|
October 13th Silent Auction / Dinner Benefit Please join us for our upcoming Dinner / Artistic Silent Auction to benefit Emmaus House. The auction and dinner benefit is being held at the Horizons Conference Center on October 13, 2010 at 6:00pm. We are seeking items suitable for our silent auction right now. Can you donate some time, services, gifts, or money? Would you or your employer be interested in helping us out with a tax deductable charitable donation? Be creative and give us a call with any silent auction items you would like to donate. Our phone number is (989) 755-7538. The Silent Auction page has all the details. Printable donation forms are available and we are now accepting online credit card donations too! Find out more now! Happy New Year 2010! Christmas, like all else that happens here at Emmaus House, our home for women coming from jail,/prison/rehab, was a community endeavor. Gifts for our guests, ex-guests, their children and grandchildren, and others in need (about 250 persons in all) came from the churches, other organizations and some individuals. Decorations, food, household products, and personal items were also donated. Parties were held, songs sung, and the real meaning of Christmas was remembered. Shirley’s Angels Award Each year at our board Christmas party we present an award to one (or two this year) outstanding, self-giving volunteers. The recipients receive a plaque stating: “This angel has consistently and faithfully carried the message of God’s love and caring to all at the Emmaus House.” This year our honored volunteers are Carolyn Maksimowicz and Ray Bartels. Carolyn inspired the building of our new Resource Center, headed the fund raising committee and the steering committee, and facilitated many in-kind donations. Ray Bartels served as Site Manager for the building of the Center and did everything . He scheduled and managed all of the contractors, oversaw all of the action, got it done correctly and on time, and assisted in anything that was needed and never lost his cool. Awesome! We thank Carolyn and Ray for hundreds or hours of work. We appreciate their goodness. Congratulations Ray and Carolyn! More AwardsCarolyn Maksimowicz – our Carolyn! – was selected as Saginawian of the year by the Saginaw News. Her selection was announced in the December 27th Sunday paper. She was chosen, says the paper, “for her persistent volunteerism . . .” We think persistence is Carolyn’s middle name. Congratulations, Carolyn!! On Nov, 6th Sister Marietta was presented with the Athena Award by the Saginaw Chamber of Commerce. This award is for community service, and in the award booklet it states, “Sister Marietta works 24/7 at Emmaus House and gives her entire life to community service.” If community service is another name for God’s work, then they are right. Nicely, Dr. Shaheen made it possible for 10 of our women to attend the ceremony.Resource Center UpdateOur wonderful resource center, the Morrow Center, completed and dedicated in September, is functioning beautifully. About 200 customers per week come for items from the free thrift store part. 18-25 donors per week come with vans full or trucks full of items to replenish the shelves. The center meeting room hosts 4 to 5 meetings every week, and several counselors come each week to see their clients and use the small prayer room for privacy (very hard to find in our main house). A $10,000 grant from Consumers Energy eases our operating costs greatly. We now can afford phone/internet service for the center. Sister Kateri Schrems has joined us and works at least 20 hours/week to keep the center in order, oversees all that happens there, and keeps track of donors. She’s a blessing! Now we wonder how we ever did without our center! We could still use other volunteers to help Sister Kateri or to fill in when she’s not there. All welcome. New Adventures Currently we are undertaking a “Baby Project.” We have noticed that many poor moms do not have essentials for their babies. Our hope is to help fill this gap. We’re collecting gently used baby clothes and baby items. Anyone is welcome to contribute or come to help assemble items into layettes. We did receive an anonymous private donation to help get this project up and running. Our second adventure, which you may have seen mentioned in the Saginaw News (Dec. 27) is launching a reading/story hour for pre-schoolers in the neighborhood. We’ve moved the start of this program to April as we wish to have training for those who want to be involved. Volunteers are needed to act as teacher’s aids. Call or email Carolyn Maksimowicz, 989 799-9282 or kttyk412@sbcglobal,net, if you are interested and willing. The time commitment, after training, would be about 2-3 hrs/wk, or if enough volunteers, maybe that amount once per month. Our little children need help. Help at the PumpMany thanks to all who have given us their gas points at Kroger’s. So far we have had enough points each month to qualify for 50˘ per gallon off the price of our gas. (purchased at Kroger’s). Anyone who shops at Kroger’s can help. Just press in our phone number, 989 295-1703 or 989 755-7538, at the register. Cashier will help if you’re uncertain. Again, thank you to those who’ve been pressing in our number. Thank you, too, to the anonymous donor who bought us some new gas cans, requested in our Nov. newsletter.
|
|
and/or Memorials
Email
|
