Christmas Greetings, Dear Friends,
With Christmas only days away, every Marist Brothershares my prayer that God fills your life with love, joy, and peace this holiday season and throughout the New Year. I also want to thank you for taking a moment to read my letter. I realize this is a very busy month, so, I’ll get to the point.
As you know from my previous letter, we must raise funds to renovate tiny, barely-functioning bathrooms in one of our larger Marist Brothers’ retirement facilities – and we haven’t met our financial goal yet. We still need $19,693 in order to build safe, functioning, handicap accessible bathrooms for our elderly and disabled Brothers.
We need your help! Please remember our Brothers with a gift this Christmas.
If you sense urgency in my tone, it’s because the current bathrooms pose a hazardous struggle for many of our elderly and disabled Brothers. Why, it’s barely possible to fit a walker or wheelchair through the old, tiny doorways. That’s just not safe!
To be wheelchair accessible, we need to widen the entryways and replace the swing doors with sliding doors, which are much easier to open and take up no floor space when open. We also plan to expand the bathrooms by “borrowing” space from an adjacent bedroom. That means tearing down and putting up walls before beginning extensive electrical and plumbing work.
Of course, there was no need for larger bathrooms when the building was constructed over 60 years ago. Back then, it was a monastery for our young teaching Brothers. Now that we’ve converted the home to a retirement facility, we face far different safety needs.
To protect our elderly and disabled Brothers’ safety, we must update the bathrooms. Can we count on your gift?
In the true spirit of Christmas, many kind friends replied to my first letter with a gift, which gave us hope to begin the bathroom updates in early 2019. But I can’t promise our elderly and disabled Brothers anything until we raise the remaining $19,693 needed.
We will be so thankful if you could take a moment and tuck a gift inside the enclosed envelope. If you’ve already mailed a gift, we will be extremely grateful for any additional aid you can send.
Whatever you can share will be such a blessing this Christmas.
And, yes, every gift – large or small – is indeed a blessing! It’s like the two nickels tucked
in with my letter. They only come to 10¢, but as you add many more coins the total grows. In the same way, once we add many gifts from many Marist Brothers’ friends, we’ll soon have the $19,693 needed!
I believe in my heart that you will remember our Brothers this Christmas! When you send your gift, please also remember to write your special intentions on the enclosed response slip. The Brothers and I will include your intentions in our daily prayers this Christmas season.
In closing, every Marist Brother joins me in wishing you good health, peace, and happiness. May all these be yours – today and every day.
God bless you for caring,
Br. Dan O’Riordan, F.M.S.
Director, Senior Brothers
