HOLIDAY DONATION DRIVE A SUCCESS!

JANUARY 2017

St. Margaret’s has done it again! For the sixth year in a row, parishioners opened their hearts to needy families identified by the social work department in the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District. This year we had 12 families who needed help.

On behalf of the Outreach committee I am very excited to share that we raised $5,600, the largest amount ever! This enabled us to provide gift cards for food, clothing, gas and incidentals to all 12 families. The gifts cards were packaged and presented to the JFK High School social workers in time to be distributed to the families before the holidays.

Special thanks to all who contributed and made this year’s Holiday Drive a smashing success!

~ Debbie McGee, Outreach Co-chair

DECEMBER 2016

St. Margaret’s Church is now in its 6th year of working with the Plainview/Old Bethpage community by collecting financial donations to help needy families in the POB school district. This year, we ask for your generous financial support once again. Financial donations collected on Nov. 27, Dec. 4 and Dec. 11 (Sundays) will be used to purchase some specifically requested items, plus gift cards for food, gas and local stores such as Target, Sears and Walmart. Someone will be at the back of the church at the end of each service to collect your donations in cash or a check made payable to St. Margaret’s Church with “Local Family Outreach” in the memo. A list of 13 families – our biggest ever – was put together by the high school social worker and her teams at the two middle schools and all the elementary schools. We will be telling you about some of these families’ situations each Sunday as we ask for donations. A poster in the Narthex will also detail their stories. Following is just a sample of two of the families we are looking to help:

Family #3 is the “Z” Family consisting of a boy in 3rd grade, a girl in 2nd grade and the mom. Sadly, the dad passed away last year from cancer. The mom is now a single parent dealing with grief and currently not working. The school nurse explained that Mrs. Z was greatly appreciative of our offer of some assistance and said it would lift the children’s spirits during the holidays and through this very difficult time. A gift card to Toys R Us or Target so the kids could pick out something for themselves would be great. Perhaps a gift card to a local ShopRite would also be helpful to have for household items and groceries.

Family #4 is the “M” Family. Two children attend Pasadena Elementary – the girl in 4th grade and the boy in 1st grade. The family is experiencing financial hardship, and the son is also experiencing serious school difficulties. They expressed that a gift card to a store like Target where they can get clothes and/or toys for the children would be most helpful. Both of these students receive free lunch in school.

There are 11 other families – each experiencing difficulty and a sense of hopelessness around the holidays. So please help us give a Christmas miracle to each one of these families.

Thank you!

~ The St. Margaret’s Outreach Committee