Hi, Everyone.
Well, I wanted to post something a little bit positive. So, I want to tell you about something I managed to get done, with a LOT of help from my friends. And my favorite priest. :)
Back in November, a tragedy occurred. A member of my parish was run down by a 28 year old, uninsured motorist, high on marijuana. She was left for dead.
Her husband, is a Volunteer Fireman and he was the one that responded to the call. Can you imagine?
I will never forget the Thursday morning in November, after mass, in the Chapel that my Pastor told us of the accident.
Tragically, she passed away in December after many surgeries. Her life was taken, cut too short, and her presence is deeply missed.
Her medical bills were astronomical. She was not killed on her property or in her vehicle. She was killed doing the thing she loved to do, walking her dog.
I went to the Visitation, and oddly, as I knelt down to pray, my mind was distracted. I heard this voice. (No, I am not prone to hearing voices....yet.) But this voice in my head said, "This is so wrong, you must do something". And I thought to myself, "Sheila, this lady is dead, there is nothing you can do".
The next morning, as I was working the funeral luncheon, a friend of mine, who is 15 years old, came to me and asked me to help him Co-Chair a Benefit dinner to raise money to help with the cost of her medical bills. Naturally, I said, "Yes".
So, that very evening, he and I sat down, and made lists of our ideas. He put them on a Power Point.
I went to my Pastor with the idea, and met with some reluctance. I was puzzled by it, to say the least. But, I sat down and talked with him and asked him, "Isn't it enough that she died such a tragic death? Isn't that enough for her family to suffer? I was raised to believe when one of our brothers or sisters are in need, we are meant to sacrifice help them."
So, he gave me permission to present the idea to my Parish Life Commission. They were all over the idea! In less than an hour, we had 6 committees drawn up, with lists of everyone volunteering. My young friend went to all the other 5 commissions, recruiting people to sign up to volunteer.
One of our members cousins is quite well off, and he paid 99.75% of our expenses and everything else was donated.
Within 6 weeks, we had the Benefit Dinner, and we made over $5,000. pure profit.
I learned at the end of the Benefit Dinner, my Pastors earlier reluctance. He said he has always had problems with getting the people here to complete things, but when he attended my 1st two meetings, he saw that I had the help I needed, and knew it would get done.
It not only helped this family financially, but they learned just how much their Parish Family loves them.
Sheila