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Outreach
Committeee 2007
NYU CANTERBURY CLUB.
The Club continues to grow from forty to around sixty
students. Our job is cooking a home-made meal for them
once a month, including some vegetarian fare. Four or
five people from St. John’s take turns working
with the meal. The meal follows the Eucharist and encourages
fellowship.
FOOD BASKET. We still bring food on
Sundays and other special occasions for the Michael
Fender Food Pantry at the Church of the Ascension. Some
pantries in the city are low on food. With our current
financial problems, we should emphasize the food pantry
more. The pantry at Ascension distributes food twice
a week.
DISASTER RESPONSE. We also keep abreast
of local, national, and global disasters and report
ways that we can be of help.
AIDS WALK. For the fourth year in a
row, St. John’s has participated in the annual
AIDS WALK on May 20, 2007. The ERA (Episcopal Response
to AIDS) raised $49,000 (more expected to come). St.
John’s donated $2,500, but earlier gave $1,300
to help with ERA expenses. This year set a record for
the number of walkers – 176 from 17 parishes from
the Dioceses of New York, Long Island, and Newark. The
goal is to raise $100,000 annually from twenty parishes.
St. John’s had four walkers and ten donors.
CHRISTMAS CAROLING. Twelve of us, including
a chorister, sang carols at the Village Nursing Home
on Thursday, December 20th. Some of the residents sang
along and some made requests. Afterwards, we were invited
to the rectory for hot chocolate and cookies. Jimmy
Lou was glad to see us. (Remember, we still need volunteers
to bring Jimmy Lou to church in his wheelchair. We may
need other volunteers in the future.) In addition, we
give cards to the residents on holidays, the next is
Valentine’s Day.
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. We invite the children
from Blaine Hall at the Foundling for activities on
Christian holidays and other occasions. The next will
be around Easter. For the last party, Foundling expressed
its appreciation to St. John’s for adopting the
“beautiful children from Blaine Hall who need
love and support and care”.
STREET YOUTH THEATER WORKSHOP:. 2007
was the fifth year of the St, John’s in the Village
Street Youth Theater program for LGBT youth between
the ages of 13 to 21. The purpose of this program is
to provide a place where these youth can feel accepted,
build self-confidence, and develop new methods, through
theater, of self-expression.The program is under the
leadership of Max Shulman, and Anthony Nelson, with
a weekly attendance from one or two, to twelve or fifteen.
Both Max and Anthony have a rich experience in theater,
including working with children, and adolescents from
various environments. They incorporate meditation, improvisations,
monologues, theater games, creative writing, and speech
development while working with the group. In December,
Max participated in a show in Fort Myers, FA, and Anthony
participated in a show in Washington, DC. Lucille Scott,
Arjun Jakimur, and MacAdam Smith served as replacements
for Max and Anthony for a three-week period.
The program volunteers from St. John’s are Charles
(Charlie) Krupo, Richard Lipscomb, and Vestry member
Jeanne Sutton who’s primary responsibilities are
to set up for the Tuesday evening activities, and make
sure the youth show the proper respect for the Church,
and each other.
Weekly entertainment during the summer months for this
group is always a movie. This year the members of the
group present for that evening’s activity selected
the movie for the evening with Charlie’s approval.
At the Annual Christmas Dinner, the youth and parishioners
did a reading of “A Child’s Christmas in
Wales”, before the dinner. The participating youth
in the reading were Roy Felson and Zukre Romero. The
gift this year to the youth was a $20.00 Gift Certificate
from Old Navy. The supper was a potluck home-cooked
meal provided by members of St. John’s In The
Village Church.
Monies for food, gifts, Max and Anthony are from a Grant
provided by Christ and St. Stephen’s Church. We
would like to give a special thank you to the members
of St. John’s for the money, food, and support
given to our program during the year 2007.
OTHER ACTIVITIES . Each member of the Outreach
Committee chose one group or activity to write a report
for the “Messenger”. We want to give support
and keep parishioners aware of what is happening. For
volunteers, there is a sign-up list for anyone interested
in the activity named. For Ignatius Soup Kitchen, see
Stuart Brier for details.
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