Elizabeth Mostrom, left, donates baby bottles from the tri-parish collection to Kaley from New Hope Family Services. (Sun photo | James Mostrom)
By James Mostrom
Contributing writer
October was Respect Life Month, and to honor that the tri-parishes of St. Matthew’s in East Syracuse, St. Mary’s in Minoa and St. Francis in Bridgeport teamed up to collect loose change and bills in baby bottles for New Hope Family Services in Syracuse. Altogether, the parishes collected 39 bottles with a value over $1,678.
Kaley, the Director of Marketing and Events at New Hope who requested withholding of her surname, picked up two full baskets of the bottles on a recent weekday and was pleasantly surprised by the generosity of the parishes.
“Baby bottles are one of our biggest sources of income,” Kaley said in a recent interview. “Typically, our baby bottles go from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, but we wanted more Catholic churches to get involved, especially because October is Respect Life Month, so we thought that would be a good time to get them involved and just do a separate baby-bottle drive for the month.” She said the All Saints (Syracuse) and St. Margaret’s (Mattydale) parishes also were involved.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Mostrom of St. Mary’s coordinated the baby-bottle drive for the tri-parishes. She gratefully acknowledged the help she received from other parishioners including Laura Cavanaugh from St. Francis, Jane Fitzgerald from St. Mary’s and Anne Karkruff from St. Matthew’s when, during the drive, she had to deal with a medical emergency involving a close relative. “I couldn’t have done it without the help of so many who pitched in when I had to focus on my family,” she said.
New Hope provides pregnancy and maternal services free of charge to women with crisis pregnancies and relies on the generosity of donors to fund these services. Their other fundraisers include an in-person event in September and the 12 Days of Christmas giving campaign.
“We are prepping for 12 Days of Christmas donations to us,” Kaley said. The donor Facebook page for supporters is called Friends of New Hope Family Services. If people want to get involved with material items, donating clothes, “that’s a good way to follow along with what we’re doing,” she said.
Considering the results of this year’s tri-parish drive, Mostrom plans to do it again next year. “Oh, definitely,” she said. “And I would encourage other parishes to do the same. It goes to such a good cause.”
Kaley suggested, “Next year if more people want to be involved [in the October baby-bottle drive] they are more than welcome to email us and let us know that they want to.” She hopes many more parishes will join in. They can contact New Hope at [email protected] or 315-437-8300.
