Our mite

This morning I brought a group of seven students to New Horizons for New Hampshire in Manchester to present our proceeds from this past weekend's Cardboard City event.  We met with the executive director and our good friend Charlie Sherman who took a picture with the kids and then gave them a tour.  The students who came with me were some of the 100 or so that participated in Cardboard City.

New Horizons is more than a shelter - they have a food pantry, meal center, counseling services, and a medical facility in partnership with Catholic Medical Center.  Their food pantry feeds 900 families a month, they serve 200-275 meals daily, and house about 90-100 people in their shelter each night.  They do all this 365 days a year on a shoestring budget of $1.3 million.  They receive $200,000 from the state and $30,000 from the city of Manchester leaving them having to raise about $1 million a year.  They spend $3,000 a day to operate so our donation of $4,000 will help finance 1 1/3 days of operations.

Charlie of course is a former sportscaster on channel 9 and now works the 5pm-7pm news on NH1 News so he is a great storyteller.  I have taken kids on this tour many times and could almost give it myself but I find myself engrossed each time.  I am so impressed and inspired by what Charlie and his staff does for the poor of Manchester that I so wish we could help them more.  Ten of our students will volunteer at their Thanksgiving Breakfast (a huge fundraiser the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) but I'd like to see if all of the Catholic schools in Manchester could come together this Lent to do something for New Horizons.  I don't know what but the wheels are turning!