St. Demetrios Festival Replacement
Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Demetrios Church
Our annual Greek Festival has unfortunately been canceled this year. The Parish Council and Father Peter came to this decision after a lot of debate.
Prior to making this decision we actually did study what many other communities had done this past summer and fall as alternatives to their traditional festivals. Most put on a drive through food only festival. Our festival planning committee actually met 3 times this fall to begin planning just such an event. Unfortunately, we discovered that there will be ongoing construction on the sewer system in front of the church through the summer of 2021.
Each year our community counts on the Greek Festival to raise the $95,000 necessary to balance our budget and continue the ministry of Saint Demetrios. Our community cannot survive without these funds. Borrowing money for operating expenses is out of the question. The Parish Council and Father Peter therefore came up with the following strategy to procure the necessary monies.
Drs. Joyce and Anthony Kales and Dr. George Georgakakis would each donate $10,000. In addition, the community would use a portion of it’s annual gift from the William and Bridget Eaton Partalis Family Trust. We would also ask 10 parishioners to support what we are calling the “Saint Demetrios Festival Replacement Fund” with individual donations of $1,000. The remaining estimated $40,000 would hopefully be raised by asking each of our 260 parishioners to consider contributing $160 to the Festival Replacement Fund. This would get us to our goal of $95,000
At our Winter General Assembly meeting last month we actually had 11 parishioners step up and offer to be $1000 donors. Since that time we have been blessed with several more such donors.
We now humbly ask all of our Saint Demetrios family to please consider coming to the aid of our parish in this time of great need. Your gift of $160 will help ensure that our church survives this upcoming year in spite of all the unknowns associated with the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. Your gift ensures that Saint Demetrios will remain a healthy and vibrant Christian community when the world returns to normalcy. Please help Saint Demetrios continue its vitally important ministry.
Please join these families, listed below, in supporting St. Demetrios Church. You may mail a check (make sure to note Festival Replacement in the memo) to:
St. Demetrios Church
820 NE 14 Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33304
Or, visit this link https://stdemetrios.org/make-a-donation/
choose General Donation from the drop down menu and note Festival Replacement in the comment field
