Ways We Serve
We experience the power, love, and generosity of God all the time. It happens that when you love somebody, you want to hang out with them. God’s love overflows into the world and surrounds all of us. While spending time with God we have found some of the ways God serves his beloved people. We wanted to join God in doing these things, too. The work we are privileged to share are things that enrich our community, in our neighborhood, and out into the world.
St. Jude Mission Center
The Mission Center provides food items and diapers to parents in need.
Senior Center
St. Jude’s hosts a wonderful five day a week Senior Program run by Catholic Charities.
Civil Air Patrol
The Civil Air Patrol is a US Air Force Auxiliary. CAP’s mission is supporting America’s communities with emergency response, diverse aviation and ground services, youth development and promotion of air, space and cyber power through aerospace education. Squadron 288 meets every Monday at St. Jude’s from 7p.m. until 9:30p.m.
Adopt a Family
In November and December, as Christmas we come together to help those in need.
We’re given a list of items that each person needs and our parishioners sign up to help bring joy to their holiday season by supplying these new gifts for underneath their Christmas trees.
Annual Blood Drive
In partnership with the local New York Blood Center, one of the largest community-based blood, cellular therapy and transfusion medicine research centers in the world, St. Jude holds an annual blood drive to support and participate in helping to save lives and strengthen our local communities.
Back to School Supply Collection
During the month of August, as we prepare our own children for back-to-school, we take time to remember that there are many families all across Long Island who have difficulty purchasing the necessary school supplies. We collect everything from crayons and pencils, to notebooks, backpacks and folders and donate them to local families in need.
Christmas Card Mailbox
Each year, at Christmas time, St. Jude has an internal “Christmas Card Mailbox.” For a small donation of just 10 cents per card, volunteers organize a card delivery system and we are able to exchange greetings and Christmas cards with other church members. All proceeds collected are donated to a charity chosen by the Sunday School.
Easter/Spring Sale
Held each year, two Sundays before Easter, the Sunday School children organize a sale to raise money for their chosen charity. All of the items for sale are hand made by the children!
Souperbowl of Caring
We collect finds to help end hunger go partnering with Tackle Hunger. Over the last three years alone, Tackle Hunger has collected over $25 million in dollars and food donations for hunger-relief charities across the country.
Local Soup Kitchens
On a weekly basis, St. Jude parishioners bring donations for local soup kitchens including the St. Francis Pantry and the Freeport Soup Kitchen. These pantries provide food, clothes, and basic provisions to those in our community in need of assistance.
In addition, each year before Thanksgiving, our parishioners collect Turkeys to bring to the pantry for those in need, and during Sunday School, the children of St. Jude decorate boxes with fall and thanksgiving stickers. At coffee hour that same day parishioners are invited to help create centerpieces out of baskets and fall flowers. The centerpieces are each paired with a decorated box. They are then given to the pantry to be used to deliver Thanksgiving food to households in the area, bringing a bit of Thanksgiving cheer to those who receive them.
