The St. Mary's community made possible several Outreach successes in December. The first was the clothing drive, which attracted enough donations to fill a U-Haul van! These donations came from St. Mary’s parishioners and from the wider community thanks to some great work spreading the word outside of the church. These donations will go to common cathedral and other organizations for housing insecure people.
The second was the New Falls gift card drive. For the last several years, we’ve provided a gift card for every child at New Falls. This year, New Falls has 41 children living in the complex. This was a higher goal than prior years but St. Mary’s exceeded it! St. Mary’s parishioners donated over $1,100 in gift cards for our neighbors at New Falls. Thank you to everyone who participated for your generosity.
Third, the Outreach Committee and the Vestry approved $4,000 in end of year donations from the Outreach Fund with an extra boost provided by an end of year donation from a parishioner specifically for local food banks. St. Mary’s donated to food banks in Newton, Needham, Wellesley and Natick as well as donations for United Way Cafe, Rosie’s Place, common cathedral and Greater Boston Interfaith Organization.
Lastly, our church was able to collect and donate over 300 food items to the Wellesley Food Pantry and the Brookline Food Pantry. The donations also allowed us to put out all 288 luminarias around the church and up Concord Street on Christmas Eve. It was a beautiful display of light. A special thank you goes to Quebrada Baking Company in Wellesley – they donated all of the luminaria bags!