WHY PARTNER WITH US? A
WHY PARTNER WITH US? A parish partner helped Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel in Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria. YOU’LL SEE THE RESULTS. The partnership won’t end once you’ve made your gift. We’ll share updates, stories and photos. It’s a moving experience to see how much your gifts can do, and how grateful the people you help will be. ENGAGE THE CHILDREN IN YOUR PARISH. Schools can join a larger parish project, or take on one of their own. In fact, a number of the missions we support specifically serve children, including: • Summer Camps • Youth Centers • Sisters’ Ministries It may be most meaningful to let the students discuss several projects and choose one that they feel moved to take part in. It’s up to you and your parish leadership. These relationships between Catholic Extension and the ministries that need support is what makes the difference between “helping” and “serving.” Melissa Howlett, director of religious education at a Chicago-area parish, said it’s the difference between “coming out, meeting people, being with people … as opposed to coming with our own agenda.” “Catholic Extension does such a good job seeing who’s already there, working hard, and investing in those people,” she said. With the support from this parish, a “literacy wagon” program is fighting summer learning loss among the children of migrant farmworkers in the Yakima Valley in Washington State. Read the full story at catholicextension.org/literacy-wagon. PARTNERSHIP IN ACTION Tampa-area parish paid it forward to rural mission churches As part of its sharing parish program, a Tampa-area parish “paid it forward” to rural, isolated mission churches in Mississippi. The Tampa-area parish benefited from a Catholic Extension grant years ago, and they wanted to find a parish who was in need, as they had once been. The pastor said the parish needed to remember those remote parish communities that need help now more than ever. The mission churches in Mississippi are extremely grateful. In a letter to the parish, Father Richard Wagner wrote, “Our gratitude extends itself to you and your parishioners, as well as to the Extension Society and our own Diocese. May the Little Flower shine on both of us and on all our members.”
