Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Once again, we find ourselves embarking on another Grand Annual Appeal for our parish family. This past year has seen great growth at St. Mary’s. Many of the long-standing programs thrived in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdown. Also, during this time, the parish witnessed the formation of many new programs that have greatly enriched our parish. One program to highlight is the Young Adult Group. The group started with three young adults desiring to pray the Rosary together during the pandemic. That quickly grew into some forty young adults coming every Tuesday for Holy Mass, the Rosary, and group discussions. Also, they go every third Saturday into Boston to minister to our homeless brothers and sisters. From this group have come two marriage proposals, a vocation to the priesthood, and a vocation to a woman’s religious order.
Keeping with that momentum, I would like to announce that the Parish Grand Annual Appeal will take place on Saturday, October 30th and Sunday, October 31st. Last year, we set the Appeal goal at $75,000 in order to be sensitive to the financial burdens placed on our parishioners by the pandemic. As usual, through your extraordinary generosity, we exceeded that goal! With this in mind, I would like to set our goal this year to the original amount of $100,000 for the following needs:
- Repair of the front stairs of the Church, replacement of the wrought iron railings, and complete restoration of the Church pavilion. The estimated cost is $70,000.
- Allocation of $20,000 to the parish cemetery for maintenance and general improvement projects.
- Allocation of $10,000 to establish a fund for repairs to the parish stained-glass windows.
As always, I ask you to give what your means allow and be mindful that 100% of your Grand Annual gift stays in the parish.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Wayne