Happy, Grateful New Year!

On this New Year's Day 2016, we want you to know how very grateful we are.  Hopefully, these photos from the end of 2015 will help us to share some of the reasons for our gratitude.

In the beginning of December, we were the recipients of the generosity of the students at Immaculate Heart Academy in Washington Township, NJ.  Not only did they donate what appeared to be a TON of diapers, wipes and baby food, but they gave HUNDREDS of dollars worth of gift cards, which we used toward our goal of providing our families with food for the Christmas season.  We are grateful to the IHA staff and student body, to Campus Minister Sarah Shutrop, and to Franciscan Sister of Peace Margaret Gaffikin, who was our "collaborative connector" to IHA.

Thank you, student body of IHA . . .

 

. . . for diapers and wipes . . .

. . . and for an abundance of baby food!

We are STILL grateful to the staff of the Paterson Diocesan Center!  Even before we opened our doors in 2013, they were faithfully responding to our needs.  Their generosity continues.  Not only were they the primary benefactors at our Christmas Boutique in November, but when they heard of our goal to provide food for our families this Christmas, they created a "Giving Tree."  Adding their abundant generosity to that of the students at IHA (mentioned above), we were able to provide supermarket gift cards for 55 families in Passaic this Christmas -- AND we have enough cards left over for emergency situations in the new year (which had been depleted prior to Christmas).

Thank you, staff of the Paterson Diocesan Center!
Your Giving Tree helped us to feed the hungry this Christmas!

Thank you to the women who visit the Passaic Neighborhood Center for Women each day.  The Center exists to serve you, but those of us who minister here receive so much from you.  Daily you remind us why we do what we do and how to be better at it.  You teach us so much about hospitality, especially when you provided us with a Christmas celebration!



The cake that our women provided for the Christmas celebration
they planned and carried out.

We are also grateful to our women who took a leadership role in our crocheting class.  Sister Mary Rose Mroz, SCC spent several weeks teaching our women to crochet.  When her ministry called Sister Mary Rose away from North Jersey, we started to look for a new instructor.   In the meantime, the women continued to attend class.  Sister Elaine Maguire, FSP, our Associate Director, watched over the class while the women decided what they wanted to make next, consulted with others as to how to go about making their next projects and instructed each other when they ran into problems.  While we are still seeking an instructor, we are edified by the perseverance of our women and their growth as leaders.

Gloria models the hat and scarf she crocheted.

The handiwork of the crochet class on display

 We are incredibly grateful for our new collaborative connection with St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ.  You might be familiar with the "Make a Difference" program from this article in the press.  In an effort to extend the Catholic mission of the healthcare system beyond charity care or subsidized health care, CEO Kevin Slavin tasked his executives to go out into the areas served by St. Joe's and . . . make a difference!  The Passaic Neighborhood Center for Women benefited from this initiative with donations of gifts and promises of future assistance. 

Sister Ann Marie, Director of the Center, receives
Christmas gifts from Deborah Hartel and John Hart,
executives at St. Joseph's Healthcare System.

While we cannot even begin to predict what 2016 will bring, we are grateful that the overwhelming generosity of our benefactors will continue.  It is so difficult to truly express how our collaborative connections have produced such abundant fruit and have made such a difference in Passaic.  This blog post -- lengthy as it is -- cannot even begin to scratch the surface of our gratitude.  To all who have had any connection to this ministry, we say:  "Thank you and God bless you!"  May your 2016 be filled with an abundance of graces.