Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thanks to the generosity of many parishioners, I wanted to share the great news that we have reached our goal of fundraising for our second parish school activity bus and we have matched Bishop Burbidge’s $10,000 donation, which means that we have raised a total of $115,194 to purchase two parish school activity buses, as well as to help needy students ride the bus, and to provide scholarships to attend the school! Thank you so much for making it possible for many young children to attend our school who needed transportation, and without these two buses would not have been able to attend. As of this writing we have had the parents of 25 children express interest in the bus which means we only have three seats left!
Now the school is looking for at least two people interested in a part-time position as a bus driver. The hours would be approximately 6:45 AM to 8 AM, and 2:45 PM to 4 PM. The salary is negotiable, and the applicant must be VIRTUS – compliant (compliant with the diocesan requirements for child safety.) Please contact Mary Leslie at 540-825-9017 for more information.
As I write this (on Wednesday, July 10) we have had ten people volunteer to help with the Bus Ministry for the 5 PM Mass and six people volunteer for the 2 PM Mass. Thank you for your willingness to volunteer. I will be contacting every person to see if we can get a coordinator for each Mass. Since these buses only hold 14 passengers, a CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) is not needed. Also, all passengers are covered by our parish insurance that we have through the Diocese. Each driver is only asked to fill out a form in our parish office, and then watch an online tutorial that the Diocese will indicate. Thanks, again for your generosity. We may end up needing to use two buses for the 2 PM Mass, so we are still looking for volunteers for that Mass.
Also, I wanted to let you know that a while back some of our parishioners asked if we could install an assisted-listening device in to our sound system for the hearing impaired. This has been installed and we have listening devices available for up to four people (with the capacity to add more if needed in the future). Each individual listening device (Listen Technologies LR-200-072 Standard 3-Channel RF Receiver – 72 Mhz) cost $100. If you would like one, you could either contact the parish office and purchase one that you can keep with you, or if you just want to use one at Mass, you can ask an usher for one. We will ask you to give the usher your driver’s license in exchange for the device; your license will be given back at the end of Mass when the unit is returned. Also, if you anyone would like to contribute to defray the cost of the whole system (which cost $1,649), that would be gratefully appreciated. So far one person has contributed $250 to help offset the cost.
Vacation Bible Camp will begin next Sunday, July 21 (from 5:30 to 8:30 PM) and continue till Thursday, July 25. It is under the direction of Karen Kulivan and Whitney Edwards, again this year. The children will be able to participate in: Totally Catholic: ROAR! Life is Wild, God is Good! See the bulletin for more details and volunteering opportunities.
Finally, an update on our Joshua Fund. So far $20,300 has been given in donations and $6,109.27 has been disbursed as reimbursements for medical expenses, which leaves us with $14,190.73. Joshua is scheduled to be operated on again in Philadelphia later this month. If you would like to write a check to contribute, please make it out to Precious Blood Church.
Thank you, again, for your generosity.
God bless,
Fr. Kevin
