The Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist

Outreach Luncheon – WE NEED YOU! ! !   February 25, 2012
We need you! The Outreach Luncheon is held each month, the last Saturday of the month in Memorial Hall for those in need of a warm meal and even warmer conversation and interaction. If you can help in the kitchen, bring something for the meal, assist with set-up or clean-up, or more importantly, be here to be part of the meal and community, we need you! Literally, everyone is welcome! Contact the church office, Lisa Alexander or Cindy Strampe for more information and details. 

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 Help Warm Our Neighbors – with Soup and Sweaters!

We are collecting your gently used sweaters to help warm our neighbors.  Along with that, we are collecting soup! 

Bring your donations of soup and sweaters to Memorial Hall. 

Thank you for your generosity!

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 Storefront alternative high school and St John’s have a history of working together for senior high students. 
Now, we have a new opportunity. 
Storefront has created a small pantry in the school, together with sandwich station (pb and j sandwiches only). 
They have asked us if we would help them stock their pantry (students are asked to pay a small amount for items),
as well as the peanut butter and jelly, together with money for bread. 
We will have baskets identified for Storefront,
as well as cans for financial donations,
placed in the church and Memorial hall.

Here is a shopping list for Storefront: 
–snack size bags of chips
–candy bars and candy (not snack size) – Snickers, Milky Way, Salted Nutbars, Twix, etc.  Starbursts, Skittles
–beef or jerky strips in small packages
–ravioli, spaghetti, spaghetti cups (the kind that go directly into the microwave)
–ramen (cup of soup) in chicken and beef (that go directly into the microwave)
–macroni and cheese cups that are microwavable
–peanut butter and jelly
 

It’s that time of year! 
The Socks for Our Town collection was a great success.  We collected over 200 pairs of socks this year! The socks were distributed from the Salvation Army and Neighbors’ Place during the Christmas season.    Imagine being without socks during our Wisconsin winters!   Thank you for your participation  ! ! !

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The “Giving Clean” project by the Neighbor’s Place is a student and volunteer-directed project to obtain needed, basic personal care products for those less fortunate in our community.  There is a box and list of items that are needed in Memorial Hall. 
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 We have been asked to be a site for the collection of used clothing.  The project is through TIP (Treatment Instead of Prison), and is focused on providing some basic clothing for inmates released from our local jail.  Inmates are usually released at 5:30 am, and may have only the clothes that they had when they were picked up.  This might mean being released in the winter with only shorts, t-shirts and sandals, because they have been in jail for several months.  Please look through your clothes.  Possibly you could donate some pants or shirts, sweatshirt or winter coat?  Maybe some shoes?  Collection boxes are being placed in several congregations around the community including St John’s, with a distribution site near St Paul’s UCC (which is across the street from the jail and where newly released people often go first to ask for help).  Thanks!  Bring any clothing to Memorial Hall and it will be delivered to St. Paul’s.
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REMEMBER the food pantries!
The Salvation Army, Neighbor’s Place and First Presbyterian Church all provide food for our neighbors who simply cannot stretch their own budgets far enough. When you shop, please pick up something extra to place in the food basket. Thank you!
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The Women’s Community is looking for: coffee makers, alarm clocks, table lamps, bed sheets. They can always use new items as well: shampoo, soap, laundry soap, dryer sheets, cleaning supplies, gas cards, bus tokens. Please consider helping out The Women’s Community!
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Discretionary Fund
There is a constant demand for the number of requests for assistance. If you are able, please consider making a financial contribution to the Discretionary Fund so that St. John’s can continue to assist our fellow community members.