Stewardship Minutes

Stewardship Talk 8/14/05
Ways & Means Committee
Fall Festival Raffle

Hello, I’m Jim Hagerty, and I’ve been a parishioner for 5 years since moving to Virginia Beach from Seattle. One weekend, after going from table to table at one of the stewardship weekends in the Social Hall, I decided to check out the Ways & Means Committee. I attended a meeting and learned of its mission to annually raise about $50,000 to support the ministries of St. Nicholas. Its fundraising events include the Raffle, the Fall Festival, the Mardi Gras auction, and the golf tournament. These seemed like good opportunities to participate in stewardship.

I’m glad to have this chance to say a few words today, as this year’s Raffle is about to take place. This is our biggest fundraising opportunity of the year, and will determine our success in reaching the current year’s goal. The raffle drawing takes place the same day as the Fall Festival on Saturday, October 1.

Information about the raffle and the tickets themselves will be in envelopes addressed to parishioners, in alphabetical order, and available for pickup in the social hall over the next two weekends. Even if you’re not sure about buying tickets, please pick your envelope up, and maybe a neighbor’s envelope too as so many are on vacation this time of year. Last year, envelopes that were not picked up were hand-delivered by a crew of about 50 volunteers. We divided the parish up into neighborhoods and then found someone within each of these neighborhoods to hang the envelopes on doorknobs. Just one more opportunity for stewardship!

Please check out the details of this year’s raffle in the bulletin, and please think of this as just one more opportunity for all of us to participate in stewardship. Tossie Shaw is heading up the raffle this year. I will be assisting her, and we invite all of our regular volunteers back to join in making this the best raffle yet. I’ll be in the commons after mass if you have any questions.