17th Annual Advent Alternative Gift Fair
December 6-16, 2020
Welcome to our virtual Gathering Space
We invite you to take time listening & learning about each of these organizations, the work they do in the world to practice the corporal works of mercy, to strengthen the bonds of solidarity, and seek the inbreaking of God's kingdom here on earth.
At the very end of the page is a form... We'd love to keep track of your support and so we would ask everyone who makes a donation to complete this form. If possible, we encourage you to give directly at the specified website of each organization. If you strongly prefer to donate through Immaculate Conception by check, you can do so (include that in the below form!)
If you would like to pick up honor cards, so you can share with loved ones that you have offered a gift in their name, please indicate how many cards you would like and for which organizations! They will be ready for pick-up at the Parish office by Friday, December 11th
At the very end of the page is a form... We'd love to keep track of your support and so we would ask everyone who makes a donation to complete this form. If possible, we encourage you to give directly at the specified website of each organization. If you strongly prefer to donate through Immaculate Conception by check, you can do so (include that in the below form!)
If you would like to pick up honor cards, so you can share with loved ones that you have offered a gift in their name, please indicate how many cards you would like and for which organizations! They will be ready for pick-up at the Parish office by Friday, December 11th
Strengthening the Bonds of Solidarity Locally, Statewide, and Around the World
My Neighbor Ministries
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Lunch bags are prepared and distributed weekly. Toiletry bags are distributed when donations come in. Clothing -- especially gloves, socks, and blankets -- are the items in greatest need and gratefully accepted by folks living on the streets during this winter season. Your financial contribution -- or volunteering or donations -- are vital to sustain this ministry... and may help give you a constructive way to assuage the feelings you have when you say "no" to the next person you see flying a sign.
Donate Here - Select "My Neighbors Ministry" on our IC Online Giving Platform |
How do you feel when you pass somebody on the street asking for help? Do you ever wish you could stop, create the space to actually get to know the person? This is the work of My Neighbor Ministry and the art of its leader, Tony Johnson. Four times each week a group of volunteers brings the food and creates the space for meals with folks living on the streets and experiencing homelessness. The culture of the gathering is one that encourages authentic relationship building. The aim is to love our neighbors by doing the Corporal Works of Mercy and building relationships. Tony has been living this ministry full time for 3 years and Immaculate Conception has recently become a fiscal sponsor to facilitate growth of this ministry. Tony has been an active member of IC's Wednesday Morning Men's Bible Study for many years as well as a 20 year dancer and choreographer with the American Dance Festival.
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Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD) connects with the community to end homelessness and fight poverty by offering food, shelter and a future to neighbors in need. Last year, UMD assisted 6,304 men, women and children, including 804 who spent time with us in our emergency shelter. Our community café served 241,051 meals to those who were hungry, and our food pantry and clothing closet furnished essential items to 519 low-wealth households per month.
Due to COVID-19, we are now operating two shelter locations, one at our downtown campus and the other for medically fragile residents at the Carolina-Duke Inn. In addition, most of our 4,000 volunteers have had to take a break from helping us because of the pandemic. This has placed significant strain on our staff and increased our costs to ensure that needs are met. We’re extremely grateful for Immaculate Conception’s continued, generous support of this important work. Your contribution of:
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For Urban Ministries Donate Here
Donors will receive an acknowledgment message and receipt via Network for Good. IMPORTANT: We need donors to type in ICAAGF in the dedication field of our online gift form to track gifts coming from the Immaculate Conception Advent Alternative Gift Fair. Thank you.
Donors will receive an acknowledgment message and receipt via Network for Good. IMPORTANT: We need donors to type in ICAAGF in the dedication field of our online gift form to track gifts coming from the Immaculate Conception Advent Alternative Gift Fair. Thank you.
Remembering those in prison || Our Children's Place
Our Children’s Place of Coastal Horizons is a statewide program (based in Durham) committed to the children of incarcerated and returning parents. We strive to be the leading North Carolina advocate and educational resource focused on the children and the need for a statewide response to ensure their well-being.
We conduct workshops (in person and virtually) across the state, provide resource materials (printed and electronic handouts, book lists, Sesame Street tool kits, etc.) for professionals and community members, and work to create opportunities to support the relationship between children and their incarcerated parents. H.A.T.S. (Handcrafted And Totally Special), which has expanded beyond just hats, is an important part of our community outreach and education work. It is a wonderful combination of generous community members who donate yarn; talented women at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women (NCCIW) who make hats and other items; and curious shoppers who make donations in exchange for these handcrafted items. Although we won’t have our hats on display at Immaculate Conception this year, they are still available for folks who are interested. Please call or email us at (919) 904-4286 or mradcliff@coastalhorizons.org to learn more about what we have available. Donate Here |
Protectress of the Oppressed, Kelly Latimore, used with Artist Permission
https://www.artpal.com/KLicons
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Urgent Hurricane Relief for Honduras through ProPapa Missions
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Hear from Rosa Peña, teacher at Immaculata, Suyapa Silvia, longtime parishioner at Immaculate Conception and Sister Laurinda Mayer who give a picture of how recent hurricanes have left many in need of relief and support.
For Hurricane Relief to Honduras: DONATE HERE |
ProPapa Missions America is a non-profit organization that supports improving health, education, and housing for those in need, particularly in the Province of Yoro, Honduras.
In less than 2 weeks in November, Honduras was hit by both Hurricane Eta and Tropical Storm Iota. The intense winds and rainfall caused severe wind damage and catastrophic flooding. Hundreds of thousands people have been displaced from their homes. Agriculture and livestock have been swept away by flooding. There is a dire need for food, water, hygiene products, clothing, tents, blankets. Sr. Laurinda Mayer, a missionary from the US, established ProPapa Mission with Benigno Ramirez in 1988. Sr. Laurinda and Mrs. Rosa Pena, Spanish teacher, met in Honduras. During November 2020, Benigno Ramirez has worked tirelessly evacuating entire villages to safe areas. Benigno has been delivering food, water, and supplies using a boat where roads had been. This is a plea for help for a nation in urgent need of aid. Any donation will help and will be greatly appreciated. Sr. Laurinda also requests PRAYERS. Thank you! |
Sister Communities of San Ramón Nicaragua (SCSRN)
Sister Communities of San Ramón Nicaragua (SCSRN) partners with San Ramón, Nicaragua to support education and community development initiatives that build friendship, understanding, environmental preservation, and respect for human rights. SCSRN gives priority to projects that are designed and proposed by members of the San Ramón community, with the goal of meeting community-identified needs.
For our Sister City in San Ramón Donate Here
- Los Pipitos San Ramón (Center for Children with Disabilities) is volunteer managed and provides free physical therapy and early intervention services. Funds provide physical and speech therapists. Some children being seen at Los Pipitos are eventually able to attend regular school and this is a first for special needs children in Nicaragua.
- WASH with UMOYS is a project designed by a group of rural women leaders to meet the needs of water and sanitation in their communities.
- Energy Efficiency Initiative....SCSRN provides materials for families to construct a concrete latrine near their homes. Fuel Efficient Wood Stoves Traditional cooking wood stoves produce a lot of smoke inside homes and necessitate the cutting down of trees for fuel. SCSRN has begun to install in homes, ceramic wood stoves that are very fuel efficient and vent outside. The fuel box is small and just burns small sticks so trees don’t need to be cut down.
For our Sister City in San Ramón Donate Here
Bread for the World
Bread for the World, founded in 1974, is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision-makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, Bread for the World’s members provide help and opportunity far beyond Durham and North Carolina.
Bread for the World’s Credo expresses well why more than 70,000 Christians throughout our nation, including over 2,000 in NC, support this advocacy ministry:
We are moved by God's grace in Jesus Christ to work for justice for hungry people. They may be in the next house. Or in the next country. No matter where they live, they are our neighbors. And we have the power to help. Charity alone is not enough. We must urge our government to make fair decisions so struggling families can provide for their children. We must write personal letters and emails to Congress and engage our churches, campuses, and other organizations. We must change laws and structures that allow poverty to persist. When we turn our faith into action, God uses our voices. Again and again, we win help and opportunity. Two fish become many. Five loaves become enough to feed a multitude.
God is moving in our time to end hunger, and we are part of this great liberation. It is our mission to help our neighbors. Wherever they live. They are hungry. And we are Bread for the World.
In 2020, Bread for the World members from around the nation have been and are advocating with their elected members of the U.S. Congress to ensure that federal legislation responding to the COVID-19 pandemic includes robust funding for SNAP (formerly food stamps) and other national and international nutrition assistance programs. The widespread unemployment associated with efforts to contain the pandemic has increased food insecurity for millions of Americans and estimates are that more than 150 million people around the world are falling back into extreme poverty because of the pandemic. Federal assistance continues to be needed to prevent increased hunger and food insecurity in our nation and to help our hungry sisters and brothers around the world.
In Durham County alone, some 40,000 people rely on SNAP benefits to help feed themselves and their families every month and more than two-thirds of the approximately 30,000 children enrolled in the Durham Public Schools qualify for federally-subsidized free and reduced-price meals.
Immaculate Conception Church has supported Bread for the World for many years. Due to the pandemic, our 2020 Offering of Letters was conducted virtually. We know that in 2019, church members wrote nearly 500 letters to our Senators and Representatives, encouraging them to support a Global Nutrition Resolution. This included nearly one hundred letters written by the teenagers who were candidates for the sacrament of Confirmation. The Confirmation candidates also wrote nearly one hundred letters to Congress at their retreat in early March 2020, just before the pandemic-induced “lockdown” of the economy. Children studying at Immaculata School also often participate in the parish’s Offering of Letters.
Bread for the World annually offers a beautiful Christmas card for purchase, and we have made these cards available at the Alternative Gift Fair. This year, we invite you to purchase cards directly from Bread for the World at www.bread.org. You also may make a monetary gift to Bread for the World without purchasing Christmas cards.
Donations to Bread for the World are NOT tax-deductible. If you prefer to make a tax-deductible contribution, please send your gift to the “Bread for the World Institute,” the research and educational arm of Bread for the World.
Bread for the World’s Credo expresses well why more than 70,000 Christians throughout our nation, including over 2,000 in NC, support this advocacy ministry:
We are moved by God's grace in Jesus Christ to work for justice for hungry people. They may be in the next house. Or in the next country. No matter where they live, they are our neighbors. And we have the power to help. Charity alone is not enough. We must urge our government to make fair decisions so struggling families can provide for their children. We must write personal letters and emails to Congress and engage our churches, campuses, and other organizations. We must change laws and structures that allow poverty to persist. When we turn our faith into action, God uses our voices. Again and again, we win help and opportunity. Two fish become many. Five loaves become enough to feed a multitude.
God is moving in our time to end hunger, and we are part of this great liberation. It is our mission to help our neighbors. Wherever they live. They are hungry. And we are Bread for the World.
In 2020, Bread for the World members from around the nation have been and are advocating with their elected members of the U.S. Congress to ensure that federal legislation responding to the COVID-19 pandemic includes robust funding for SNAP (formerly food stamps) and other national and international nutrition assistance programs. The widespread unemployment associated with efforts to contain the pandemic has increased food insecurity for millions of Americans and estimates are that more than 150 million people around the world are falling back into extreme poverty because of the pandemic. Federal assistance continues to be needed to prevent increased hunger and food insecurity in our nation and to help our hungry sisters and brothers around the world.
In Durham County alone, some 40,000 people rely on SNAP benefits to help feed themselves and their families every month and more than two-thirds of the approximately 30,000 children enrolled in the Durham Public Schools qualify for federally-subsidized free and reduced-price meals.
Immaculate Conception Church has supported Bread for the World for many years. Due to the pandemic, our 2020 Offering of Letters was conducted virtually. We know that in 2019, church members wrote nearly 500 letters to our Senators and Representatives, encouraging them to support a Global Nutrition Resolution. This included nearly one hundred letters written by the teenagers who were candidates for the sacrament of Confirmation. The Confirmation candidates also wrote nearly one hundred letters to Congress at their retreat in early March 2020, just before the pandemic-induced “lockdown” of the economy. Children studying at Immaculata School also often participate in the parish’s Offering of Letters.
Bread for the World annually offers a beautiful Christmas card for purchase, and we have made these cards available at the Alternative Gift Fair. This year, we invite you to purchase cards directly from Bread for the World at www.bread.org. You also may make a monetary gift to Bread for the World without purchasing Christmas cards.
Donations to Bread for the World are NOT tax-deductible. If you prefer to make a tax-deductible contribution, please send your gift to the “Bread for the World Institute,” the research and educational arm of Bread for the World.