A great big THANK YOU to everyone who donated to St. John XXIII’s efforts to help Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina. To date, we have collected over $36,000 in cash!!! We have forwarded the money to Catholic Charities which runs the two Food Banks in Asheville, which service all of the counties in western North Carolina. In addition, thanks to everyone who gave the hundreds and hundreds of personal hygiene kits. The youth group alone put together over 200 kits. Lastly, I thank you for the HUGE outpouring of clothes and bedding that we received. The U-Haul trucks were filled by early afternoon. Thanks to the 20 volunteers who packed up the trucks at St. Francis. The ABCCM (Asheville Buncombe Christian Community Ministry) was so grateful to receive the donations from our parish.
I also want to apologize to the many people who took the time to collect clothing which we had to turn away because the trucks were already filled. I know this caused a lot of disappointment. We had no idea of the huge outpouring of generosity that would unfold. In the end, the parish sent three U-Haul trucks of clothing; it literally would have taken a semi-truck to take care of the many cars we had to turn away. Again, thank you for all of your efforts.
Finally, since our parish is so large and your generosity is so great, we would like to put together a committee to coordinate future outreach efforts from St. John XXIII Parish. It would include our response to natural disasters like a hurricane but it could also look at things like outreach to families at the holidays and other parish outreach in the community. I would see this committee meeting regularly throughout the year. People on the committee would above all need to possess a caring heart. Organizational skills would also be helpful. If you would like to be a part of such a committee or to share some ideas, please contact me at 724-941-9406, ext. 290.