Philoptochos Perspective

Philanthropy • Fellowship • Faith in Action

December 2022

President's Letter

Dear Fellow Philoptochos Sisters and Friends of Philoptochos:

Tis the season for all to be thankful, joyful and hopeful for the coming of Christ Our Lord.

All of you have worked hard this year to continue the Mission of Philoptochos as we transitioned from the COVID staid atmosphere to again going out into the world. The Metropolis Board thanks all of you and wishes you to continue even greater good that you have been doing.

We have changed the Feed the Hungry Program and are back inside. Everything takes time and we will work together to make things happen. Many of you are featured in the Perspective with your many Christmas Parties and especially all your special gifts to those in need.  Whether you are a small chapter or a large chapter, we are grateful for the assistance you give. Every little bit counts!

Do not forget our upcoming Vasilopita at St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church on Sunday, January 15, 2023. Hope to see you all there.

I wish to thank my Metropolis Philoptochos Board for their continued support, their dedication to Philoptochos, and love and philotimo to each other and to those in need.

MAY YOU ENJOY CHRIST’S LOVE WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Yours in Christ,

Marilyn

Marilyn Tzakis

Metropolis of Chicago Philoptochos President

IN THIS DECEMBER ISSUE

President’s Letter,

Metropolis Open House,

Metropolis Philoptochos Board Christmas Luncheon,

Vasilopita Celebration 

,

All Saints - Joliet, Annunciation Cathedral - Chicago, Annunciation - Milwaukee, Ascension of Our Lord - Lincolnshire, Assumption - Chicago, Assumption - Town & Country,

Holy Apostles - Westchester, 

Twelve Holy Apostles - Deluth ,

 St. Andrew - Chicago, St. Athanasios - Aurora

St. Basil - Chicago, Saints Constantine & Helen - Palos Hills, St. Constantine & Helen - Rockford, St. Demetrios - Chicago,

St. Demetrios - Elmhurst,

St. Demetrios - Libertyville, St. George - Chicago,

St. George - Schererville, St. John the Baptist - Des Plaines, 

St. Luke - Columbia, St. Mary - Minneapolis, 

St. Nectarios - Palatine

St. Nicholas - St. Louis, St. Nicholas - Oak Lawn, 

St. Sophia - Elgin, St. Spyridon - Palos Hills.

METROPOLIS CHRISTMAS

OPEN HOUSE

METROPOLIS

PHILOPTOCHOS BOARD

CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON

ST. NECTARIOS - PALATINE

FEED THE HUNGRY

ANNUNCIATION - MILWAUKEE

CHRISTMAS PARTY

Held At Blue Mound Country Club in Wauwatosa, WI.

FEED THE HUNGRY

The Gavaris family served, as a memorial for loved ones.

ASCENSION OF OUR LORD LINCOLNSHIRE

CHRISTMAS PARTY

ASSUMPTION - CHICAGO

FEED THE HUNGRY

ASSUMPTION

TOWN & COUNTRY, MO

CHRISTMAS PARTY

Chapter Collected Hats, Gloves and Scarves

For FOCUS-St. Louis

TWELVE HOLY APOSTLES

DULUTH, MN

The Chapter and the youth at 12 Holy Apostles spread holiday cheer to the church neighborhood on St. Nicholas Day. Our group handed out free cookies, cocoa and socks in honor of St. Nicholas for the sixth year. 

As part of our holiday giving efforts, our chapter was blessed to make a generous donation to a local organization which offers support and shelter for those affected by various types of abuse. Glory to God! 

The Chapter also hosted Prosfora Baking Workshop

and a Kolyva Making Workshop. 

ST. ANDREW - CHICAGO

Great Vespers

Our Chapter prepared Lenten Sweets for the Parish

The Chapter made blankets for the children receiving treatment at UIC Pediatrics! We donated hand knit baby hats packaged

with little toys made by one of our parishioners!  

Thank you to our sister Angela Vlachos Ruth for making beautiful warm hats for the homeless people of Chicago.

Angela is a member of St. Stefanos Greek Orthodox Church

in St. Petersburg FL.

At our Feed the Hungry we gave out Bombas socks

along with a nice lunch.

Christmas Party

ST. ATHANASIOS - AURORA

Philoptochos partnered with our GOYAN group to support

the Aurora Interfaith Food Pantry with 50 stuffed stockings

for delivery to local children. 

Supporting Pack the Back initiative for Focus of North America, our Philoptochos and our youth collected funds and school supplies.

Our youth filled each backpack to the brim for needy school children.

FEED THE HUNGRY

Holy Apostles - Westchester

ST. BASIL - CHICAGO

DRESS-A-GIRL AROUND THE WORLD

Our Chair of this year's event, Kathy Walstrom, would like to thank everyone who participated and made this sew-a-thon a huge success.

15 dresses were completed with 89 more dresses in progress!

150 dresses are scheduled for delivery in January

ST. DEMETRIOS - LIBERTYVILLE

ASCENSION OF OUR LORD LINCOLNSHIRE

The two churches teamed up and volunteered to help

at the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

ST. DEMETRIOS - CHICAGO

Christmas Party

ST. DEMETRIOS - ELMHURST

Christmas Party

ST. DEMETRIOS - LIBERTYVILLE

On Philoptochos Sunday we had an Artoklasia,

shared cake and also honored our Veterans. 

Monthly loukoumades Sunday Fundraiser.

Proceeds to benefit The Lake County Haven.

Our Chapter packaged and delivered 500 hot meals to the McKinney-Vento staff for our Operation Classroom homeless students and their families. Thank you to everyone that participated and a special

THANK YOU to Father John Sardis for once again volunteering

to cook such a delicious Thanksgiving Feast. 

FEED THE HUNGRY

Anthoula & Pat Gerbanas,

Electra Kantalonis & nephew Christopher served.

ST. GEORGE - SCHERERVILLE, IN

Our Chapter held Breakfast with Santa! We hosted the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hammond & East Chicago, and St. John Township (this township includes a few communities in Northwest Indiana). A total of 62 underprivileged kids up to age 12 attended. Our chapter had the support, sponsorship and volunteers from our Parish Priest Father Demetri Kounavis, our Parish Council, Goyans, Maids of Athena/AHEPA, many of our parishioners and youth who served up a delicious breakfast, wrapped gifts that our Chapter purchased so “Santa” had one for each child. Also provided were gloves, hat and socks for each child.

STS. CONSTANTINE & HELEN

PALOS HILLS

Christmas Party

FEED THE HUNGRY

STS. CONSTANTINE & HELEN

ROCKFORD

Our chapter made our famous Spanakopites and Tiropites

for our Christmas Bake Sale, Luncheon and Bazaar.

FEED THE HUNGRY

ANNUNCIATION CATHEDRAL

& ST. GEORGE CHICAGO

The two churches served a traditional Thanksgiving meal - turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potato, corn, cranberry, bread & pumpkin pie. Scarves, gloves, socks, masks & hand sanitizers were also given.

ST. LUKE - COLUMBIA, MO

Our chapter hosted our Second Annual Advent Treat exchange. Families bought or made fast, friendly snacks and treats. Then we all took turns picking items and placing them in bags provided by Philoptochos.

Shut-ins were visited with special bags from the event. 

St. Mary - Minneapolis

Fall has been a time with many hands-on activities for our Chapter!

Activities included: 

Preparing and serving dinner to more than 200 guests at FOCUS Minnesota.

 Hosting Artoclasia, social hour and a slide show for Philoptochos Sunday.

Assembling IOCC Hygiene Kits.

Decorating the church for Advent and Christmas.

Coordinating Operation Classroom winter clothing drives for 2 schools.

Organizing the purchase of gifts for mothers and children at the residential program Healing House.

Baking and selling Vasilopita for the New Year.

ST. NICHOLAS - ST. LOUIS

"Jingle & Mingle" Christmas Party

ST. SOPHIA - ELGIN

Christmas Party

ST. SPYRIDON - PALOS HEIGHTS

Craft Show & Food Fair

FEED THE HUNGRY

ALL SAINTS - JOLIET

Our Three Hierarchs Philoptochos chapter hosted our annual free will Veterans Day Chili Luncheon and chili with all the fixings, hot dogs, and cake. This is a popular menu for our Parish. Each year, all the proceeds are donated to programs that serve Veterans. This year we supported:

Military Outreach USA & K9’s for Veterans. Military Outreach USA stands at the forefront of service organizations in providing, with their partners, tens of thousands of needed items for our Military Community. 

K9’s for Veteran’s mission is to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder transition back to civilian life once their military service has ended with the help of trained service dogs. 

We were blessed on this day to have the Memorial Guard from the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery who posted colors and presented a flag to our Parish. A bugler was present and played Taps. Our Priest, Father Chris Avramopoulos had a memorial for our veterans who have passed and then also called upon those that were present to receive a blessing for their service to our country. 

Our Parish has been recognized by Military Outreach USA, founded by Major General James Mukoyama. Our parish has raised funds for Hines Fisher House, the Gary Sinise Foundation, Heart of a Veteran, and Military Outreach USA.We’ve supported Wreaths Across America whose mission is to remember, honor, and teach by the laying of wreaths on the graves of those veterans who have served or have made the ultimate sacrifice and are interned at all the National Military Cemeteries.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

DES PLAINES

Our Chapter brought warmth & Holiday Cheer to the Greek America Rehabilitation Centre residents by serving hot cocoa & festive Greek cookies.

Christmas Party

A big THANK YOU to all who donated coats and groceries for our guests on Thanksgiving Day at our Parish’s Feed My Neighbor Lunch.

The GOYANS also receive a big thank you for helping to

set up and organize the coats. 

Our Philoptochos Ladies worked hard on baking

and prepared beautiful packaging for our Bake Sale.

FEED THE HUNGRY

Ladies of Ahladokambos

ST. NICHOLAS - OAK LAWN

FEED THE HUNGRY

The Perspective November and December issues were

filled to the brim with Philoptochos events.

It has been a busy fall for Philoptochos.

Thank you to all chapters that submitted to be included

in the December issue.

Plenty of positive Philoptochos News to share!

This is the most wonderful time of the year! 

The Perspective is grateful for your submissions.

Your chapter participation is very important to the Perspective.

Each edition brings hardworking, creative and thoughtful news 

to share with our chapters. 

Duty and dedication describe all of our Metropolis Philoptochos chapters, and each and every marvelous member.

Our Perspective is a very valuable resource for our chapters. 

Our Perspective highlights and documents our history.

Our Perspective shares new creative ideas. 

Our Perspective proudly displays

our Chapter and Metropolis events and successes. 

Do more than just belong to Philoptochos, participate in the Perspective!

Please help the Philoptochos Perspective by sending in your updated email lists.

We want all of our members to receive the Perspective. 

Please share the Perspective with someone 

that is not currently a member of Philoptochos.

If every member forwarded the Perspective to someone who is not a Philoptochos member, we could reach & impress 3,000 new people every edition. Philoptochos members are aware that 

it's not just about good ideas.

It's about making good ideas happen.

Our Metropolis Philoptochos Newsletter loves to brag about all that you are doing, and all the creative, thoughtful ways you 

are helping others.

Please EMAIL photos and information about your chapter event to the Perspective.

Designate someone to be the photographer at your meetings

and events.

Then submit your Chapter event along with your photos to me as soon after the event to insure it is included in

the next issue of the Perspective.

Include a brief description of the event including following info:

 Chapter and Church name

Name of Event and Chairperson(s)

Photos are an important addition to the Perspective.

Photos of small groups of 3 to 5 people work best.

The higher the resolution of the photos, the better.

It is best to email photos rather than text.

The Perspective is now being emailed directly to you from the Metropolis. If you are not receiving the Perspective this year we can offer a few suggestions. Make sure your email is included in our email mailing list. To be included contact Juliana Arsoniadis at:

[email protected]

Or you might check your SPAM folder to see

if your email is filtering out the Perspective.

Continue to send your Perspective submissions to:

[email protected]

Marilynn Jemas, Editor

Kathy Korbakes, Assistant Editor

Dear Philoptochos Friends,

It has been a pleasure to serve Philoptochos as

Editor of the Perspective Newsletter. We have doubled our staff to bring you better, more inclusive & informative

issues of the Perspective.

Not only at Christmas, but all the long year through, the joy you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.

The magic of Christmas never ends.

The greatest Christmas gifts are Family and

Philoptochos Friends! Many blessings sent to you for

Christmas and Happy New year too!

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!