advisor. Andy will be attending the Mideast Regional Meeting in Toledo, Ohio in April.
St. Joseph
For about 6 weeks we have run an article in our bulletin regarding the longevity of our current members and their desire to turn over the reins to new members. Sad to say we have not successfully added any. We have planned on a few more months but may have to close.
St. Christopher
Home visits continue as we strive to meet our neighbors’ requests. New members were officially brought in during a recent conference meeting. We have placed an order for SVDP shirts that conference members may wear during events to help bring attention to our group. Father Paul graciously reads any announcements we have from the pulpit. We are designating the 5th Sunday collection this month to the 40 Beds initiative. Any monies collected will dedicated just to purchasing beds for our clients in need. We are currently working with neighboring parishes to coordinate Stuff the Truck events. More details to come later.
St. Monica
St. Monica is participating in the 40 Days for 40 Beds project and seems to be getting a decent response from parishioners. Our plarn project has become a regularly-scheduled meeting twice a month. We take two sleeping mats for the homeless to the distribution center every other week. We are planning a meeting for people interested in volunteering for St. Vincent de Paul on Monday, April 28, at 7 pm in the St. Monica Holy Family Room. Heather Snyder, the volunteer coordinator, will speak to the opportunities available and we will ask people to sign up for a shift at the meeting. We will be serving snacks and drinks as well. We are getting a lot of requests for help with utilities and rent. Some of the requests are in the thousands of dollars, and, although we try to help a little, we don’t have the resources to pay such high bills.
St. Susanna
No major changes to report at St. Susanna’s. We have one active new member, who has really jumped into service with both feet – and she’s under the age of 60! We are transitioning our VP to take over our Treasurers’ positions (a husband and wife team) which they have held for far too many years! We plan to do the “Bread For The World” letter writing campaign, again this year as we had a great response from our parish. We need this more than ever. We continue to work with our neighboring charities, Family Promise of Hendricks County (which is under new leadership) and the Christian Support Center to provide the best assistance we can to all those coming to us for assistance. We are seeing an increase in need in our area for affordable housing, as well as basic necessities as the budget cuts and tariffs take their effects. We pray we can be there to help them all.
