DETAILS & DATES TO REMEMBER:
Decorations work party on Wed., May 8th in the Parish Hall at 9:30 until as much time as you can give. Please bring scissors and a sack lunch or snack. Sign up on the rolling FOTH bulletin board on Sundays. Let Leslie know if you are crafty and can do some projects at home.
March 24 to May 5 - Sign up at the FOTH bulletin board to help with volunteer jobs, and sign up your donations on the bulletin board or on the website.
April 28 – Start bringing items in to the Grace House Library on Sundays until noon, and during business hours of 9:30 to 2:30 during week days.
May 5 – Last day for Early Bird $40 pricing. Also last day to register for childcare.
May 5 - Last day to sign up and bring in your donations to the Grace House Library. The committee needs time to prepare a Preview Packet. Please help us keep our sanity by bringing them in on the 5th or sooner. Contact Kimberly Bryant, kharvin@hotmail.com, if you cannot comply with this deadline.
May 17 & 18 – Event setup starts at 9:30. Lunch is provided! Friday, the 17th is a full day so we’ll take you for as much time as you can give. Saturday, the 18th, we’ll have you home by 1:30 so you can put on your Jazzy New Orleans outfit and come back for the party at 4:00.
May 18 – Clean-up Help after the event is very crucial. The crew has been working for days and is sooo tired of letting the good times roll. The parish hall must be ready for coffee hour the next day. Many hands make it go faster.
May 19 – Sunday morning after – Cleanup angels are needed after church services. Even if you did not go to the event, you can help us with your time and effort to clean up. There are things to be put away.
Got jazz, bring beads and put on a mask.
Good cause and fun, what more could you ask?
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THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:
Signup - Check out the signup sheets at the FOTH rolling bulletin board after Sunday services. You can sign-up to volunteer for jobs and committees, and you can sign-up to donate for the silent auction. Silent Auction donations may also be made on-line at this website.
Auction & Raffle Donation Ideas: Your donations are what make this night a success. If you need ideas, please talk to the folks at the table by the FOTH board. Our parishioners love dinners given by other parishioners and we have not had very many of these available in the last few years for various reasons. Please help by soliciting or donating gift certificates for restaurants, or services. We welcome donations of all sorts: game tickets, special outings, wines, vacation homes are popular, handmade items, services, original art, and we encourage creative new ideas. Please, no rummage.
We are also asking for support from all ministries at Saint Timothy’s with gift cards to restaurants or services in lieu of gift baskets.
*Auction Donation Forms, YELLOW color - Please fill out and return to us at the FOTH table by the rolling bulletin board or in the church office in the FOTH mailbox as soon as possible. Each donation item must be accompanied by a copy of this form. The back has deadlines, directions, and display information. All forms (forms can be submitted sooner) and donations must be delivered no later than May 5, to the Grace House library, unless we know to expect it.
*Auction Solicitation Letters – Take some with you to your favorite restaurants to ask for dinner donations or services. Most business will require this to give a donation.
* These are on the rolling FOTH bulletin board in the parish hall/ outside after Sunday services, or in the Grace House entry or in the office during business hours of 9:30 to 2:30.
You may bid by proxy if you notify Kimberly Bryant ahead of time. You will be assigned a bid number which you can use to advise one of the attendees to bid for you. Kimberly cannot take responsibility for bidding for you.
No-show admissions are not tax deductible. We purchased a dinner for every attendee. You must let us know by two weeks before the event if you cannot attend in order for us to switch your admission to a donation and receive a tax deduction form. If you must have a refund, we must deduct $10 per ticket to cover the credit card charges that are incurred.
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12th ANNUAL FOTH RESTAURANT DINNER EVENT!
INCONTRO RISTORANTE
in downtown Danville
Sunday, August 25th, at 5:30 PM
Details are on the INCONTRO DINNER EVENT page
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FOTH SURVEY REVIEW
In early 2018, we asked for your input with an FOTH survey and your responses gave us the chance to improve. Some of you are new and are not familiar with our fundraiser for Outreach. Here is a review of the information which addresses some of the topics raised in the survey.
“Concerned that ticket price does not go to the beneficiaries.” Ticket Prices include much more than the price of your dinner. Our costs include the invitation and stamps, the paper, the software to help with registrations, banking, and website, decorations, rentals, servers, and publicity for the event. In past years, we have hired servers from Trinity Center who are homeless, so we are serving out our mission to help people in need and they are helping us to do the hard work of serving and cleaning at our function.
“Younger people don’t come because it’s too expensive to hire a sitter.” By lowering the ticket prices to $40, and by offering free childcare, we are hoping to attract younger families to come and take part in this event. Last year, only two children came to our childcare. We hope more of you will take advantage of this service in 2019.
“Don’t like the asking for money at the paddle raise.” The Fund-A-Need (F-A-N) paddle raise method (we raise our bid numbers on our event booklets) of donating funds is a practice at 85% of non-profit and school fundraisers. It is now a major source of our donations which in 2017, brought in $16,000. In 2018, F-A-N made $17,930. F-A-N is tax deductible, while bidding in the Silent Auction is only tax deductible on what you bid above the value of the item. The F-A-N auction also allows people who did not win in the Silent Auction to still donate to the event that night.
“How can I just give money to Outreach?” Monetary Donations are also given by very generous people who choose not to attend or have conflicts but still want to support all the Outreach Ministries. Just fill out the RSVP card and specify “Donation.” In 2017, a record $9,546 was donated in this manner. In 2018, you all blew us out of the water by sending in a new record in donations of $13,090!
"It all costs so much.” In order to raise money, we must spend money. Most of our costs are fixed and in 2017 we spent 17% of our gross to put on the event which netted $37,737.34. In 2018, with an increase in your donations, and with the higher results of the Fund-A-Need, we netted $45,962.51. Also, the yearly church budget allotment to Outreach was raised from $7,300 to $15,000 (thank you to the Vestry) and this totaled over $60,000 for grants to be made to our 14 Outreach ministries!
What a great feeling to be able to send a grant for $7,500 to Trinity Center, a day shelter with many services for homeless men and women in Walnut Creek; or to send $7,500 to The Gretta Foundation to give a one year scholarship to a nursing student in Malawi, who when they graduate they will serve impoverished areas in rural villages; or to give a grant of $7,000 to Monument Crisis Center, a food pantry in Concord that offers many services for families, children and seniors; or to send a $5,000 grant to provide addiction recovery for clients at Options Recovery Services in Berkeley.
We have not been able to come up with a better way to raise this much money to help so many people who need our support and to do the work that we are called to do. It is interesting to note, that in 2013, on our 60th Anniversary celebration, we did not have FOTH. Instead, we asked for monetary donations to Outreach, and we received $18,000. So to those of you who say, “Why not just ask for donations instead of having an auction?”, we can only deduce that some of you like to have a fun party while you donate to Outreach.
“The price of Auction items is out of my reach.” Auction Items will be offered in many price ranges. There are also raffle items where anyone can participate by putting in a dollar raffle ticket for an item. Of course, this is a fundraiser, so there will be people bidding big to support Outreach Ministries, but we appreciate and value every single donation, no matter what the size, whether it be monetary, time or talent, and no one needs to feel uncomfortable.
“The donations are the same every year.” Well, since we are getting the majority of our donations from our parishioners, you will probably see repeats of their wonderful donations. Last year, we made an effort to get more diversity, and there were quite a variety of new items. We no longer seem to get the favorites such as a large number of dinner parties given by parishioners, or as many offers for vacation homes for a variety of good reasons. We surely would love to have those. However, the Silent Auction did make $12,415 last year…nothing to sneeze at.
Join us to raise funds for all
our Outreach Ministries!
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FUN FACTS ABOUT NEW ORLEANS CULTURE
Jazz - the sound that put New Orleans on the map, musically speaking! It's a distinctive sound. New Orleans jazz is a style of music. Almost any song can be "jazzed up" with a New Orleans beat. Jazz was originally music for dancing, not listening, even though that is what modern jazz became in the 1950s and beyond. New Orleans jazz has a swinging, stomping, syncopated beat that makes you want to dance! It also has a simple melodic quality that, to some, sounds dated.
New Orleans jazz is also played by brass bands--the kind we hear in our Mardi Gras street parades. They rely on wind instruments and separate bass and snare drums, all of which can be carried on foot.
What sets jazz apart from the music that preceded it is the way the first jazz musicians improvised. The music became a vehicle of personal expression for both musicians and dancers.
Second line – a tradition in brass band parades in New Orleans. The “main line” or “first line” is the main section of the parade club with the parading permit, as well as the brass band. Those who follow the band to enjoy the music are called the “second line”. The second line’s style of traditional dance, in which participants walk and sometimes twirl a parasol or handkerchief in the air, is called “second lining”. It’s the quintessential New Orleans art form – a jazz funeral without a body.
NOLA – short for New Orleans, Louisiana
The Big Easy - In the early 1900s there was a dance hall in New Orleans called “The Big Easy.” The nickname became famous in the early 1970s when a Louisiana newspaper writer compared the easy-going way of life in New Orleans to the hurried pace of life in New York City.
Bayou (by' you) Slow stream, or body of water running through a marsh or swamp
Lagniappe (lan' yap) Something extra that you didn't pay for--thrown in to sweeten the deal--like a baker's dozen.
Laissez les bons temps rouler (pronounced Lessay Lay Bon Ton Roulay) Let the good times roll. It’s a party city.
Mardi Gras known as Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent...The day to celebrate before the traditional Catholic tradition of sacrificing and fasting during the 40 days of Lent.
"Who Dat?" (noun) A New Orleans Saints fan; A chant for New Orleans Saints fans: "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?"
Cajuns (kay’jun) - Cajuns are the French colonists who settled the Canadian maritime provinces (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) in the 1600s. The settlers named their region "Acadia," and were known as Acadians. In 1713, the British took over Canada and demanded allegiance and that the Acadians adopt the king's Protestant religion. Over the next forty years, the Acadians' refusal to abdicate became a political and religious threat. The British government seized farms, burned villages, and expelled Acadian families to different destinations from all over New York to the West Indies. Many Acadians found some acceptance in Louisiana, with its strong French background and Catholic heritage. Here the Acadians eventually became known as "Cajuns." Cajuns developed their own distinct lifestyle in the swamps and surrounding areas of South Louisiana.
Creoles (cree' ole) - Cajuns aren't Creole, and a Creole isn't a Cajun. "Creole" can mean anything from individuals born in New Orleans with French and Spanish ancestry to those who descended from African/Caribbean/French/Spanish heritage. Creoles in New Orleans have played an important part in the culture of the city.
Creoles, like Cajuns, have contributed so much to New Orleans art, music, cuisine, and social life; without them, New Orleans wouldn't be the unique city it is today.
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Traditional Foods of New Orleans
King cake – Extra-large oval doughnut pastry dusted with colored candied sugar. A plastic baby doll is hidden inside the cake – the lucky person who gets the piece of cake with the doll inside buys the king cake for the next party of the Mardi Gras season.
Beignet (ben-yeiz) doughnuts shaped like little rectangular pillows and covered in powdered sugar
Praline (pronounced Praw’leen) Brown sugar pecan-filled candy patty. Very sweet and so delicious you can’t eat just one!
Crawfish – freshwater crustacean (also mudbug) Boiled, peeled and eaten by the bucketful, or put in dishes like crawfish e’touffee and gumbo.
Redbeans and Rice - traditionally simmered all day Monday while the household caught up on laundry duties. Everyone has their own version which is the best one.
Gumbo - a thick, spicy stew that often contains sausage, seafood, chicken, okra and other vegetables, served on a bed of rice. Like many New Orleans dishes, gumbo starts off with a slow-cooked roux that, depending on the cook's tastes, can range from a light golden color to a deep, dark brown.
Jambalaya is a traditional Creole dish that combines rice with vegetables and some type of meat, usually chicken and andouille sausage — think of jambalaya as the Crescent City's version of paella.
Muffaletta – A Sicilian-style sandwich, the Muffuletta consists of various cured meats, cheese and olive salad, surrounded by round sesame bread.
Po-Boys - a sort of Big-Easy take on the submarine sandwich. There are numerous variations, ranging from shrimp, to roast beef, to fried oysters.
Bananas Foster - a decadent dessert of bananas sautéed in butter and sugar and cinnamon and then bathed in rum, which is set aflame in a fiery burst and then served over vanilla ice cream. It was created in the 1950s at Brennan’s restaurant.
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2019 FRUITS OF THE HARVEST COMMITTEE
For Event questions, contact: Leslie Firth, lesliefirth@comcast.net, 925.683.7868
For Auction questions, contact: Kimberly Bryant, kharvin@hotmail.comkharvin@hotmail.com
For Reservations or payments contact: Sally Shea Potts, sallyspotts@gmail.com, 925.785.9823
For web questions, contact: Nancy Arroyoavila, naa2005retire@gmail.com
For FOTH Support, contact:
Alison Hill
Joann Oliver
Shelley Wells
Sandy Varco
SAINT TIMOTHY’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
