Thank you for your Gifts of Love!!
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The giving spirit of our faith community continues to amaze! The generosity of our parish community is truly heart-warming. More than 220 local families were sponsored, along with 89 women from Mt. St. Joseph. We were also able to supply Mother of the Americas (formerly Our Lady of Tepeyac) with an abundance of gift cards, toys and other donated items. We were also able to provide gift cards to Holy Family in Waukegan, Mt. St. Joseph and Little Sisters of the Poor.
A shout out to the following:
Lake Zurich High School National Honor Society sponsored 10 families (50 people) this year. This is the 22nd year that they have participated.
Students in the Religious Education program assisted in the collection of gifts that parishioners dropped off on Friday and Saturday of Drop-off weekend.
Girl Scout Troop 1728 oversaw a Girl Scout event that drew Girl Scouts in the Lake Zurich Service Unit. Over 100 pairs of pajamas were collected and donated to the Gift of Love and Mother of the Americas.
Since 2005, Boy Scout Troop 309 at St. Francis has taken on a bicycle rehabilitation program. They collect and repair donated bicycles and then give them to Gift of Love to distribute to the adults and children who ask for bikes for Christmas. This year they repaired and donated more than 25 bikes to the Gift of Love families and additional bikes will be provided to Mother of the Americas.
Over 125 new toys and games were donated by the St. Francis School students through their annual toy fundraiser.
Other volunteers helped with shopping, sign-up weekends, sorting gifts, delivering the gift bags to Mt. St. Joseph and helping with the drop off weekend.
Once again, the Ministry Center and maintenance staff considerate to all requests. The Gift of Love program could not succeed without them.
You may have heard the expression “it takes a village”. What it really takes is a parish like St. Francis.
With sincerest gratitude,
Melissa Larson
Gift of Love Coordinator