July 31, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Last weekend we had our Annual Human Needs Garage Sale.  The proceeds from the garage sale provide financial assistance to the less fortunate in our parish and community.  Special thanks to Mary Parizek leading our Human Needs Group and all our wonderful volunteers for making this possible.  There are quite a few volunteers together with Mary Parizek who have been volunteering since the beginnings of the Garage Sale – spending countless hours and making time so that the material needs of the less fortunate in our parish and community can be met.  This was our 44th Garage Sale.  Words cannot express my gratitude for all they have done.

We are less than 3 weeks before we begin our new School Year on August 17.  A lot of preparations have been made through the summer to make this possible.  This includes updates in our School Building and programs in our School.  We currently have 85 students registered in our Pre School and 521 students registered in K-8. This is the largest number of students we have registered for the last 10 years.

Jeff Forman, our Religious Education Director, tendered his resignation at the end of May.  He continued to assist in some of our Summer Programs for our youth for the months of June and July.  We would like to thank Jeff for his services in our Parish and wish him well on his future endeavors.  With Jeff’s departure, we took the time this summer to reevaluate our Religious Education Program in light of our Archdiocese Pastoral Planning that involves St John Vianney.  At this time, we have shelved our Family Faith Formation Program as few families have registered for this program.  We will continue to have our traditional CCD program together with our Programs for Sacramental Preparation (First Confessions and Communion – 2nd Grade; and Confirmation – 7 & 8 Grades).  We will also continue to build up our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Program that we started 2 years ago. I have asked Fr Mario to head our Religious Education Program for this year.  Meanwhile, we have since hired Hannah Casey as our Religious Education Secretary as well as our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd coordinator.  Kindly contact Fr Mario or Hannah should you have any questions.

This summer continues to be a busy summer as we continue to make improvements on our campus to meet our future needs so that we can continue to be a place where faith is shared and grown.  This includes the Grotto for Mary, an outdoor Classroom for our students, the renovation of the Cafeteria Restrooms and the replacement of the hot water piping in our lower level – west wing of our school and more.  I will provide an update on the improvements that we continue to make.

I spoke about our financials in my Pastor’s Column a few weeks ago. We concluded our financial year at the end June.  To help us meet budget, Mary Our Queen introduced a Bridge the Gap campaign.  This will help us continue to offer the quality programs in  our Parish and school.  We were a little more than 9% off our budget or around $160,000 short, our last financial year.  We are grateful for all who contributed to our Bridge the Gap campaign where we raised around $41,000 that help offset our budget shortfall.  Donations are still being accepted.  If you are able to help us bridge the gap for our last financial year in support of our strong Catholic Faith programs in our Parish and School, I would like to thank you in advance for your support to Mary Our Queen.  Your tax-deductible donation to the annual Bridge the Gap campaign will go a long way to help us close this gap in funding.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc