Yesterday I was fortunate enough to bump into a lovely gentleman at a Hometowne TV open house.  He stopped me and mentioned that he was watching all the progress we have made with the Summit Chapter.  Little did I know that Miles McMahon was the husband of Virgnia who passed away last summer.  She was instrumental in the chapter  and a long standing member. Miles told me she was so sad to return the Summit charter back to National.  Back in the 80’s Miles told me, she couldn’t get any volunteers to make layettes.  Luckily we haven’t had that problem.  He also told me he was strong-armed by Virginia to not only help assemble the layettes but drive them to St. Joseph’s Social Center in Elizabeth.  He had only good memories of the Chapter and has been watching our progress.  Our story continues.  Thank you Miles McMahon for your kind words.

Some of the Christ Child members were fortunate enough to celebrate mass last Tuesday with Father Brian Plate at the beautiful home of our member Lisa O’Hearn.  Despite the dreary day, it was a welcome respite during the busy days of the Christmas season.  The idea for the home mass came about in a conversation with our Spirituality co-chairs Tracy Stabler and Lori White.  We reminisced about home masses from our youth and I mentioned that my Uncle was a priest and we celebrated many masses in my family room with my best friend and I singing and playing the guitar.  I bet you didn’t know I played a mean “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” on the guitar!   Back to the mass -we had a “sold out” crowd of 19 in Lisa’s living room.  It was lovely, spiritual and brought us all together for the purpose of celebrating out faith with one another.  May the bright light continue in the months to come.

It was a whirlwind of 3 days as members of our Chapter lugged items, priced treasures, moved merchandise, staged the items, and finally baked for our 3rd Annual Rummage sale.  You know you have “good stuff” when 50 people were eagerly waiting and peering in the windows of Memorial Hall at 7:45 am as we readied to open the doors. There was a mad dash to the jewelry as dealers brought their bags and quickly moved around the room looking for treasures. Those who arrived with children headed to the massive toy area and bake sale.  We had a steady stream of buyers throughout the day.  And when it was all said and done and we closed our doors, we were able to “pay it forward” and donate the bulk of the remaining items to the Big Brother Big Sister organization, and some to SAGE and Summit Junior Fortnightly.  I know we all had such a good feeling that we were able to offer nice, affordable items to those in our community who needed it most.  I also enjoyed coming together as a group as we laughed over items donated, items purchased, and the haggling that went on with buyers.  One thing worth mentioning is that most of us found something at the sale to buy and as the saying goes...”one woman’s junk is another Christ Child member’s treasure!”