Advent Giving Tree Thank you

St. Thomas the Apostle Parishioners have done an amazing job participating in this year’s Annual Advent Giving Tree Program. Your generosity and continued support have not only made this program successful, but have brightened the Christmas season for many.

This season we split the requests between the actual tags on the trees and a digital version. Every gift was labeled with the organization and all gift cards had a dollar value. This was so appreciated when sorting and distributing.

We collected over $4,000 in ShopRite, Target & Kohl’s gift cards for our parish. There were 84 very large bags of gifts along with $155 in gift cards for the organizations listed below:

1. Family Promise –renamed from Interfaith Hospitality for the Homeless of Essex County - Montclair, NJ

2. Dr. Lena Edwards Charter School - Jersey City, NJ

3. RWJ Barnabas Health Center for Hemophilia – Newark NJ

4. St Rose of Lima Parish – Newark NJ

5. Mercy House - Newark NJ

6. St. Joseph’s Social Service Center, Elizabeth NJ

Special thanks to everyone who participated and assisted in moving and sorting the gifts along with the Communications Committee.

The Organizations are very thankful to the St Thomas Community for their giving spirit and asked us to share their gratitude and prayers for all of us in the new year.