Parishes, schools bring season of hope to others through service projects

By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
December 7, 2006

Local Catholics from all over the region are pitching in so all God’s children, especially those disadvantaged by poverty, may see Advent as a season of hope.

Churchgoers and students are donating new and used toys, in addition to basic necessities and food, to various charitable causes.

“That’s what we’re called to do as Christians,” said Audrey McIntosh, director of catechetical ministry at All Saints Parish in Mesa. “To take what we have and share it among the people in need.”

Parishioners pitch in

Among the myriad charitable and volunteer activities going on throughout the Phoenix Diocese, nearly two dozen parishioners at St. John Vianney in Sedona are getting ready to once again serve Christmas dinner to a Navajo community of St. Patrick’s Mission in New Mexico. This marks the eighth year making the three-and-a-half-hour journey.

“We go back into the faraway places where they don’t have any electricity or running water,” said parishioner Diana Valenzuela.

They also bring gifts including toys, blankets and coats donated — sometimes handmade — by parishioners. Valenzuela expects churchgoers to collect 150 gifts for the Navajo community.

Parishioners at All Saints in Mesa and St. Anne in Gilbert help the less fortunate through “giving trees.” These Christmas trees decorate the church and contain ornaments with names and ages of a child or family in need.

Churchgoers select an ornament to take home and return it with clothes, shoes or age-appropriate gifts for low-income families.

Child Protective Services and Catholic Charities Community Services distribute items donated by All Saints parishioners through the state-sponsored Family Builders program. McIntosh said the parish has names of 200 kids so far, but adults and teens also receive gifts.

The parish is in its sixth year of hosting a giving tree. McIntosh said Catholic Charities generally makes three to four pickups to collect all of the presents.

“All Saints parishioners are big givers,” she said.

Parishioners at St. Anne also serve the less fortunate in their community through Advent projects. A core group of 20 churchgoers organized the giving tree for parishioners to donate gifts for school-aged children.

Each recipient gets a complete outfit and a gift.

Parishioners also host a Christmas party for women and children in a domestic violence shelter and donate 450 Christmas stockings to neighboring children in need.

Students serve

Students at St. Louis the King School in Glendale get in the spirit by running food and clothing drives to benefit various groups. The eighth-grade students also sell Sonic gift cards to parishioners and the community. Proceeds allow them to adopt a family for Christmas.

Young men at Brophy College Preparatory are running two drives. The students partner with the state department of developmental disabilities to provide a Christmas meal and gifts for more than 50 families, while their turkey drive raises awareness about local and global hunger. Students collect funds to support local partners including the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Mary’s/Westside Food Bank Alliance, in addition to global partners in El Salvador, Jamaica, Honduras and Bolivia.

St. Thomas Aquinas students in Avondale donated thousands of canned goods to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and held a drive to benefit the Veterans’ Administration. They presented their gifts Dec. 6.

Eighth-graders at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Scottsdale made Christmas wreaths to sell at the “Light Up a Luminaria” celebration at Tempe Town Lake. Proceeds benefit Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, an organization founded by the late Fr. William Wasson to provide homes for orphaned children in Latin America.

In Glendale, Our Lady of Perpetual Help students donated clothing and toys for neighboring families. Fr. John Ebbesmier usually blesses the fire engine when the firefighters come to collect the gifts.

No matter who the recipient is, students and parishioners throughout the diocese open their hearts to service to give others a reason to hope throughout Advent.

“The blessing of life is being able to share with other people,” St. Anne parishioner Jennifer Barger said. “Advent opens that up beautifully.”