Spring 2018

Save the Dates!

August 28 -30 - School Supplies Setup
      and Distribution
September 20 - General Membership Meeting
November 3 - Rummage Sale



Annual School Supplies Drive


We are looking forward to another wonderful School Supplies Drive that is always a huge benefit to our Summit school children. The dates are set for August 28-30th. Set up at the Bridges facility will be on the 28th and the distribution will be on Aug. 29th and 30th. We are partnering once again with Bridges Outreach so Christ Child volunteers will be needed the last week of August. Please watch for a Sign Up Genius to arrive in your inbox in early August. It is a very rewarding volunteer experience.  Over 350 Summit school children in need will be receiving their brand new backpacks and school supplies which helps to ensure another year of academic readiness for them. 

Many thanks to Marian Imperatore and Lois Melka for accepting the chairperson positions for the School Supplies Drive. We again extend a huge thank you to the former co-chairs Jane Murphy and Sally Golding for their years of work with School Supplies. They did a fantastic job on behalf of the Christ Child Society in keeping this as one of our most successful signature roles in the Summit community. Our partnership with Bridges is an important one and we look forward to a long future with them and the school community. We are confident that Marian and Lois will carry on this great tradition.  Again, please watch for the signup and consider filling a time slot at the end of the summer. Teenagers are welcome to help on the setup day only. Adult volunteers only for the actual distribution to the children and their families.




Tutoring Program at OLHC

Our tutoring program had a lot of success in our second full year of our partnership with Our Lady Help of Christians (OLHC) School in East Orange. We met most weeks this year from late September through mid-May. Our ideal number of volunteers remains at 10-12 people and that will be our goal once again next school year. OLHC School students are a special group of children and we were thrilled to have Sister Pat, the principal of this school, attend our Baby Shower Luncheon. The more members who come and tutor, the more children we can help, so we hope you will consider joining us next school year, for any kind of time commitment you can manage. 

Many thanks to Barbara Fleming who served as our Tutoring Chairperson for this past year. As a former schoolteacher, she has been a dedicated volunteer to the tutoring program and we are very grateful to Barbara for helping us launch the tutoring program and keep it fully running. We are very grateful to Kathi Rodgers for agreeing to step up as the new chairperson of our Tutoring Program. She will do a wonderful job at keeping us organized and engaged with these children.

Knitting Angels

  

We had a total of four knitting gatherings this year. Each one took place at a home and was a big hit for all the delicious food and wonderful conversation that occurred. Please remember that we have many excellent knitters in the organization that could teach you to knit in no time. The baby hats included in all of our layettes are such an important piece. We knitters are a chatty group...you will always leave with a great new recipe, interesting book title to buy or laughing about a story told.


Our gracious chairpersons, Jeanne Lawler and Cynthia Tarantino, did a wonderful job of keeping the motivation going on Knitting Angels and recruited many wonderful new members to the Angels. Remember, no experience is needed, it's an excellent way to start a new hobby and make your own personal impact on our Layettes of Love!!

In fact, here's a special note from our wonderful chairs:

  SUMMER KNITTING, ANYONE?

If any member needs yarn or a starter knitting kit for the beach or the backyard, please reach out to Cynthia (ctarantino991@comcast.net) by June 26th. Throughout the summer, knitted items can be dropped on the porch at 18 Highland Drive, Summit,(on the corner of Rotary and Highland) in the brown basket.

Wishing you all a healthy, happy and safe Summer!  Best, Cynthia and Jeanne

 
Generous Donations from Two Very Different Organizations!


CCS received a very welcome Mother's Day gift of $4,000 from St. Teresa's parish in honor of all the wonderful work we do in support of Mothers and Babies in our community. Many thanks to Father Bob and all the parishioners for their continued support of our great mission!

You may also recall in April one of our newest and most energetic members, Rebecca Michalopolous, hosted an Ellie Kai clothing sales event with the commitment of donating a portion of the proceeds directly to the CCS. Rebecca presented us recently with a $600 donation. We are very grateful to Rebecca for her enthusiasm and generosity towards the Christ Child organization! 

Blankets for Babies Day


On February 7th, we met for our 6th Annual B4B Day. Our fearless B4B leader Theresa Sweeney once again championed a very successful and productive day of  hard work. We are grateful for all the volunteers that fringed, cut, sewed and tied knots for our adorable and comfy blankets.  The long but fun day produced 115 Blankets and left 100 "in progress" blankets to be  later completed at the Elks Club Blankets for Babies Night on  March 22nd .


Elks Blankets for Babies

Continuing with Theresa's enthusiasm we continued our success on March 22nd at the Elks Club with completion of our target number of blankets. We are grateful to our faithful donor and host, the Summit Elks Lodge #1246. In addition to hosting this social but very productive evening, they have gave the CCS a grant of $2000 again this past year to put towards our layette  supplies.




12th Annual Baby Shower
  
Our CCS Mass and Baby Shower was a great success again this year. We had over 110 people attend the Mass and Luncheon. Many thanks again to our Baby Shower co-chairs Lynne Strabley and Beth Tully who chaired the event for a second year in a row and did an outstanding job. We are excited because they have offered to co-chair the event again next year!

We raised over $4,500 and collected hundreds of dollars worth of  layette items that will be used and worn proudly by our most needy families in the area.

If you missed it in a previous email, here's a link to view some photos taken at the shower.
                                                    CLICK HERE
Layettes and Layette Assembly

Our first time co-chairs Sheila Herr, Shelly Scott and Laura Sullivan had big shoes to fill replacing former chairperson Cheryl Mullery with planning, organizing, shopping, driving and facilitating the multiple layette assemblies this year. They did a fantastic job! 

The final layette assembly of the year was on May 9th. Our dedicated volunteers assembled and delivered 72 summer layettes to the Morristown and Summit clinics. As a reminder about what is typically included in our CCS layettes, we packed the following in each layette:
5 onesies
2 pajamas
1 outfit
1 hand-knit hat (Thank You Knitting Angels!)
2 receiving blankets
1 hooded towel and washcloth 
Miscellaneous items
One handmade fleece blanket (Thank You Blankets for Babies event!)


Spiritual Corner

In the winter and spring we enjoyed two lovely Home Masses thanks to Angeli Breen and Lori White. We were able to meet and introduce what we are all about to Father Bob of St. Teresa's at Angeli's as well as enjoy our beloved longtime fan of the CCS,  Monsignor Guenther at Lori's home. We are grateful to Donna Groskoph for her planning of these events as well as the Baby Shower Mass. We look forward to what will be in store for us next fall for our Morning of Reflection event. 
  

Social Corner

Our January Bring a Friend Meeting at Marianne Suffern's was a great night with over 50 women attending as reported earlier in the year. We had some new members join after that event which was wonderful and we look forward to integrating those new members into our activities and events next year.

We continued the tradition of our spring cocktail party this year at Terry Andrews' beautiful home. Although it was a smaller attendance than the wintertime due to hectic spring schedules, the evening was a lot of fun for those who attended. 


Layette Cards for Sale Reminder


Once again we are so grateful to Angeli Breen for her marketing and creative expertise with our Layette Card gift sales. Please remember that cards can be purchased at any time by logging on to the CCS website. You can visit it right now by clicking below:


Looking Ahead  

As always, if you have a friend who is interested in the Christ Child Society and wants to take a look and see what we do and how we all interact, please feel free to bring them along to any meeting, Home Mass or event. All are welcome. Keep in mind our first general membership meeting of the 2018-19 year will be on Thursday, September 20th and its a great time to reconnect after the summer and/or introduce someone to what the CCS is all about.

Also, we have made the decision to create a Finance Committee for the 2018-19 year. Tina Whitman, our Financial VP on the Board, will be chair the committee. If you are looking for some light work to do from home, meetings will be limited to four times a year, please reach out to Tina for more information or to join the committee. Tina can be reached at swhit88@aol.com.

Please forward any suggestions or comments to our email address, we always welcome new ideas about how we can make your Christ Child Society experience a wonderful one.


The Christ Child Society of Summit is a qualified 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to serving children in need in our community.  We are one of over 40 chapters of the National Christ Child Society, a non-profit organization founded in 1887 by Mary Virginia Merrick that is dedicated to serving the needs of children and youth, regardless of race or creed, through the personal service of its members.

Christ Child Society of Summit
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