St. Thomas, Whitemarsh

Outreach

Outreach @ St. Thomas’
Building Brighter Futures

Second Saturday Sales
Second Saturday Sales is a conglomerate of 8 thriving entities whose purpose is to raise funds in support of St. Thomas’ Outreach ministries. Second Saturday Sales (SSS) is the only dedicated source of funding for Outreach at the present time.

Based in the St. Thomas’ Barn, SSS offers gently used bric-a-brac, clothing, books, jewelry and such at jaw-dropping prices. Imagine - a men’s Harris tweed jacket for 90% off, a ladies’ antique brooch for a pittance, an original oil for the price of a sketch. Powered by a congenial group of volunteer parishioners and others, Second Saturday Sales have raised approximately $40,000 in each of the last 5 years. Individual profit centers include Bric-A-Brac, Cinderella (clothing), Top Shop (better clothing), Books, Used Furniture, Toys, Jewelry and the Grill. Sales are held on the second Saturday of months May through October. A preview party in early May kicks off the Second Saturday season. Please contact Ellen Greenleaf for further details on how you can help.

Children, Families and Education

St. Thomas’ Summer Camps
St. Thomas’ Church has sponsored and staffed a summer camp for children from inner city Philadelphia since 1998. Utilizing the wonderful outdoor spaces on our campus, including The Barn, community vegetable garden, basketball court, labyrinth and fields, a dedicated group of adult and teen helpers from St. Thomas has over the years hosted more than 700 children from north Philadelphia afterschool programs and a west Philadelphia homeless shelter during the month of July. Campers have the opportunity to learn about the environment; have hands-on experience in the vegetable garden and in the kitchen preparing nutritious lunches, salads, drinks and snacks; and enjoy art projects, music, the labyrinth and free time. Parishioners and St Thomas staff have contributed everything from their time and talents to supplies, snacks and visits from the ice cream truck! Please contact Mimi Kepner 215-643-0409 or Pam Serra or 215-885-9626 to see how you can help.

Harvest Fest
Each October St Thomas’ hosts its annual Harvest Festival. During this incredible event, we invite over four hundred people through Episcopal Community Services to enjoy a day of fall frolic on our campus. Many of the families involved have been victims of chronic homelessness. Families from the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia as well as St Barnabas Shelter in West Philadelphia are invited to join us as well. In order for us to successfully host an event of this magnitude and share our incredible property we need the support of many parishioners Please contact Amy Roak 215-646-9494 to volunteer.

Be An Angel Christmas Party
Each year nearly 200 St. Thomas’ parishioners share the spirit of the Christmas season as we host a party for mothers and children from the Episcopal Community Services (ECS) FAST Housing program. This program enables chronically homeless mothers to receive and maintain permanent housing, as well as intensive case management involving life and parenting skills in order to overcome the challenges of homelessness.

Parishioners participate by purchasing gifts and/or volunteering to help with the party which features activities for children of all ages; a family style turkey dinner; family photos with Santa; and festive entertainment. If interested in volunteering for the 2010 party on Sunday December 12th, please contact co-chairs, Lisa Pacheco 215?593?7255 or Amy Hirsch 215-542-0835.

Alternative Gift Market
Each December St Thomas’ hosts an Alternative Gift Market to provide a forum to educate our parish about our Outreach Ministries and provide a means to honor family and friends through the purchase of alternative Christmas gift which directly support ministries to which we are committed. Interested in helping out or finding out more? Contact Chris Roak.

Housing and Hunger

Ministry of Meals
Aid For Friends is a Philadelphia based, non-profit organization that has been providing ‘free meals and friendly visiting for the isolated, frail, elderly and disabled homebound since 1974’. St. Thomas’ volunteers have been producing hundreds of those meals for over 15 years. Each month, groups of parishioners meet to cook and assemble 50 to 150 meals that are frozen, transported to a distribution center and then brought to needy clients throughout the five county area. Meals can be made individually in the home as well.For more information, please contact Pam Serra 215-885-9626.

Inter-Faith Hospitality Network - Emergency Housing & Support
Saint Thomas’ Church volunteers collaborate with Trinity Ambler to provide temporary emergency housing, care and support of families in need. Most families are single parent women, often fleeing an abusive spouse. Approximately 25 St. Thomas volunteers are involved for one week each year in providing meals, transportation and overnight supervision.

St Thomas’ also supports Hope Gardens transitional housing run by the Interfaith Housing Alliance assisting a family in one of the 9 apartments.

About 30 families with children are served through the network with emergency housing provided in churches and synagogues. Support for the families basic needs for shelter, food, and compassion frees them to work on issues such as employment, housing, and day care. It makes it possible for them to return to independent living as quickly as possible.

Please contact Jim Sheldon 215-542-7885 to help.

The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard
The Community Cupboard serves Ambler and the surrounding Montgomery County community by being a facilitator of ‘Neighbors Helping Neighbors’. They providing food, clothing, furniture, and household items for people in need, connect people in need with programs and agencies that can help meet their needs, and develop programs which strengthen families in stress.
St Thomas’ has supported the Community Cupboard in a variety of ways, and at this time we are looking to re-commit ourselves to their efforts by supporting food and clothing drives. If you are interested in advancing this initiative please contact Chris Roak at 215-646-9494

Global Ministries

Honduras Water Mission
Annually, St Thomas’ volunteers travel to remote mountain villages in Honduras, Central America to work side by side with the villagers, installing gravity fed potable water systems. Typically this is the first time ever the village will have access to clean, safe drinking water. We have been working for the past 10 years with an organization called Agua Para El Pueblo, headquartered in Tegucigalpa.

To date, St Thomas’ has supported the building of 12 water systems and 2 schools. We now include sanitary facilities in all of our projects. I can personally guarantee that you will feel you have changed lives after one trip. If you want to get involved in any way, please contact Rob MacNamara 610-506-1604.

Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA)
St. Thomas Church supports GAIA with funding and hands-on parishioner support. GAIA, a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization founded in response to the global HIV-AIDS epidemic, provides life-saving services and HIV-related basic health services in rural villages and health facilities in Malawi, a small country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi is at the epicenter of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic: 80,000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses in Malawi annually and over 550,000 children have been orphaned. GAIA's emphasis is on the most vulnerable: women and children.

GAIA's programs involve HIV prevention in youth, orphan care and education, home-based care, raising the status of women through nursing scholarships and microfinance loans, hospital-based services involving anti-retroviral drugs and the treatment of malaria and tuberculosis, and mobile health clinics.

Please visit the GAIA website or contact Mimi Kepner for more information.

Our Little Roses Ministries (OLRM)
Since 2004 St. Thomas Church has supported Our Little Roses Ministries in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. OLRM strives to lift abandoned and abused girls out of abject poverty and give them a chance to build a meaningful life in Honduran society. Within the walls of the OLRM campus live 76 girls who are being educated and raised in a loving and supportive environment.
For the past 5 years, St. Thomas’ sends an annual mission team to OLRM in an effort to show God’s love through acts of fellowship. Over 60 Parishioners have visited OLR and have engaged in a variety of activities including one and one bonding with the girls and service projects such as building maintenance, mural painting and teaching a summer school for children ages 4 to 16.
Please visit the OLRM website at www.ourlittleroses.org or contact Melissa von Stade at 215-203-6955 or Chris Pacheco at 215-858-3788.

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