Earlier this year, we had such a wonderful response to the Goochland Family YMCA Snack Drive! Thanks to the generosity of this parish, we were able to not only provide snack bags for one month but from February through May!

We are hoping to provide snack bags again from October through December. The Goochland Family YMCA services 43 kids in their after school program who are food insecure when they go home. Providing snack bags is a wonderful way to support our neighbors. Click on this link to see the type of snacks we need donated.

Please drop any snack donations in the grocery cart in the back of New St. Mary's or outside St. Mary's Church Offices through Sunday, October 24. If you have any questions, please email Charmaine Trice. 

St. Mary’s invites you to save the date for “BBQ & Brews: A Gathering to Benefit Outreach” on Friday, November 5 at 6:30 p.m. In previous years, we have hosted “Date with the Daffodils” but now are changing up the Outreach Fundraiser to a more casual, outdoor event to celebrate all being able to gather and be back together. There will be music, firepits, fellowship, beer, wine, BBQ, and raffles! Tickets are $25 per person and all proceeds go towards supporting the Outreach Ministry. More information about how to purchase tickets coming soon, so save the date! 

The Outreach Ministry Committee is continuing to offer an opportunity to assist GoochlandCARES in their Clothes Closet. The next volunteer opportunity at GoochlandCARES is scheduled for this Sunday, October 10 after the 11 a.m. service. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Charmaine Trice via email or Dick Thomas via email.

St. Mary’s is excited to announce that Cameron Vivanco, Founder of Education Equals Hope (E=H), and Celeste Bundy, Executive Director of E=H, are visiting St. Mary’s in two weeks! E=H is St. Mary’s outreach partner in Ecuador whose mission is to “provide for the education of those living in desperate and difficult situations.”

In partnership with Wayne Dementi of Dementi Milestone Publishing and St. Mary’s, Cameron has authored “ABC’s from Ecuador, with Hope,” a children’s book that provides K-4 readers with a Spanish-English overview, organized by the letters of the alphabet, with a photographic journal of the places and culture of Ecuador. On Sunday, October 17, we will welcome Cameron as the guest preacher at both the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. services. And she will do a reading of the book, which will be available to purchase, to the Sunday School kids at 10 a.m. All proceeds will benefit Education Equals Hope. We hope you will join us this Sunday morning to welcome them!

In addition, Education Equals Hope's third annual Day of Giving Hope is on Wednesday, October 13. All the money raised will go directly to Education Equals Hope's mission to provide for the education of over 1,300 students around the world who are living in desperate and difficult situations. For more information, you can visit their website. Will you donate to provide HOPE through education in the months/years ahead? You can make a secure, tax-deductible gift online. Help E=H make this One Day of Giving = A Lifetime of HOPE!

During the month of September, we collected school supplies for St. Andrew's School! Thank you to everyone who donated! We received over 175 glue sticks, 740 sheets of construction paper, 75 dry erase markers, and many more supplies including crayons, markers, notebooks, etc. It was such an incredible response and will be greatly appreciated by the teachers and students of St. Andrew's School. St. Andrew's School is one of St. Mary's outreach partners and grant recipients. They believe "every child deserves an education that equips them to thrive."