To all: Thank you for your time and dedication to our sister parish and the upcoming trip to St. Gabriel in Balaclava. We covered a lot at this meeting, so if you weren’t there, please read carefully. Attendees: Deb Carothers, Norman, Josh, Brittain, Julia, Katherine, John & Sandra.
Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 11th @ 7:30pm in Gathering Space.
What we discussed in our meeting last Tuesday (June 18)
1) Car Wash/ Raffle: Continue getting more people to fill up the spots, reaching out by email to the alumni in case they want to help. Looking pretty good. Bring supplies like hoses, splitters, buckets, sponges, squeegees, towels. Have your name on them to ensure you get back. Raffle Tickets will be sold after masses by someone from the car-wash list. (Rain out date is July 6-7). Josh Dickey submitting the mass announcement. Katherine & John leaving for 2-weeks will not be back until July 8th.
2) Required Forms: There is a packet with 4 forms to be signed. (5 for youth). These were handed out and need to be turned in at the parish office or to Sandra. It includes a background check. All participants should also attend “Protecting God’s Children” if they haven’t already.
3) Vaccination: Don’t forget that the CDC recommends the Typhoid Vaccination before going to Jamaica. County health department usually has it ($90 for injection).
4) Insurance: Brittain will be emailing to the group the option/how to purchase your own individual trip insurance, in case you want to buy it.
5) Itinerary: Flights are booked on AirTran, leaving KCI @ 5:20am on July 23 and returning at 11:10pm on July 30th. Fr. Mushi is working on getting a Coaster bus to take us from Montego Bay airport to Balaclava. The 11 of us will be staying at Ms. Faith’s, Fr.’s house and the Sisters’ home. Fr. Mushi is fine with us staying in Balaclava the night of July 29th – he will arrange his vacation accordingly.
6) Vacation Bible Camp: Deb Carothers will be coordinating the program for the 24-25-26th, with Katherine’s help for planning/using the craft supplies that we have already on-hand. Many of us will be helping with this. We will need to have extra pieces of luggage for packing these supplies prior to leaving (maybe Sunday, 7/21?).
7) Other plans: Helping with the parish BBQ on Saturday (27th); Sports & free-time activities will be coordinated, probably a good fit for Olivia Messina & Carolyn & Logan (?). Our next meeting will further define these and what needs to be packed. Possibility of a day at “Black River”? Decide later how this would fit in at the end of the trip. Possibililty of a cultural exchange/talent show? Also, the Sisters home is in need of some painting so we can plan on doing this too. Scholarship meetings for parishioners, Josh & Sandra should occur also as this is a primary goal for the trip.
8) Picnic Table: Norman will be out of town this weekend, but will coordinate with Sandra/Kent Scheuler to get picnic table delivered to Gathering Space for purpose of selling raffle tickets at masses. Norman also has already purchased enough bolts/screws to make 2 more picnic tables. He will send one set with the mission trip team in case we can gather wood in order to make a table there. The other set will be used to make another picnic table for a future raffle. Thanks Norman!
9) Faith Sharing: Julia invited group to meet at Lorie Sage’s house on Tuesday, June 25th @ 10:00am if you want to help create a spiritual guide/novena for the group to use individually on the 9 days leading up to our trip. Lorie’s address is 6911 NE 53rd St. The information will be given to the rest of the group at next meeting.
10) Going through Customs: Per John Mischlich: ensure that we all know how to fill out the Customs form BEFORE we get to the line in Jamaica. This caused delay last time because we need to have the address/phone number of where we are staying. Sandra will get a form, fill it out these parts and copy for each to have on that day when we get to KCI. REMEMBER to keep the portion of the form as it will be needed when we go through customs to return to US.
11) Monetary Donations: Hopefully, our fundraising efforts will enable us to take donations to our hosts as we have in the past: $200 for Ms. Faith, $500 to Fr. Mushi and $200 for Sisters.
12) Missionaries’ Cost for trip: Currently, our funds are $1567.06 (from bake sale/raffle). This divides up to $100 per person (roughly), plus the $100 deposit each has paid already – means we have each covered $200 of the costs so far. The estimated cost per person could be around $625 approximately (including groceries, bus and donations), so we hope God blesses us with a very successful car wash/raffle.
13) Jamaica Mission Trip booklet: John Mischlich will email this booklet he has prepared over the years so that it can be updated with the information on the forms, or for the forms to be included in the booklet. Thanks, John!
Please let me know if I forgot to mention anything!
Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 11th @ 7:30pm in Gathering Space.
What we discussed in our meeting last Tuesday (June 18)
1) Car Wash/ Raffle: Continue getting more people to fill up the spots, reaching out by email to the alumni in case they want to help. Looking pretty good. Bring supplies like hoses, splitters, buckets, sponges, squeegees, towels. Have your name on them to ensure you get back. Raffle Tickets will be sold after masses by someone from the car-wash list. (Rain out date is July 6-7). Josh Dickey submitting the mass announcement. Katherine & John leaving for 2-weeks will not be back until July 8th.
2) Required Forms: There is a packet with 4 forms to be signed. (5 for youth). These were handed out and need to be turned in at the parish office or to Sandra. It includes a background check. All participants should also attend “Protecting God’s Children” if they haven’t already.
3) Vaccination: Don’t forget that the CDC recommends the Typhoid Vaccination before going to Jamaica. County health department usually has it ($90 for injection).
4) Insurance: Brittain will be emailing to the group the option/how to purchase your own individual trip insurance, in case you want to buy it.
5) Itinerary: Flights are booked on AirTran, leaving KCI @ 5:20am on July 23 and returning at 11:10pm on July 30th. Fr. Mushi is working on getting a Coaster bus to take us from Montego Bay airport to Balaclava. The 11 of us will be staying at Ms. Faith’s, Fr.’s house and the Sisters’ home. Fr. Mushi is fine with us staying in Balaclava the night of July 29th – he will arrange his vacation accordingly.
6) Vacation Bible Camp: Deb Carothers will be coordinating the program for the 24-25-26th, with Katherine’s help for planning/using the craft supplies that we have already on-hand. Many of us will be helping with this. We will need to have extra pieces of luggage for packing these supplies prior to leaving (maybe Sunday, 7/21?).
7) Other plans: Helping with the parish BBQ on Saturday (27th); Sports & free-time activities will be coordinated, probably a good fit for Olivia Messina & Carolyn & Logan (?). Our next meeting will further define these and what needs to be packed. Possibility of a day at “Black River”? Decide later how this would fit in at the end of the trip. Possibililty of a cultural exchange/talent show? Also, the Sisters home is in need of some painting so we can plan on doing this too. Scholarship meetings for parishioners, Josh & Sandra should occur also as this is a primary goal for the trip.
8) Picnic Table: Norman will be out of town this weekend, but will coordinate with Sandra/Kent Scheuler to get picnic table delivered to Gathering Space for purpose of selling raffle tickets at masses. Norman also has already purchased enough bolts/screws to make 2 more picnic tables. He will send one set with the mission trip team in case we can gather wood in order to make a table there. The other set will be used to make another picnic table for a future raffle. Thanks Norman!
9) Faith Sharing: Julia invited group to meet at Lorie Sage’s house on Tuesday, June 25th @ 10:00am if you want to help create a spiritual guide/novena for the group to use individually on the 9 days leading up to our trip. Lorie’s address is 6911 NE 53rd St. The information will be given to the rest of the group at next meeting.
10) Going through Customs: Per John Mischlich: ensure that we all know how to fill out the Customs form BEFORE we get to the line in Jamaica. This caused delay last time because we need to have the address/phone number of where we are staying. Sandra will get a form, fill it out these parts and copy for each to have on that day when we get to KCI. REMEMBER to keep the portion of the form as it will be needed when we go through customs to return to US.
11) Monetary Donations: Hopefully, our fundraising efforts will enable us to take donations to our hosts as we have in the past: $200 for Ms. Faith, $500 to Fr. Mushi and $200 for Sisters.
12) Missionaries’ Cost for trip: Currently, our funds are $1567.06 (from bake sale/raffle). This divides up to $100 per person (roughly), plus the $100 deposit each has paid already – means we have each covered $200 of the costs so far. The estimated cost per person could be around $625 approximately (including groceries, bus and donations), so we hope God blesses us with a very successful car wash/raffle.
13) Jamaica Mission Trip booklet: John Mischlich will email this booklet he has prepared over the years so that it can be updated with the information on the forms, or for the forms to be included in the booklet. Thanks, John!
Please let me know if I forgot to mention anything!