St. Valentine Parish Council Meeting Minutes for September 20th, 2016

Kathy Parish Activities

In Attendance: Fr Henry, Fr Socorro, Lisa Alexander, Mary Anthony, Walt Bankowski, Dan Benard, Ron Fron, Anthony Janisse, Joe Kelly, Jeff Kramer, Rosemary Murphy Fox, Mike Nowak, Alan Pawlik, Allison Wright, Frank Zbikowski.

Old Business:

Church Picnic – Well attended.  Dish swap (A-Z) was a success. Cooks did a great job keeping up with the demand. Cleanup went smooth. Kids games were a hit.  50/50 raffle prize money was donated back to the church ($280).  Many positive comments about the DJ.

 New Business

Selection of New Officers – All candidates were re-elected for another term.  Dan Benard is Chair, Ron Fron is Vice Chair and Alan Pawlik is Recording Secretary.

New Fund Raiser to Replace Irish Fest – 70th Celebration to be toned down; held in the school gym & meeting room. Entertainment to be provided including a DJ. Tentative cost of $25 single/$40 couples.  Ideas for food/drinks included Polish food selections, micro brews, wine tasting.  Communication campaign will expand from bulletin to e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and Remind.

Fall Clean-up – Dan Benard to contact Eileen MacDonnell to set a date in late October.  Announcement to be placed in the Heartline.

Commissions

Pastoral Update – “Training of Ministries on 15-OCT-2016.  (4) parishioners chosen to attend: Lawrence Toth, Stephanie Toth, Colleen Masserang & Dan Benard. “Lay Leadership Formation Workshop” featuring Dr. Kuni Hathaway as speaker. Father Henry had his Green Card application accepted. Paperwork was missing for (3) months; Jan Dillon helped find the paperwork so it could be processed.

Christian Service – First meeting was held. Blanket Drive in October to benefit Salvation Army of Dearborn. Giving Tree – additional organization wants to be added: Mary’s Children.  Ok to add.

Finance – Quarterly meeting ahead in October. Bulletin notes our current revenue is trending down, but finances are stable with additional sources of income. $70K total Christmas collection last year. Full Financial Disclosure – requesting that Kathryn Potts prepare a statement and address the parish.

Worship – “Ministry Day” on 22-OCT-2016; ½ day session for all ministers.  Ad-hoc carpool pilgrimage to the “Holy Doors” at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on a weekday (no tours on Sundays). The rosary will be prayed after mass during the month of October. Next meeting will focus on planning for Advent.

Roundtable:

      Walt Bankowski presented a Dashboard” concept to track critical information the Parish Council wants to monitor. Since many of the items need data collection, we will begin filling it out with 2016 data.

Room Rental Fees were discussed; focus on the $100 insurance fee for the meeting room. It was determined this is a necessary fee.

 

Outcome of the “Mercy in Action Service Day”

Kathy Weekly message

As it was announced earlier we had the Mercy in Action day planned for October 8, 2016. After making calls to our home bound parish members, six of the families wanted help with some clean up in and around the house. We had a good response from our parish members who came forward to help and all had a very positive experience as they went about doing something different than usual on a Saturday morning.

 We gathered in the Church at 9.00 am, introduced ourselves, said a prayer together and were sent out to do their special ministry – in the mean time as our parish members were helping our home bound, I made it a point to visit them and I could see all smiles on those receiving help and those helping out. 

 Here are some thoughts of those who volunteered to help.

·         It went quicker than we thought.

·         It was fulfilling – wonderful way to show Christ’s love.

·         Enjoyed visiting with people whom we served.

·         We liked it so much that we promised the family that we would do  this again.

·         Was happy to do this for our parish member, got to know another family with whom we worked.

·         I am glad that the Church organized this day.

·         Terrific – it was really good – it was good for our children to roll up their sleeves and help those who needed help especially from our own parish.

·         It made them feel good – it inspired to seek out more service related projects.

Among the volunteers that helped there were four eighth graders from St. Valentine School that accompanied their parents. All four of them enjoyed doing their works and had fun. They were a little anxious before getting to the place, but once they got to know what they had to do they all enjoyed it. Now they are looking for more such opportunities.

 I am so happy that this worked out well – we had a good number of home bound in need and we had help that was just enough for all the projects. God also blessed us with good weather. Thanks to all those who said “let us go out and see how we can help our own parish members”. And thanks to Catholic Charities of South East Michigan (CCSEM) for bringing up this new idea in this Year of Mercy.

God Bless you all. 

Fr. Socorro