Caring for Each Other
Outreach
Lending a Hand...
The Outreach Ministries of St. Thomas Episcopal Church for 2018-19 include many partnerships – with St. Thomas School, our Youth Group, other churches, and established non-profits.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Outreach at St. Thomas offers opportunities for people with different time availabilities and different passions and interests. Find an outreach activity that appeals to you, and contact the person in charge to find how you can help. Thank you!
Wendy Coles, Coordinator of Outreach
Feed My Sheep at St. Thomas!
This summer, we at St. Thomas will be making 164 sandwiches twice a month for Feed My Sheep, a program that distributes meals to members of the homeless population living in downtown Miami. We seek 6 to 8 people to volunteer for about an hour on each date. Children, with parent supervision, are welcome to join the fun. Service hour credits are available for students. For more information please send an email to Elena Levis egurrilevis@gmail.com We give service hours!
Summer dates: June 3, 17 July 1, 15 August 5, 19
Chapman Partnership
Chapman Partnership provides emergency housing, meals, health care, day care, job training, and job placement. Monthly at the Downtown and at the Homestead facility, St. Thomas provides the cost of a meal and the volunteers to serve the meal. For dates and times to join us, email one of the contact people listed below. Volunteers are needed!
Contacts: Alejandro Ceron alejandrocerona@gmail.com
Joan Caron joancaron24@yahoo.comDowntown Miami: June 20 , July 8, Aug. 15
Homestead: June 3 , July 1, Aug. 5
St. Joan’s Guild of St. Thomas
St. Joan’s regularly collects toiletries, books, clothing, handmade items, children’s gifts, and other items for homeless people. The Knitting Group knits scarves for homeless people, and after the earthquake in Haiti, knitted hundreds of Comfort Dolls for children in Haiti. St. Joan’s also donates to food banks and to non-profits that serve needs in the community.
Contact: Susie Westbrook susiewestbrook@aol.com
Christmas Gifts for Babies
St. Thomas provides supplies and gifts for newborns to age 2 through the Jasmine Project, sponsored by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics and Healthy Start Coalition of Miami-Dade. Join in Christmas giving by taking a child’s name from the tree during late November or early December and providing a gift of $15 to $20.
Contact: Natalee Jenks neljenks@gmail.com
Holy Comforter Episcopal Church
Holy Comforter Episcopal Church and St. Thomas are sister parishes in Miami that have built a sustainable and lasting companionship in outreach ministries. In the heart of Little Havana, Holy Comforter offers a day care center for infants through age 6, a daily food distribution program for homeless people, and low-income senior housing. St. Thomas Parish – Church and School – have a long partnership in major outreach that responds to critical needs in that community. Food bags at Thanksgiving for the homeless people served by Holy Comforter, and food bags at Easter for the residents in Senior Housing are major projects supported by all ages at the church.
Contact: Elizabeth Bellande elibellande@gmail.com
Responding to Natural Disasters
After the December fires in California that devastated the town of Paradise, St. Thomas collected $2,500 for gift cards to the stores that had survived. The recipients were 11 families who were the staff at the veterinary clinic of the niece of Mother Dee deMontmollin, former associate rector of St. Thomas, and who had all lost their homes.
Caring for Haiti
Working parallel with the School in outreach to Haiti, the Church has raised funds for the summer leadership conference and for tuition scholarships for the Women and Girls Initiative in Haiti through coffee hour presentations and last year’s Shrove Tuesday Crepe Dinner. The Shrove Tuesday event in 2019 will once more donate all proceeds to empowering girls and women in Haiti’s most impoverished areas. Numerous volunteers are needed for the Shrove Tuesday fundraiser. For more information on our work with the Women and Girls Initiative in Haiti, click on the tab “Building Bridges in Haiti.”
Contacts:
Didi Bertrand-Farmer didihaiti@gmail.com
Joy McIntosh jmcintosh1216@gmail.com
Children’s Classes and Teens involved in Outreach
The First Communion Class brought canned goods for the bags going to Holy Comforter at Thanksgiving and participated in a discussion about how we can help people who can’t just open their refrigerator doors and find plenty of food.
In November, the Youth Group prepared bags of water and an energy bar to be handed to people on the streets who walk past the cars asking for money for food.
