By Anne Havin

The Catholic Daughters of the Americas Catholic Charities Baby Shower was a complete success! I think this was our best year ever, as a result of very generous donations and the attendance of a special guest, one of Catholic Charities’ mothers, as well as our State Representative for the San Diego Diocese, Melody Ciaravino.

I really want to extend a special thanks to our own court and particularly to Dina and Kyle Howard (Sam & Rosa Caeti’s daughter and son-in-law) who made a very large contribution of clothes ranging from ages newborn to 2 years. We are eternally grateful to the Howards and all of the other ladies at Court #2520 for graciously donating the best of the best to our mothers and families in need.

On January 29th, we had arrived at Catholic Charities at 9:00 a.m. and it seemed that the schedule was changed to 10:00 a.m. However, this gave us plenty of time to set up before the other Courts arrived. The extra time also gave us an opportunity to meet our special guest and mother. She is a young woman who is married and a mother to 5 children. She appeared to be very courteous, grateful and yet humble. We were delighted to be able to talk about child-rearing stories with our special guest and realized that we, as women, had much in common.

As other ladies started to arrive, more baby clothes, blankets, diapers & toys were set out and everyone met our special guest finding it equally enjoyable exchanging stories. The CDA organizer of the baby shower, Rose Parknaven, thanked everyone for their wonderful contributions and introduced our dignitaries and our guest mother, Halima. Halima spoke about her experience with the Catholic Church through Catholic Charities. Her first baby was born with Downs Syndrome and her family had abandoned her. She turned to the Catholic Church who opened their arms to her with multiple avenues of assistance. She had continually articulated her gratitude to the Catholic Church as if they were her second family in the absence of her birth family. I think about how I had tears in my eyes just listening to her witness. I really felt honored to get to know this very special lady. There are many anonymous heroes in this world and we were privileged to meet one of them that day.

After our special guest spoke, Lizzette and Wendy talked about their role with Catholic Charities. A very good question was asked about contributing throughout the year and Lizzette said that as the donations are greatly appreciated the supply only lasts up to 3 months, as the needs are great, especially during these financially difficult times. They would also like to focus on receiving items for babies that are newborn to 1 year as there are other avenues of charities who donate to older children’s needs.

All in all, it was a great experience. It is so critical to give to such a worthy cause where women are helping other women and children in need.

FATHER’S DAY – Since 2006, it has been Court Santa Sophia’s tradition to honor fathers on Father’s Day with a special brunch. This year, under the coordination of Maria Elena Grimm, the CDA served a delicious brunch of scrambled eggs with vegetables, potatoes with chorizo,beans, tortillas, fresh fruit and Mimosas. Every father received a free brunch and a special hand-decorated sugar cookie. Prendergast Hall was transformed by Linda Lopez, who decorated tables with fresh flowers, balloons and blue and brown table covers with a darling polka-dot overlay.

We served 106 meals total which included 47 free meals. Our gross income was $359. Dads usually take a back-seat when it comes to being celebrated. Our intention was not to have a huge fundraiser but a gesture of appreciation to all the men who supported us as husbands and fathers.

“You ladies really know how to cook!” “Wow, this is really nice.” “Can I have seconds?” were among many of the gracious comments expressed by brunch-goers. If it is true that a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, we surely accomplished it!

MAY 1, 2010 – It was a cool morning when Melissa Hiatt, Dee Sanford and Claire Lake arrived to set up an empty parking lot next to the Cathechetical Ministry Building at Santa Sophia. Little did they know that things would heat up—not just temperature-wise, but with a steady crowd and a lot of wheelin’ and dealin’!

The stars were aligned for Court Santa Sophia’s first-ever “Junk From Your Trunk” Sale. Prior to the event, sixteen vendors reserved a parking space through an online sign-up form. With permission from the church and the CDA, an e-waste collection at the main parking lot was also scheduled to coincide with our event. Flyers for the e-waste event that mentioned our rummage sale were distributed throughout the Spring Valley community. Our sale was also advertised on Craigslist, the Reader and in church flyers.

The CMO parking lot was bustling with not only people who came specifically for the sale, but from people dropping off their e-waste and those who came to participate the soccer game at the adjacent soccer field.

Court Santa Sophia set up a tent to sell drinks, chips and baked treats and sold rummage sale items donated by a few of our members. The help from Catholic Daughters was very much appreciated and it was a great fundraiser that was fairly easy to manage!

Vendors commented that they would like to see us do this event more than once a year—and we couldn’t agree more! Our proceeds were $497.30, which will go towards the expenses to send an additional delegate to the National Convention.

For the second year in a row, the CDA hosted the most well-attended and tastiest Lenten Fish Dinner this season! Thanks to Maria Elena Grimm’s Fish Taco Recipe and the many volunteers, this event was a great success! CDA served Ensenada fish tacos with rice and beans, salad, nachos, a salsa bar and to top it off, a Mexican chocolate cake.

2010 was our most successful year for the CDA Catholic Charities Baby Shower. Court 2520 overwhelmingly responded to the call. A special thank you to all of you wonderful ladies for your generosity, especially since this is a financially difficult year for most families. It seems that in the midst of hard times we especially rise to the occasion. These special donations will be remembered and cherished by the mothers who are in need now more than ever.

Thank you to our co-chairs for this event, Anne Havin and Debbie Crutchfield! Without your leadership, our Circle of Love project for LIFE would not have been this successful!

Below are photo highlights: