Newsletter
Issue 34 St. Columba/St. Denis/Blessed Kateri Conference November 2006

Knowing, loving and serving God by knowing, loving and serving your neighbor.

Dear Members

"LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF"
 
There are many inspirational stories of people living the gospel.  As a regular part of the newsletter, I would like to share their stories.  Please let me know of "acts of charity" you would like included. Members are doing wonderful deeds all the time.
 
Recently a young couple of modest means made a substantial donation to our Society.  It was evident they had sacrificed every day to be able to write that check.  As an example, on the day they dropped the check off, the wife said very matter of fact they would go home for soup and sandwiches rather than go out for dinner.  They had made the choice to help others.
 
Another time, a member commented to a St. Denis parishioner that the food closet was out of cereal and how detrimental that was.  The next thing she knew this wonderful person was pulling out unopened boxes of cereal from her cupboard to give the closet.  There was no hesitation, just unselfish action.
 
                                       
 "IMPORTANT TELEPHONE NUMBERS"
 
 
Please remind all our senior clients that the open enrollment for Medicare Part D (prescriptions) begins November 15, 2006 and ends 6 weeks later.  (They should have received a card from Medicare.)  To obtain enrollment information and guidance, they should call:
 
Dutchess County Office for the Aging         845/486-2555
This Agency has many other programs, also.
 
Donna Carroll, Senior Consumer Outreach Representative for Central Hudson, spoke at a 2005 SVDP meeting and has been instrumental in helping several of our clients with CH bills. 
 
Donna Carroll                                         845/486-5414
 
Hudson River Housing Inc.  For clients with housing issues:           
 
Day number                                            845/454-5176
Emergency Off hours number                      845/471-8454
 



Lastly, the Community Action Partnership has centers in Poughkeepsie, Red Hook, Beacon and Dover.  They oversee many programs as listed below:
 
Poughkeepsie Number                               845/452-5104
Beacon Number                                        845/831-2620
 
They will help with:
 
1.  Central Hudson bill ( requirements)
2.  Fuel Oil Club
3.  HEAP application
4.  Energy crisis intervention
5.  Weatherization/ Heating Equipment Replacement
6.  Grants for home energy conservation
7.  Big Brother/ Big Sister of DC
8.  Extra Helpings Program
9.  Food Pantry on site
10.  Family & Child Health Plus
11.  Food Stamp Screening
12.  Prescription Drug Plan
13.  Thrift shop
14.  Community Action partnership has joined with the Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union to match up to $150. if a client opens a savings account to use for holiday expenses (Christmas Club).  If the client puts in 150.00 they would end up with 300.
 
The Beacon site has a mid-day meal available.
 
Joanne Bunnell has been gathering information on food pantries in Dutchess County which I will put in the next newsletter.  Also, Nick Dono will continue to update the resource page on our web site and will post a printed copy in the pantry.
 
See everyone at our November 8th meeting in our new meeting room.

PLEASE NOTE OUR CHANGE IN MEETING ROOMS.
 
The next SVDP meeting will be November 8 at 7 PM in St. Columba's CONVENT MEETING ROOM.  The convent is the building at the back of the parking lot.  Please use the right side entrance.  We look forward to seeing YOU there.




Minutes
October 11, 2006

Carole opened the meeting at 7:08 pm with a reading from Deuteronomy chapter 15 verses 7-10.

The minutes were read by Barbara   Yannaco; accepted by Kay Coyle; and seconded by Kathy Palmer.

In attendance were: Kay Coyle, Kathy Palmer, Linda Hunt, Bucky and Laura Ryan, Terry Weber, Anne Nardelli, Betty Riggio, Marlene Stayer, Chris Bledsoe, Bill and Carole Grafer, Jack Kiely, Nick Dono, Barbara Yannaco, Ron Stoltzfus, Jim Falanga, Linda Boysen, Ed and Diane Ryan, and JoAnn DiSalvo.

Our HPNAP report for September 2006: We served 65 households which included 99 children, 108 adults, and 14 elderly. This is a 30% increase over September 2005.

Lorraine Klara of the Riverbank Banjo Band was very  happy with our idea to use the money they donated to us for coats, hats, and boots for some of our client children. Carole has already sent out a thank you. Lorraine also mentioned that we are in line to receive  another donation next year.

Carole spoke to Jim Donnellan who suggested that we change our meeting place to the convent meeting room. Everyone present thought that this was a good idea so Carole will get back to Jim and make the necessary arrangements.

We have been getting a lot of emergency food requests from one area. Carole spoke to Susan who is the interim director of the Community Action Partnership about this. She understands that we will help anyone in a real emergency but that we are really here to provide for the people living in our geographic area. This should slow down the number of these calls.



We have been having trouble getting many of the things we need from the food bank. Carole spoke with Jill Dunn at the food bank. She said that they will try to supply us with more of what we need. We will be placing a call to Sean a week before we plan to go  shopping and he will try to get us what we need .Carole and Bill will be going to the food bank to pick up six cases of ground beef on Friday October 13th. Ground beef has been one of the items we have had trouble getting. We will be receiving an additional $200.00 in Partners in Caring. This will be an additional 34 cases of food which we will have to pick up on a separate day.

 Submitted by Barbara Yannaco


SVDP Meeting Schedule

December 13, 2006
January 10, 2007
February 14, 2007
March 14, 2007

Our meetings are open to all and we welcome new members. We meet in St. Columba CONVENT MEETING ROOM.


LINDA'S CORNER

So far I am filling 109 baskets.  Drop off of baskets is November 19th from 10:00 to 12:00 and disbursement of baskets is 1:30.  There are still many baskets to fill.  I have noticed families that used to give large baskets are now only doing small families. IF A REPRESENTATIVE HAS ANY CHANGES TO MAKE OR IF THEIR CLIENTS DO NOT NEED A BASKET, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  IF I DON'T HEAR FROM YOU, I WILL ASSUME YOUR CLIENTS DO NOT NEED A BASKET.
Thank you.

Linda Hunt