I find it very hard to believe that next weekend is Palm Sunday. Easter is slightly early this year falling on April 8th. Next year, Easter is even earlier, falling on March 31st. We have had a great “season” thus far, and I look forward to the next two weeks, culminating with the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday.
As you enter our campus this weekend, you will notice the addition of a fresh coat of chocolate colored mulch in all of the landscape beds and ancillary areas. The Buildings and Grounds Committee has joined forces with Youth Ministry in order to further beautify the parish grounds. Fifteen members of the Youth Ministry program gave up their Saturday morning to spread 280 bags of mulch from 111th Avenue North all the way to the far northern reaches of our campus. What a great opportunity for our youth to take a vested interest in the parish through a very worthwhile service project.. Thank you to Martha and Tom Oram for coordinating this effort with Dave Quist, President of our Buildings and Grounds Committee. In addition, members of our Buildings and Grounds Committee will be planting new flowering annuals this weekend to replace the impatiens that were wiped out by the mildew, which I mentioned several weeks ago.
This is my last opportunity to entice our parishioners to purchase a ticket for the Reverse Raffle to be held on March 31st. As of this past Wednesday, we have sold only two-thirds of the 300 tickets required for the event to take place. I have received numerous emails asking that we sell tickets outside of Mass. Therefore, we will offer tickets for sale before and after every Mass this weekend in front of the church. I will personally be your salesman at the 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Masses. If making a special trip to the parish office was holding you back, here is your opportunity to purchase a ticket to make this event a success. I know that many of you are waiting until the last minute to get your ticket. As my hair continues to thin and turn a strange shade of grey, I humbly ask that you consider helping us out by purchasing one of the remaining 100 tickets. Thanks in advance for your consideration.
The “Concert for Life” with Paul Todd and Friends to benefit the Pro-Life Ministries of Collier County will be held this coming Thursday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Parish Life Center. Tickets are $25 per person. For those wishing to purchase tickets, I will also have these available outside of Mass this weekend. You may also purchase tickets in the parish office during regular business hours.
If you have driven around the back side of the Parish Life Center in the last several weeks you will notice the addition of two 20 foot storage containers. These containers are the same used on cargo ships transporting merchandise overseas. They are water tight and have a very large capacity. As you know from personal experience at your homes, storage is a major issue and there never seems to be enough. Over my tenure here at St. John’s, I have been asked by nearly every ministry for extra storage space. Unfortunately, we have been unable to accommodate most of these requests due to extreme limitations. With the addition of this new storage, we will be able to divert some of the items stored in the PLC to the containers, freeing up much needed space. I would like to thank Bill Shephard for his generous gifts of time and talent to negotiate the deal to acquire these storage containers. Bill travelled to Tampa to check the integrity of the units before we had them shipped to Naples. He also gives of his time during the week to keep the Electrical Room in tip top condition. For those who may not know Bill, he is the popcorn vendor for our annual Super Bowl Party. He also is worthy of an award for longest commute to daily and weekend Mass. He summers in Wisconsin and winters in Alva, yet his love for St. John the Evangelist brings him to commute nearly 45 miles to Mass. Thanks, Bill, for all you do for your parish.
On behalf of St. Vincent De Paul, thank you to our parishioners for your generosity during the St. Patrick’s Day Mass this Saturday. The total collection was $13,334.00. All of these funds will be used by our St. Vincent De Paul Society to assist families in need in our area.
We are well on our way to success for the 2012 Catholic Faith Appeal. As of this past Monday, we have 37% pledged or $164,652.73 of $443,000.00. As a point of reference, for this same week last year with a similar annual assessment, we were at only 31% of our goal. As a reminder to those seasonal residents and visitors that are with us in paradise, please make your check payable to the Catholic Faith Appeal with St. John the Evangelist in the memo line. Thank you so much for your continued support of the Catholic Faith Appeal. Your contributions are making an amazing difference in our ability to operate within our annual budget.
In His work together,
Scott Schlossberg, MBA
General Manager