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Social Concerns Commission Minutes

Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, Lake Ozark, Missouri

Thursday, August 12, 2022

Minutes

Attendees: Theresa Brown, Fr. Penn, Dcn Jim Hankins, Tony Baldridge, Ginny Baldridge,Sharon Kanuch, Patty McNally, Lusica Hankins, Katie Thorman, Kerri Brauman, and Karen Pither

• Opening Prayer and Reflection:  Stephanie Koch gave the beautiful opening prayer about radiating Christ. We need to be a light to others always reflecting Christ’s presence.

• Commitment to Mission prayer – Everyone prayed together.

• Ministry to Families & Ministry to the Poor (Salva vida Outreach) – Dcn. Jim spoke about those on the Social Concerns Commission who were already “vetted” with assisting those that come by or call the church and requested for others to consider doing this worth-while mission.  With saying that, we had one gentleman and his child we assisted with two nights in a hotel due to his apartment being cleaned for mold.  We also had a lady and her 2 children that were homeless asking for assistance and we provided them with a 2-night stay at a motel while a room was being prepared at Helping Hands Homeless Shelter.  Katie, Karen, and Sharon also provided updates on the Hope House back to school backpack program that parishioners of Our Lady of the Lake have generously provided donation.  We also learned that Hope House had $3,000 of $25 gift cards at Wal-Mart for back-to-school needs for each student. This program will close on 19 Aug 2022 where all remaining items will be utilized for next year’s backpack program.  It has been another extremely successful program and Hope House is very appreciative of Our Lady of the Lake’s Support. 
  
• Funeral Dinners, Compassion Meals & Kindness Meals: Lusica stated that since July we have not had any funeral dinners. We provided 10 kindness meals in July and in August we provided 15 kindness meals and one compassion meal.

• Ministry of Health and Well Being –Jan Metz and Dianne Richardson continue to call on one lady that is in a local nursing home and confined to a wheelchair. Sharon Kanuch brought up the fact that she now has information regarding the OATS bus and bringing people to Hope House. Those 60 years old and veterans can ride for free; Osage Beach area is $4 each way and Lake Ozark area is #3 each way.  Sharon asks if we know of someone coming to Hope House to pick up food, that it would be helpful to call the food pantry ahead of time so that they have it available for pick-up before the people arrive.

• Glenda has four baby bottles and a check for $40 to take to the Pregnancy Care Center next week. Our Lady of the Lake has raised over $2000 this year. This is more than double last year’s contribution. The 5K run/walk is October 1, 2022. The starting point will again be the JJ Twiggs parking lot. Glenda encouraged the church to get a group together for this event and indicated that Kari Brauman and Karen Blevins are also trying to get groups together. Dcn. Jim emailed out the information regarding volunteering or walking/running on October 1, 2022. Those interested need to sign up online at pregnancyhelpcenters.org. If you are wishing to volunteer, the positions/time slots available are outlined on the website. In addition, the chili cook-off will be March 9, 2023.

• Preparation for the Angel Advent Tree will soon be underway. Forms will be sent out to the four locations from which we are collecting names on October 3^rd and are to be returned on October 28^th. There will be 140 total gifts bought in 2022 with 125 gifts to Hope House, 5 to Helping Hands, 5 to Ozark Rehab, and 5 to Lakeside Meadows.  We will keep the Angel tags the same for this year as in 2021.  Stephanie Koch is the committee chair with Patty McNally being the co-chair.  In addition, we will continue to use tables to display since it is easier for people to pick them up as opposed to hanging the tags on a Christmas tree. Announcements will be put in the bulletin and on the church website/Facebook by November 6^th. We will meet as a group on November 10^th to get the angels assembled. The tables will be out for the November 12/13 masses and November 19/20 masses. Gifts are to be returned by December 4^th with pick up on December 9^th from 10-2pm.
• Steve Jannetti as the Knights of Columbus Deputy Grand Knight is the Donut Sunday chair that will begin mid-September. More details to follow on September’s 2022 Donut Sunday. 
• Website: https://diojeffcity.org/safe-environment. After you’ve completed the training, please contact Dcn. Jim so that he can pass your name along to Kelly. It takes about one hour to complete the course.

• Dcn. Jim said there have been several people requesting that we do a directory. Father Penn indicated that St. Francis Parish in Taos, is ramping up to do their directory and indicated that we should make contact and discuss with them how they are going about putting their directory together.  This directory is for anyone within the parish that would like to participate and is not mandatory.  We are also looking for committee chair. Lusica stated that if we decide to use a photographer and make a hard-copy directory that she would assist in getting people scheduled.  Dcn Jim indicated that we now have a computer in the Social Concerns Commission Office that could be used if information needs to be uploaded for those that needs some assistance.  More to follow on this.

• Next Meeting Date:  Our next committee meeting will be held on Thursday, October 13th at 6pm.
• Prayer and Reflection leader for next meeting: Dcn. Jim
• Closing Pastoral Plan Prayer was prayed by all.