Christmas of 2022, one of our grandsons, who lives in Willard, started a collection to benefit the children of Nelson Island, Alaska. He started by collecting toys and small gifts, as the island is in a remote rural area where it’s difficult to receive items except by boat or airplane. They collected several boxes of toys, clothing, and winter coats, paid for the transportation, which was exorbitant and after all the arrangements were completed, the shipment left Missouri and went to Alaska. Because of the distance, the children received their Christmas gifts in June.
After some research, the dedicated rural minister was located, and she was asked to use our donations to purchase whatever the children needed. Sister Kathy is most gentle, appreciative, and filled with joy. Every time she receives a check, she sends a thank you card to let us know how the money is being used. At the same time, she writes a bit about the weather, the children, and her ministry in rural Alaska. She tells us about the needs of the people, the difficulties in reaching the small villages as she takes care of her ministry and how little they have in funds to survive the inclement weather. We in turn send photos of our area, notes about our weather and good wishes for her ministry.
At St. Mary Catholic Church in Lamar, our Parish school of religion, which enrolls children from Kindergarten to High School, followed the idea to help the children of Nelson Island, asked the parishioners to bring their coins and place them in a jar. The idea is to collect the coins, fill the jar, bring them to the bank and receive a check to send to the Rural Ministry office to buy books for the children’s education in the rural areas, or to help one of the families.
There is another jar at the AmVets Post on Highway 32 in Stockton, where people deposit their coins to be sent to the Alaskan Rural Ministry. Once the coins are collected, the children send a “thank you” card to the bartender for taking care of the coins.
Several people have heard about this ministry and bring their own coin jar to either St. Mary church in Lamar or the AmVets post in Stockton to add to the existing coins in the jars.
If you want to save your coins to help the children in Nelson Island in Alaska, feel free to bring them to either location. We will take care of the rest. Sister Kathy will be most grateful.
