Your Catholic Charities has been hard at work collecting items and monetary donations to support those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Since the first evacuees arrived on Friday, August 25, your Catholic Charities has been lending a helping hand. On Friday August 25 evening we delivered blankets to the first arrivals at one of the shelters. The next day we cleared shelves of clothing at the Guadalupe Community Center and shared diapers from Seton Home in order to provide for more arrivals. Since Monday-August 28, when we opened our Hurricane Harvey Relief Drive we have received the following:
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- Totals so far:
- • over $100,000 in monetary donations
- • thousand of cases of water
- • thousands of hygiene items
- • thousands of items of clothing-including many new items. We received a call from Silver Jeans in New York City wanting to donate 400 pairs of jeans
and Dennis Uniform in San Antonio, donated boxes of new clothing as well. - •thousands of non perishable food items.
On Thursday, August 31 we loaded 5 trucks full of donations for Catholic Charities Corpus Christi. We have help from over 300 volunteers. Many came from local Catholic Schools and Parishes.
There is still a need for donations and volunteers. We are planning on taking trucks to Victoria and Houston when they are ready for us. Antonio Fernandez, CEO & President of Catholic Charities San Antonio, said “We pledge our support to our fellow Catholic Charites in Texas, we will continue to do all we can to help you recover from this tragedy for as long as it takes”
Volunteers will be assisting with receiving, sorting & inventory incoming donations at 2127 S. Zarzamora formerly St. Stephens Church. Monday, Wednesday & Friday
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Tuesday & Thursday
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM
1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Please go to ccaosa.givepulse.com to sign up! Or email debra.silva@ccaosa.org
Gift from CCUSA
About $3 million in funds raised by donors across the country to be given to Catholic Charities agencies impacted by Hurricane Harvey to assist in their immediate and long-term disaster response efforts was announced and checks were presented by Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), in an event on Labor Day, Sept. 4, at Catholic Charities of San Antonio headquarters.
CCUSA’s Mobile Response Center (MRC) vehicle, which is filled with emergency supplies, recently departed from Alexandria, Va., for Texas and was present at the event. The MRC will remain in Texas and is currently headed to the coast to assist Catholic Charities agencies with response efforts.
Others present at the check presentations in addition to Sister Markham were Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS, of San Antonio, Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of the neighboring Diocese of Victoria, which has suffered damage from the hurricane; J. Antonio Fernandez, president/CEO of Archdiocese of San Antonio Catholic Charities; Bishop Emeritus Michael Pfeifer, OMI, of the Diocese of San Angelo; and Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The USCCB has requested that all Catholic parishes in the U.S. take up a special collection for Hurricane Harvey relief work.
Also, representatives from Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Catholic Charities Southeast Texas, and Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi were in San Antonio for the presentation, as the Alamo city is serving as a hub from which relief operations can be based.
Earlier in the day, Sister Markham, Msgr. Bransfield, and Fernandez met with and thanked volunteers at the site of the former St. Stephen’s Church in southwest San Antonio, as volunteers and Catholic Charities employees were sorting through and stacking truckloads of donations that will soon be shipped to the thousands of victims of the hurricane-force winds and flooding from Harvey.
“The $3 million already raised by Catholic Charities USA for immediate and long-term recovery efforts is a testament to the generous spirit and always-ready willingness of Catholics across the country to lend a helping hand to their neighbors in need,” said Archbishop Gustavo. “We have all seen the images of the unprecedented destruction which this massive natural disaster has wrought. It will be years before some areas of Texas and Louisiana recover.”
Catholic Charities has been and will continue to be one of the primary responders to this tragedy.
He continued, “The organization has a professional, well-developed system of reviewing the needs and providing help where it can accomplish the most good. That is why I urged all of the entities of our archdiocese to coordinate their relief efforts through Catholic Charities.”
The archbishop expressed that he was grateful beyond words for the funds as well as for the multitude of efforts that will continue in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
“However, most of all, the prayers for the victims and those suffering from the effects of Hurricane Harvey have provided the peace and strength needed to undertake this vital work of relief, recovery, and rebuilding, as Pope Francis has stated.”
