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Date: 9/24/2020
EAST LONGMEADOW – St. Luke's Greek Orthodox Church challenged their parishioners to make donations toward a charity of their choice with a $300 gift – which led to the church donating over $50,000 to local charities.
The $300 gift was endowed to their parish and with the endowment it was earmarked for charitable goods.
Although that's the church’s challenge, Co-chair of the Church’s Stewardship Committee Meghan Dasco said, “It's not necessarily a challenge. It’s an initiative that our church has taken – an outside of the box approach to giving.”
The idea of this initiative was brought to them through the National Stewardship Committee of the Greek Orthodox Church at a stewardship seminar last fall, and was brought the discussion to the council.
The challenge at that point for all the churches, Dasco explained, is to get people in the door – to keep their parishioners in the pews.
“In this time when families are being torn in so many different places,” she explained, “we're seeing less and less parishioners in our church. Our stewardship department was coming up with other ways to get our people in the church. One of those ways is to show them the good that we do in our community.”
Approximately 170 parishioners participated. They filled out a card and wrote what they donated to anonymously. The church split $50,000 evenly so that everyone would get $300. They asked their parishioners to use that money to give in their own community or to a charity. To give a gift that would be used in a loving and faithful way. The church asked them to multiply the gift with their own money if they were able.
The charities that have been donated to include the East Longmeadow Food Bank, the Pan-Mass Challenge, No Kid Hungry and Gray House – a non-profit
Some of the families in the church were inspired by this initiative, Dasco said, and they doubled or tripled their gift.
“It's been very exciting to see what members have been able to do with the donations,” responded Dasco. “We really as a leadership in our church wanted our parishioners to be conduits in our community for good and faithful giving. We wanted them to understand and realize the joy of giving.”
She continued, “In giving them this gift, we ask them to go out into the community. To be challenged to make a greater gift and really get satisfaction from doing what we as Christians feel that it's most important to do, and that is to give.”
On another note, every year the church hosts their Taste of Greece festival. It’s an annual event honoring Greek food, music, dancing and traditions.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the Taste of Greece was cancelled.
Dasco explained, “The fact that all of our parishioners are the ones that make the food. We just couldn't have us all be together in a kitchen. Then of course for the social distancing during the festival was not possible.”
She also stated, “The cancellation of our festival doesn’t have anything to do with the challenge and gift we gave to our parishioners, but it's definitely what we are known for in the East Longmeadow community.”
The church had no plans of doing anything on a smaller scale for the festival. Dasco strongly explained that she puts the safety of the community and parishioners first.
For more information on St. Luke’s Greek Orthodox Church, contact Meghan Dasco 244-9093 or Fr. Panteleimon Klostri 525-4551.