Sunday, December 13, 2015

#Giving Tuesday--Tri-C Version of Light Night

December 1, 2015, #Giving Tuesday, became Tri-C Community’s Light Night.  Tri-C community consists of the three small towns of Clyde, Conception Jct. and Conception.  Nestled within the community is the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration monastery, the Conception Abbey of Benedictine monks monastery, Conception Seminary, a 4 year accredited college for training future priests, and Jefferson C-123 School. Many rural families helped with this event.
The Abbey, Tri-C Partners 4 Progress, Benedictine Sisters and the Jefferson C-123 School service organizations partnered to celebrate Giving Tuesday.  Activities consisted of adopting 10 families and two single people to help them have a merrier Christmas.  Contacts and background planning began in late October  or even before leading up to the Giving Tuesday event form 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at St. Raphael’s welcome center at the Conception Abbey.  The hall was decked out in Christmas finery.  Ten trees were setup waiting for decorations and gifts.  There were two tables for tying blankets.  Someone donated 32 pieces of fleece which were turned into 16 tied blankets by community volunteers ranging in age from 2 yrs old to 75 years old.  Some may remember quilting parties where the young children played under the table as neighbors tied blankets and gossiped.  Time has not diminished those activities in the Tri-C area.
The Conception Printery donated 100 Christmas cards to be signed for distribution to those who might not receive Christmas cards at Christmas time.  Cameron Veterans Home, other nursing homes were contacted with the question of how many residences do you have that many not get a Christmas card?  Cards were signed with a generic message from the Tri-C Community.  Former Tri-C residents in other care facilities had cards addressed to them from the Tri-C Community. 
A multitude of Christmas gifts were wrapped at two wrapping tables.  The Conception Seminary classes each adopted a family from the list.  I also heard unofficially there was a contest to see which class could donate the most nonperishable foods to be distributed to the adopted families.
Kids especially enjoyed the area for creating Christmas tree decorations to be hung on the trees.  These were all non breakable items for creating the tree decorations so even the youngest could help.  The center tree had an electric train going around it.  The younger kids sat watching it for quite some time.  Some of the kids drew Christmas pictures in some of the cards at the card signing tables.
Conception Abbey provided cookies and hot chocolate for all the volunteers.  Santa hats worn by volunteers accompanied food donations and gifts or gift cards as they arrived to do the Santa elves work at #Giving Tuesday Tri-C Community Light Night.
On December 11th it took two covered cargo trailers to deliver the trees, gifts and food items collected for the families.  One trailer use was donated by a local business man Walker Auctioneering. 

Thank you to all those who contributed to the Tri-C #Giving Tuesday event in any way.