SOL October ’15 Meeting Minutes - (Happy reading – It’s a long one!)
Present: Dan, Elva, Marilyn, John & Karen, Carmen, Joe and Jerry
Dan opened with Jim’s beautiful prayer from the last meeting.
Baby bottles – The money is still not entirely counted. The collection is estimated to be about $5,000. There were so many coins that using CTR’s coin machine would overwhelm it. Mauricio has been taking coins to the bank. Dan will ask Father Pat if we can volunteer to help count the coins. Tuesday and/or Thursday of next week – October 13/15 are target dates. Dan, Elva Carmen and Jerry have volunteered. Dan will check with Father Pat and Mauricio to see if they are near a completion date and if they could use the help. Marilyn will followup with Dawn and Elaine of Birthright to learn more about counting and let them know our status about money and bottles collected. She will ask how other churches manage their donations.
Morning of Recollection is this Saturday, October 10 at St. Charles Borromeo, 3304 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201. Mass will be held at the church 9:00 a.m. The recollection will be held from 10:00 a.m until 2 p.m in the school cafeteria. It will be led by Sister Clare. Coffee, muffins and lunch will be provided. The cost is $12 and can be payed upon arrival. Cash or check (made out to St. Charles Borromeo). Elizabeth Spoth is looking for an attendee from each parish to give a brief talk about how/why they got involved in the RTL movement in their parish. Think about your response and consider being CTR’s representative.
Carpooling will be available from CTR. Be at the front entrance at the church between 8:00 and 8:10 a.m. Attendees going are – Jim, Dan & Diane, Jerry, Sue(?), Elva and Joe.
The Fall 40 Days for Life has begun and ends November 1. The praying continues at the Planned Parenthood facility near the Falls Church clinic as well as at the clinic itself. There is also a vigil at St. James every Saturday. Please consider participating by signing up on the website – Diane gave bulletin announcements to Donna for Oct. 18 and 25 announcing the campaign.
The annual LifeChain event was held October 4 in front of St. James Church. Dan and Diane attended. There were about 30 to 40 people. They learned that the abortion clinic in Manassas closed down. The owner of the building has an RTL friend and has assured him/her that they will not rent it out to another abortion provider.
Tepeyac Center – is looking for a volunteer to drive “Norma” a 27 year old, 71/2 month pregnant mom-to-be who decided to keep her baby. She speaks only Spanish and has an 8 year old daughter. Sue and Rosario have reached out to her and provided her with rides to the center. Elva and Carmen are interested in helping and will call Rosario to coordinate the rides.
Kurtis Marx of the Women’s Health Center in Lansdowne – also known as Mosaic Virginia is still hoping to enlist our help with promoting his facility. He is located at 19415 Deerfield Ave, Ste 109, Lansdowne, VA 20176. He has pregnancy consultation advocates that can answer questions about abortion, adoption and parenting. They offer ultrasound and STI testing as well. Dan is looking into inviting him to come speak at our November 16 meeting.
CTR Youth GroupKick Off- Dan and Jerry had an information table at the event on Sunday evening, October 4. Teenagers ranging from middle school to high school attended. Non-religious ed students were welcomed. They met a woman from Falls Church that runs a group similar to Birthright, called “HOPE.” Her name is Wilma Berkel and Dan invited her to come to tonight’s meeting but she wasn’t able to attend. There were games, youth choir, workcamp, and sports teams (softball) signups. The youths had a sheet where they collected signatures as they went to the information tables to try to win a prize. Hopefully, the success of this event will draw more youths to the ministry and we will hear about a positive outcome. More young adults are also needed to inspire these teens to keep it fun, light and relevant to where they are in their lives right now.
The April 22, 2016 Respect Life Leaders Meeting is scheduled to be at CTR! We need to invite some of our local parishes to this meeting to broaden the scope of the RTL movement, particularly to Loudoun County. We will reach out to St. Joe’s, Our Lady of Hope, St. Theresa’s and St. John the Apostle’s to find out if they are interested in attending the meeting. Dan will find out if there is an upcoming Quarterly meeting between the last meeting (September 11, 2015) and the end of the year/beginning of next year from Elizabeth when he sees her on Saturday.
The RTL Quarterly minutes from the September 11 meeting were given to Marilyn to review and summarize. She will have a handout at the next meeting for review.
Can we rent one bus for the March For Life in January? We will need a way to raise money. A bake sale? Perhaps a Mom’s Apple pie fund raiser? Marilyn will look into this. Other members are encouraged to come up with ideas for our next meeting. The bus from St. Joe’s last year seated 55 people and with the tip to the bus driver came to $1200. We do have the option of St. John Neumann’s busagain for 2016.
Lastly, we are considering moving our monthly meetings from the second Monday of the month to the third Tuesday of the month. The Knight’s meet on the same night as we do, which is a conflict for Ray and possible other Knights who may be interested in our group. Dan will check with Ray about the switch.
Our meeting next month will be Monday, November 16 (Marilyn has a conflict on the 17th) at 7 p.m. in the library. Please let Dan know if you cannot attend.