Holy Trinity Philoptochos Hello from Philoptochos! We want to wish all the community a wonderful summer. The Philoptochos of Holy Trinity and the Metropolis of Chicago has been busy as usual. We had a successful Pascha sale of tsourekia, Koulouria and Easter ‘baskets’ for purchase. Thank you to all who made, donated and supported us in this venture. I participated in the Metropolis President’s meeting in February and a full report was sent to the members, but a few highlights are worth sharing here. Aid to Greece and Cyprus is needed now more than ever. The Archbishop and National Philoptochos President are meeting to see which is the best way to continue to give our support. Metropolis wide, 77,000 meals were served to the needy in the past 8 months. Whether is be by soup kitchens, sack lunches, etc.. We participated locally by making and giving away nearly 200 sack lunches this spring. Philanthropic donations in the sum of $42,000 were made thus far this year. The Metropolis membership currently stands at 3246! A major fund raiser has been the ‘Men in Black’ cooking event, in which our Metropolis priests sent in a video of them preparing a recipe which was then downloaded for anyone to watch for a donation to the Philanthropy fund. Watch our favorite priests, Fr. Luke, Fr. Dimitri and Father Tilemahos on the site! Go the the Metropolis website chicagophilo.org to find the info on this. We had our elections, which are help every 2 years. Our board met and elected myself as president, Julie Konidas as V.P., Maria Schultz as treasurer and Jessica Bariatakis as secretary. Thank you everyone for your support as we plan for the following years ahead. If you have a college age student, please give me their contact info so that we may share it with the OCF, Orthodox Christian Fellowship. October 7th is the Clergy/Laity Conference in St. Louis in which Philoptochos participates and November 6th is the National Children's Medical Luncheon in Indianapolis. If anyone would like to attend, please see me. We encourage you all to consider becoming active members of the Ladies Philoptochos of Holy Trinity. Men and nonOrthodox women can join as auxiliary members as well! At our final official meeting this spring, I brought up the below outreach project to our members. It is a wonderful way we can support our local community, which in turn has helped us over the years. Please see below. More information available on how to begin this project will be shared in the near future. If you would like to chair this committee, please see me. OPERATION CLASSROOM: The mission of the Operation Classroom Initiative is to assist and offer support to teachers and students in underserved or underfunded schools and provide resources that would not have been available through the local school district. The US Department of Education has announced that over 94% of public school teachers provide school supplies for their classrooms out of their own resources without any expectation of reimbursement. What if every Philoptochos chapter across the US adopts an underserved school in their community and provides needed support? Multiply the number of schools served by the number of students and imagine the lives we could reach and positively impact! For a small financial investment, Philoptochos stewards can affect the next generation of scientists, artists, religious leaders, teachers, and perhaps even a president. Our President challenges every chapter to get involved and adopt a school! Thank you! With sisterly love, Mary Baryo, President Summer 2021
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