We will share with you a wonderful story about raising money to pay for new Nativity set to replace an aged creche. This is written by Joni Lawlor a member of St Paul’s Mission in Hague, Virginia. We found it inspiring and entertaining.
Joni Lawlor writes “ Last December when uncrating the nativity scene at St Paul’s Mission in Hague Virginia, a couple of things happened. First, a mouse popped out of the box, causing quite a stir among the ladies who were uncrating the set. And secondly, no one could find King Melchior. The aged set was a bit dilapidated with several appendages missing from the shepherds and angels. It was soon after, that Father John O’Donohue, Parochial Vicar at St Paul’s located a beautiful set made in Italy by fine craftsmen. The nativity set by Fontanini, came with a large price tag.
And that’s when the idea of holding a “Christmas in July” fund raising event was initiated. July is a perfect month to hold a fund raiser. Our location in the Northern Neck of Virginia brings many summer visitors to St Paul’s. At times there is standing room only at the three weekend masses.
The Christmas Night company out of Saratoga Springs NY was very helpful, sending pictures of each piece with their prices on each photo. Parishioners were urged to “adopt” one of the fifteen pieces. The first to go was Baby Jesus, then Mary , Joseph and the Magi. The barn animals were harder to sell but in the end all the pieces were adopted by generous parishioners and visitors. The outdoor nativity set was also replaced by a beautiful stone/resin set from Christmas Night Inc.
The event followed a 5 pm mass on July 25th ironically, exactly five months from Christmas. Many people stayed to enjoy a wine and cheese reception and to look at photos of the original pieces of the set that hung from a Christmas tree. Father O’Donohue expressed his thanks to all who contributed and urged all to come down to St Paul’s next Christmas to see the new sets.
This is a wonderful story and has prompted us to develop a program to asssist churches with their fund raing programs for new Nativity sets. We will talk more about this in our blog and we encourage readers of this blog to post suggestions as to how we can best assist fund raising.