Circle of Associates Unites Parish to Support Young Moms
by Marge Beymer & Diana Davenport
The Walking with Moms in Need Committee of our Circle of Redemptorist Associates at Our Lady of the Desert joined the Christ Child Society of Tucson to host a “Baby Shower” on April 26 so that we could gather supplies and raise funds for the Teenage Parent High School of the Tucson Public School System, and for the many young children Christ Child helps each year. These young people often come from poor or unstable families, and need all the help they can get to raise their children to be responsible, productive adults.
A group of women from these organizations met for several months before the event to plan and prepare. We decorated umbrellas for our Wish Tree, packed up party favors, got decorations ready, tried out our OH! Baby Bingo game, and finally assigned jobs to everyone for the day of the event.
We spoke about the Baby Shower from the pulpit for two weeks, and our parishioners quickly took most of the umbrellas. We offered a raffle ticket chance on a $100 Visa gift card for each box of diapers brought to the event because Christ Child had a special need for sizes 1 and 2 diapers.
After a beautiful opening prayer from Fr. Brian Johnson, who introduced us to this project, Sarah Deurloo, the Teenage Parent High School Social Worker, told us about her school. Students are provided with a safe, loving environment while they care for their babies and complete their high school education. Parents are linked up with all the agencies in our city that can help them take care of their babies, and are provided with college and career counseling.
Christ Child Society and Walking with Moms in Need have worked with the school for the last two years to help with items needed, funds and services for the students and their babies. The purpose of this event was to provide additional funds and supplies for the students, and send them off on the last day of school with a bag of supplies to help them through the summer. After Sarah spoke, we invited everyone to enjoy some snacks from our snack table, and take a seat at one of the Oh Baby! Bingo tables. We also had a 50-50 Raffle, an opportunity to guess the number of pacifiers in our large container, and the drawing for the Visa gift card for those who brought a box of diapers. The ladies of the Marana Lions Club brought us a very generous contribution of cash and baby supplies.
We received over $1100 cash and checks from this event, as well as an entire room full of needed supplies for Christ Child and TAPHS. Many thanks to Fr. Paul Coury for allowing us to store our items at the Desert House property, and a most special thanks to our incredibly generous parish for making a huge difference in the lives of our young
Are you wishing to deepen your prayer life this sumer? Get our free mobile prayer app based on St. Alphonsus method of mental prayer.
