Harvest Update 4/2/13

Families of St. Alphonsus are offering gifts to help grow our Local Church and parish family! We already reached one great milestone - our diocesan obligation of $254,191 in pledges. This is truly an awesome blessing! Thank you, thank you!

WAIT. Now what?

Remember the steeple-o-meter? This steeple, shows how our pledges are progressing through this Fruitful Harvest Campaign. Currently, we are just more than $400,000 in pledges. This means that we fulfilled the diocese portion of our goal and everything beyond the $254,191 will go toward helping cover the costs from our recent facilities renovations project.

The rest of the way up the steeple is the dovetail portion of our parish campaign. This “bonus” area, means that any gifts pledged, and received, beyond the diocesan goal go directly toward paying the new building renovations on campus. Right now, that's about $151,809.

The parish renovations are not fully paid for? During renovation planning, the parish collected and paid for about 50% of the building renovations (from efforts during the previous 2010 Fruitful Harvest Campaign). The remaining costs were then put into a mortgage that will be paid off over time. Fruitful Harvest gifts, that fall within the upper steeple portion of this diagram, will make it possible to pay off the mortgage.

If we cannot pay for this cost through Fruitful Harvest, we may end up having to use funds from operations. Operation funds come from our weekly collections and allow us to provide ministries, programs, upkeep and liturgical celebrations.

Can we really do this? Yes! We have actually accomplished this in previous campaigns to pay for other church renovations and building projects dating back to 1984. Pledge cards and gifts are still being submitted now in either the collection baskets, directly to the diocese (www.dol-in.org) or at the parish office. Pledges are fulfilled between now and August 2014. This means that families can even offer $10, $20 or $50 a month if they chose.

But gift size isn’t what’s truly important. We invite all families and our priests to participate since this is a parish family effort. Even if a family discerns that they cannot offer a gift, they may still return a pledge card to let us know they are participating through prayer. Remember, the Catholic Church is a more than 2,000 year legacy of faithful stewards sharing their gifts of time, talent and treasure! Will you help continue this growth today and for the future?