The weekend of September 23 and 24 the Haiti Ministry will again be collecting toys to be shipped to the children of our sister parish of St. Pierre in Ganthier, Haiti. As before, parishioners of all ages are invited to bring new, unwrapped toys to the altar during the offertory at any mass that weekend. Toys may also be left under the tree before or after the masses. The toys will then be collected and shipped to our kids in time for Christmas.
The toys need to be small enough to fit into shipping barrels. They should not require batteries (these cannot be replaced), nor require written instructions (they do not read English). This also means no English books (good kids books in Haitian Creole are available on Amazon), and we cannot accept toy guns or toy weapons of any kind. Some good suggestions are: black dolls, toy cars and trucks, bubbles, jump ropes, deflated soccer balls (they don’t play baseball), balls, stuffed animals, art supplies, blocks and building toys, cards, jewelry, hair clips and bows, etc.
You may also donate cash or checks which will be used to purchase toys. Checks should be made out to Blessed Sacrament Parish with “Christmas in September” written on the memo line; these and any cash can be placed in an envelope and dropped into the box under the tree designated for this purpose.
Email Haiti@cath-comm.org with any questions.