Please Help Save ST. Mary's Maris Stella Council
After a century of serving our community St. Mary’s / Maris Stella Knights of Columbus, a Lynbrook institution needs our help! This pillar of the community has been dedicated to service through monetarily supporting seminarians, providing scholarship opportunities for high school students, and providing aid to those in need throughout the community and beyond. We host yearly food pantry drives, toys for tots, blood drives, and Winter Coat donations to our local Parishes. Through our continued effort, we have been able to support such organizations as Our Lady of Peace, Our Lady of Lourdes, Camp Anchor, FEIS Na Nallog, National Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis, Little Sisters of the Poor, Queen of Peace Resident, Saint Jude’s Hospital, Nassau Charities; Mayham Long Island is a band of young adults with disabilities related to the Police Athletic league. Privately we held fundraisers for Jessica Venditto and friends of Daniel to help cover medical expenses. In the last eight years alone, we have donated $121,750.
We are an organization, which began one hundred years ago on February 13, 1921. Our first members consisted of post war veterans who felt a call to serve those in need and foster a sense of community in Lynbrook, NY. In 1940 our building hosted Our Lady of Peace church mass for over a year while construction of the church was underway. Since then we have worked with both our Lady of Peace and our Lady of Lourdes. Many in our community have memories associated with this place through our events held ranging from Lynbrook community seating with Santa, to weddings, birthdays, both Girl Scout and Boy Scout ceremonies, and many fraternal parties and outings.
The Covid -19 Pandemic has hit ST. Mary’s /Maris Stella extremely hard and although we were able to survive a year with limited income and continue to our work, it has become abundantly clear we will be unable to survive another. We are suffering and there is no immediate relief in sight. 2021 is our centennial year and in order to keep this great organization able to serve the community for another hundred years we will need to be able to cover our expenses. Fixed expenses for St. Mary’s / Maris Stella are $8,500 a month. In order for us to continue to pay for our building, we will need to raise $100,000. our goal.
UPDATE: Thanks to a series of raffles run by Bryan & Lisa Lanzello and Mike & Kerrie Habert we have lowered our goal to $55K. Their efforts raised a significant amount of money towards our original goal.
We know things are difficult for everyone right now and many worthy causes are seeking support. It is our hope that
ST. Mary’s / Maris Stella can count on yours.
