Outreach Update: October 2019

“The social fabric is not woven by leaders from above. It is woven at every level, through a million caring actions, from one person to another. It is woven by people fulfilling their roles as good friends, neighbors and citizens”.

- David Brooks, The Second Mountain

MINISTRY UPDATES:

St. Matthias Fellowship: Laura Swiggett reported that, despite very difficult circumstances in Haiti right now, St. Matthias School has begun the new school year with enrollment of almost 300 students, a substantial increase from last year and a very positive spirit. Pere Michaud, Priest-in-charge of St. Matthias, is in regular communication with Peter Charles and Heather Spehr, St. Matthias Fellowship Co-chairs as they continue to work on developing mutually defined goals for strengthening the school.

Community Food Council: The Blue Bag food collection program continues, with empty bags distributed to parishioners on the last Sunday of each month and collected with food donations on the first Sunday. Susie Fairchild then delivers the food to the Huntington Food Pantry, where it is distributed to neighbors in need. Susie needs volunteers to help deliver the food on November 3rd and 10th between 10am and 2pm. Please contact Laura Swiggett, [email protected], if you are available.

St. John’s Day Camp: Fifty-three children were enrolled this summer. The camp was very well organized and the children had a great experience. St. John’s Day Camp Chair, Kerith Freidberg, shared a slide presentation that highlighted volunteer visits, camp field trip to the Long Island Children’s Museum, and the fun picnic at St. John’s at season’s end. Laura also extended Kerith’s thanks to all who volunteered, and said that the town of Huntington greatly appreciates St. John’s Church’s on-going support of this essential program. Click to view the St. John's Day Camp 2019 video.

School Supplies Drive for Community Food Share: St. John’s parishioners generously responded to our fall school supplies drive. The supplies collected were distributed at the Huntington Food Share on Tuesday nights in September. Thanks to Ellen Hatch for organizing this very successful effort! We have several ideas for how we might do it even better next year, including starting earlier and structuring it in a way that accommodates the differing needs of students in each grade.

Winter Clothing Drive: Time to clean your closets! St. John’s will be holding a clothing drive on Sunday, November 3. Warm clothing, coats and blankets will be collected for distribution at the Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center in Wyandanch. Please bring your items to Bleecker Hall between 8 am - 1 pm that Sunday. We are looking for volunteers to help with collection that day, and also to help drive the clothes to Wyandanch on the morning of Monday, November 4. Please contact Laura Swiggett ([email protected]) if you are available to help.

St. John’s Blood Drive: Connie Olson organized another very well-run blood drive at St. John’s on September 30th. Twenty-three pints of blood were collected.

OUTREACH STEERING COMMITTEE UPDATES:

Laura Swiggett reported that the committee has been meeting regularly to work on program development and to discuss grant requests. They have also been making site visits to help us get to know our ministries more deeply. The internal listening campaign is on-going, and so far the conversations have been very rich and constructive. Laura noted that we will be conducting an Outreach Annual Appeal in late January to raise funds to support our ministries in 2020.

The Outreach Steering Committee also provided an overview 2019 Outreach activity:

Financial Grants: Thanks to the generous support of our parishioners, St. John’s was able to offer $64,450 in financial grants to support the work of the following organizations in 2019:

• Camp DeWolf (Episcopal Ministries of LI)
• Community Food Council
• Housing Help
• Early Steps to School Success, Kentucky (Save the Children)
• Eastern Farm Workers
• Episcopal Relief and Development
• Huntington Interfaith Homeless Initiative (Family Service League)
• Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center, Wyandanch
• Long Island Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods (LI-CAN) - Opioid Initiative
• LI-CAN Outreach Renewal Initiative
• Lockwood Preschool (Family Service League)
• Manor Field After-School Program (Family Service League)
• St. George’s Church Food Pantry, Hempstead
• St. John’s Day Camp
• St. Matthias School, Deslandes, Haiti
• Rift Valley Children’s Village (Tanzanian Children’s Fund)
• Youth and Family Counseling Agency (YFCA), Oyster Bay
• 9-1-1 Veterans

In-Kind Donations and Volunteer Support: St.John’s also supported the following organizations with in-kind gifts (such as donated school supplies, toys during the holidays etc.) and direct volunteer support (such as serving dinner to the homeless at HIHI):

• Camp DeWolfe
• Community Food Council
• Community Food Share (Community Solidarity)
• Housing Help
• HIHI
• Gerald Ryan Outreach Center
• LI-CAN
• St. John’s Blood Drive
• St. John’s Day Camp
• St. Matthias School, Haiti
• Martin Luther King Service Day
• Rift Valley Children’s Village
• Tri-Community Youth Agency (Tri-CYA)