St. Mary Presentation Catholic Church would like to thank our community for your generous support of our garage sales. We started hosting garage sales ten years ago with the goal of paying off the building mortgage for the new church. Over the years, we’ve met many wonderful people, and we’ve been able to donate goods to those in need. Over 150 church members volunteered to assist in making our sale a success this year. We were able to finish paying off our church debt with proceeds from our previous sale. This year’s garage sale set record profits and since our mortgage was paid, a decision was made to invest in our community. After deliberation, we chose Second Harvest and Special Olympics to receive part of the profits from our sale.
On Thursday, September 12th we held a grand finale party and potluck at St. Mary’s. Our special guests included representatives from Second Harvest and Special Olympics. Shawn Lepisi and Gage Catherman represented Second Harvest. Local Food Bank representatives were: Greenhouse – Melanie Allen, North County Food Bank (Elk) – Sandy and Joe Harvey, Loon Lake Food Bank – Liz Bauer. Second Harvest was presented with a check for $21,000 to be used to support the three local food banks. Last year Second Harvest distributed 1.5 million pounds of food in our area. Special Olympics was represented by John Storer, the coach of the Riverside Racers Ski Team, and Susan Rood. Athletes present for the event were Claudia Rood, Kelli Hajostek, and Cecil Storer. We presented Special Olympics with a check for $10,500. Half of the money will be used to support the Riverside Racers Ski Team, and half of it will be donated to NE Washington Special Olympics to support athletes in a variety of sports. Funds are used for many needs, including the purchase of equipment and event registration for athletes.
We feel so blessed to have been able to provide this support for our community. We treasure the relationships this event helped us develop within our church and within our community as well. This would not have been possible without your support. Special thanks to Yoke’s Fresh Market for the use of their spare building.
