(from Summer 2002 Nativity Tidings)
What our ECW did this past year
We began visiting two local nursing homes, taking magazines and, at
Christmas, a carload of gifts. We sent volunteers to sit with a disabled member of the
parish one afternoon a week, so her caretaker could shop and run errands. We
spring-cleaned the church kitchen. Our Bandage Brigade converted old sheets into many
pounds of neatly-rolled bandages and paid to have them sent to a hospital in Haiti. We
gave money to Sarasota Council of Concern, which provides layettes for needy newborns, and
also gave them baby gifts brought to the Mother-Daughter Luncheon. Our Quilting Sisters
worked on a quilt which will be sold to benefit the church. We packed 86 Christmas
Shoeboxes for overseas children, and gave Samaritan's Purse $5 with each. We collected 23,
774 pennies for the CPC.
We provided a happy Christmas for two local families: each received a
carload of wrapped gifts that included useful items as well as toys, plus a gift
certificate for groceries. We helped the Diocesan ECW buy Spanish-language prayer books
for churches in the Dominican Republic, and we gave a scholarship for a child to attend
school there. We gave money to the Saras Howell Memorial Fund, to Agape Flights, to
Resurrection House, to the Manatee Community College Chaplaincy, and to the Christian
radio station WSMR. We gave grants to two young people in our church who are attending
college. We gave money to All Faiths Food Bank and also collected barrels of nonperishable
food and household supplies for them. In all, our ECW gave almost $3,000 to good causes,
BUT that total does not include the value of the gifts mentioned above, which were all
purchased and donated by individuals.
"Lord, teach me to use the gifts and talents that you have
given to me. Help me to do for others, rather than wait for things to be done for me. Give
me the wisdom to know what to do and when. Amen."
See previous ECW notes:
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