This weekend we have reason to
celebrate! We have surpassed our “Faithful To Our Mission” capital campaign
goal of $4,000,000.00. Currently we are at $4,287,108. WAY TO GO!
This was not an easy task, and it
is quite a significant accomplishment. My sincerest gratitude to all who worked
so hard on this campaign, to all who care enough about this parish to
contribute so generously, and to all who kept the prayers coming for our
success. This is a great day for St.
Austin Catholic Church. THANKS!
On April 21st we had
the final report of the professional fund-raisers, The Steier Group. They were
impressed with our success. We spoke about the parish’s generosity, and how
much money was raised (they were a little skeptical we would make our goal,
which was ambitious). But we also talked about some of the other benefits of
the campaign that are not measured in dollars. And they are significant too.
One benefit was updating of our
database. By sending letters and calling all of our registered parishioners we
found plenty of people who had moved, or moved away, or who changed their phone
number, etc. This updated information is most valuable to us in staying in
touch with our parishioners. So that was a big plus.
Another less tangible benefit was
the interaction between parishioners. Several of the campaign workers spoke of
how enjoyable it was to visit other parishioners who they knew only slightly,
see their home, find out about them, put a face with a name. I know that Fr.
René and I visited one of our parishioners who had been wanting to have us over
but never got to it. This campaign provided the perfect opportunity for us to
visit and we had a most enjoyable time. So that was certainly a benefit of the
campaign.
Fr. Bob tells of another such
story. An elderly gentleman who has been in the parish since the 1950’s, but no
longer can attend, sort of fell off the radar of the parish. With all that goes
on around here it is, unfortunately, the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. One
of our campaign volunteers called this gentleman, found out about his
situation, and passed it on to Fr. Bob. Fr Bob visited him bringing him Holy
Communion and arranging for him to be visited regularly. The man had been
receiving our bulleting weekly, but we never knew he was not attending church. So now he is more fully connected to the
parish. And that is a great benefit of the campaign. If you know of someone who
has not been able to attend Mass here, please let us know. Better we hear about
it three times than not at all.
Finally at the campaign workers
meeting we addressed the issue of the light on the top of the tower. We are now
at the point in the design process that some decisions need to be made. By
overwhelming consent the campaign workers decided we should have the lantern
top on the tower to give us greater visibility at night. Unless it causes huge
problems with cost or permits, we will have it.
Thank you all!
God bless,
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