Kickin' Our School Deficit

Update on School Building 
Since the Oak Tree School closed just as the academic year was just about to begin, we have been earnestly seeking out new tenants as well as exploring new possibilities for the use of the building. Immediately upon their departure, our parish took a hit of nearly $42,000. That's a real issue. As of November 25th, we have had two listening sessions where parishioners have had an opportunity to bring forward their brainstorms and discuss ideas. Some of those ideas have included a Day Care/Pre-school, a new Catholic high school, an Adult Day Care, an assisted living facility, an after-school center, a doggie day care, extra classroom space for Pacific University, a homeless shelter, and many more. All of these ideas are being mulled over. No idea is being overlooked, short of selling the property (definitely not an option). In the meantime, we continue to seek out lessors who might be a good fit for the space. We've published ads in the local papers as well as craigslist.org. We've followed up on each potential lead and have had a variety of interest from people. We will be improving our signage, inquiring with the local chambers of commerce, broadening our advertising, and begin to reassess the use of all our facilities. Both the Administrative and Pastoral Councils are concerned and working to solve this financial deficit as well as plan for the future. If you have any ideas or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Expecting a Kicker Windfall? 
What would you do if you won the lottery? How would you spend it? How would you save it? Would you spend time in prayer upon having such a windfall come your way? Well, this year, each of us in Oregon will be receiving a tax refund. No, this is not the lottery. I don't think any of us will be able to retire on this refund. However, this is a windfall, an unexpected gift from our government. I've been told the median amount will be ~$285. That means at most half of Oregonians who have paid their taxes will receive more than this amount. The other half will receive less than this amount. Pretty basic. This refund is being called a "kicker."

Between now and when you receive your kicker (sometime after Dec. 15th), I ask that you would bring to prayer the needs of St. Anthony's parish and consider making a special one-time gift to help us meet our shortfall. It is entirely possible that if enough parishioners donated their kicker check, we would kick this deficit.

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” 1 Peter 4:10

 

Blessings,
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor

Geek Gone Green

My www.frbill.org web Presence is Back! 
After being down for over four weeks, I finally decided that I had it with the "Personal Web Pages" that Comcast advertised were being upgraded. My turned into a totally downgrade to the point where I had no site at all. So, I decided to change web hosts. After much looking around, I think I found my new home with HostPapa.ca. In many ways, they are just like all the other web host services, but without the gimmicks of a variety of plans with a sneaky discount to lure one in. Instead, they have a flat rate and one basic service. The best thing is that they were one of the few companies that prided themselves in being "green" when it comes to the environment. As a Catholic priest, you can imagine that I was immediately drawn to this option. After all, we must be good stewards of our planet.

How does this work you might ask? Here is their own explanation:

After an energy audit by an outside provider to calculate our total electrical energy consumption from traditional sources, Hostpapa purchased "green energy tags", or certificates from a certified green energy supplier. That supplier calculates the totalenergy consumption of our operation and uses their suppliers of Green energy to pumps in 100% equivalent energy back into the power grid. This effectively cuts down on the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) producing energy that we normally would have required from non-green energy sources. We actually have calculated that within the scope of one year with our initial purchase of green energy that we have removed roughly 4,000 kg of CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases affecting our environment. That's close to being almost two cars removed from the highway for a 12-month period! By purchasing the green energy certificates, we have completely offset the amount of greenhouse gas production by our current electricity providers with certified wind and solar power providers in the United States and Canada. -excerpt from http://www.hostpapa.ca/green/go-green.shtml

So, I can now say that my web site has gone green! What a convenient truth to be able to have a new hosting company and support a company that cares about our envirnoment. Yee Hah! Maybe I'll change all the colors green. Maybe add some foliage. Hmmm. Dunno. But, hey! I'm back! With this new server, I may even be able to stretch my wings like never before. Time will tell. Until, I would like to say for the record that it's actually quite easy being a geek gone green.

 

Blessings,
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor