Each year since our beginning in 1996, the parish of St. Mark's has sought to support the families of Porter as well as others. For 15+ years we would also shop each year for the residents of DePalmer House and other group homes of those suffering from AIDS. All of these initiatives drew on the generosity of parishioners. We assembled a team of folks, armed with shopping lists, to comb the Camillus Wal Mart and find appropriate gifts for as many as 45 individuals and their families. In recent years, this became untenable for economic and manpower reasons and we decided to refocus on our Porter community.
This year, given the constraints of the COVID pandemic as well as the success (30 gift cards) of our Thanksgiving dinner basket gift card campaign, we have decided to instead provide select Porter families with an 8-10-pound spiral ham. The families are determined by the social worker and nurse. We are using our CNY Food Bank Food $en$e program as these hams are on the December Specials List. They will be delivered along with the regular Food $en$e orders on Wednesday, December 16th. The Porter staff will undertake the delivery of the hams which will come with a special Christmas message from us.
We invite you to contribute to this Christmas outreach. The cost of each ham is $21.00. The number we provide will be determined by money raised. We have also invited the Porter staff to join us in this venture. Donations of ANY amount may be sent to the church in a check earmarked HAM! We will need these by December 6th, which is the last open day of Food $en$e ordering for December.
God bless you as we enter the Advent Season reflecting on what 2020 has taught us and preparing to welcome Christ into our hearts and community once again.