St. John's Episcopal Church

Outreach at St. John’s

Many people at St. John’s feel passionately about helping not just our parish community, but also the broader community in which we live. St. John’s parishioners reach out to others near and far, whether it’s helping people in Westchester through A-Home and the Food Panty, people in New York through The Midnight Run or people as far away as Tanzania with Carpenter’s Kids!

Ongoing activities, each of whom has a Champion leading it up, include:

The Midnight Run www.midnightrun.org
Brenda Lawler is St. John’s “champion” and coordinator of our Midnight Run efforts. Under her leadership St. John’s sends food and participants on the Run four times a year. She has a dedicated group of kitchen helpers who cook up the hot food that is taken on the Midnight Run and a spontaneous group of “sandwich makers & baggers” who help pack up sandwiches on the day of the Run. Brenda sorts through the donations left in the Midnight Run box in the church, and coordinates the Annual Sox Drive, now in its 12th year. During the 2006 Sox Drive she collected approximately 300 pairs of new sox for the Midnight Run. St. John’s has been participating in the Midnight Run for 17 years.

Toys for Tots
Drew McFadden coordinates St. John’s participation in the Toys for Tots collection each Christmas. Drew says “Thank you St. Johns, for helping make Christmas a happy occasion for a goodly number of poor kids here in Westchester.” In 2006 St. John’s collected over 30 very fine presents, which were given to Neighbors Link and the Cottage School. Many of the presents were for teens, including several gift cards and lots of electronics. St. John’s is one of very few churches that collect for Toys for Tots.

Back-to-School Book Bag Project
Lynn Russell coordinates the annual book bag project that supplies book bags (backpacks) and school supplies to students in Ossining, Pleasantville, and some of the A-Home residences. During 2006 we collected approximately 30 backpacks.

A-Home Christmas Presents www.a-homehousing.org
Rosemary Carlough and Lynn Russell coordinated Christmas Presents for single parent families living in one of the A-Home houses in Westchester for Christmas 2006. Many St. John’s parishioners generously contributed gifts and gift-certificates so that we could supply the items on the residents “wish list”.

Pleasantville Food Pantry
Monica Augustine loads up her car each Sunday and delivers St. John’s donations to the Interfaith Emergency Food Pantry of Pleasantville. The food pantry collection baskets are in the back of the church every Sunday for donations of non-perishable items.

Carpenter’s Kids http://www.dioceseny.org
Lauren Salminen of St. John’s is not only a parishioner, but one of the leaders of Carpenter’s Kids, a partnership between the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika and the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

"Carpenter's Kids" are Tanzanian HIV/AIDs orphans and other vulnerable children who are selected after screening by their parishes. The aim of the program is to ensure that each child receives a school uniform, a pair of shoes, breakfast every morning, and adequate school supplies to enable them to attend primary school.

Help support Carpenter’s Kids when you buy coffee. Check out: www.sweetunityfarms.com and on the check-out page use Coupon Code CKNY01. A portion of each sale goes directly to support The Carpenter’s Kids. Sweet Unity Farms is a cooperative of over 300 small-scale farmers founded by David Robinson, son of baseball great Jackie Robinson. The coffee cooperative is located in the southern highlands of Tanzania, East Africa. The 100% Tanzanian coffee is what the New York Times calls the “Cabernet of Coffee”.