Theresa House News

School Sisters of Notre Dame helped with Christmas Letter for Theresa House

The SSND were very gracious in sharing their time and talent to help Theresa House get out the annual Christmas Letter.  In only 1 hour and 40 minutes the 18 Sisters who volunteereed their time got around 850 letters hand addressed and ready to be sent out.  This activity is very important to Theresa House so that each letter can be personalized before being sent out to Theresa House supporters.

Thank you SSND for all your help and support that you provide for Theresa House!

Calpine Employees Give Thanks with Donation to Theresa House

With the help of Calpine Corporation employees, Theresa House guests received all the necessary ingredients for their home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner.  The employees also donated office and cleaning supplies, an electric stapler, desk lamps, and toilet paper.

 Calpine employees (L to R): Jamie Tyrpa (Engineer), Paul Hanson (Warehouse), Robin Johnston (Administrator), David Jacobs (Plant Manager)

Eagle Lake Walk About Students Help Theresa House

Story by: Connie Johnson

The Walk About Program at Eagle Lake Elementary School collected 937 used books and raised $234.25 for the Theresa House. Walk About is an educational program that incorporates service projects with reading, math, communication, writing and citizenship skills.

With the thoughts of helping others in need, the students collected used books from each grade and sold them at a book fair at their school. They created bookmarks and posters to advertise their big sale. Every used book was priced at just 25 cents. So in order to help Theresa House, they would have to sell a lot of books. The book fair was held before and after school, when all the Walk About students would sort, count, and sell the used books. The part that they enjoyed the most was counting all the quarters they received from the book sales.

I asked the group how their donation would help the shelter. Michael was sure the money would help the people at the Theresa House get a job, or pay for college. Morgan thought that the money would buy new homes for all those staying at the Theresa House. All of the children were very excited to tell me about the hundreds of quarters they counted, and the difference they made in another persons life.

Thank you to Ryan, Jaiden, Megan, Casey, April, Michael, Morgan, Kyle, Ryan J., Aaron, Ben, Paul, and Alyssa for making a difference for the 15 families that call the Theresa House home every night. You are all heroes to us!

Thank you to Eagle Lake Elementary's Walk About Program for making a difference!

 Hewitt Lifts & Roll-A-Dock Employees Help Theresa House

Kudos to Hewitt Lifts & Roll-A-Dock employees! Front Row-Jan, Sandy, Sara Row 2-Sharon, Chuck, Gary, Clarice, Steve, Deb, Bill Back-Greg, Paul Hewitt Lifts & Roll-A-Dock employees donated 700 pounds of food items to Theresa House in January. The company initiated a competition between two teams to see which team could collect the most pounds to donate to Theresa House. The competition ended in a tie and Hewitt rewarded both teams with a home-cooked meal and an extra half hour for lunch. What a fun way to donate! The employees collected and donated non-perishable food items: Cereal canned vegetables fruit juices soups baking supplies noodles laundry and dish soap toilet paper paper towels  This is the fourth year that the employees at Hewitt have blessed Theresa House with a holiday collection.

 Theresa House Receives Beautiful Landscaping

The Theresa House Shelter staff, volunteers, and occupants appreciate the generous spirit and talent of Jim and Donna Homan for their time and skill in landscaping around the shelter. Hilltop Florist on Madison Avenue in Mankato donated most of the flowers and Thomas Tree & Landscape, Inc. located on Hwy 22 in Mankato donated landscaping brick to support the beautiful results of the Homans labors for Theresa House. When asked about their motivation and efforts, Jim and Donna responded with this heartwarming letter to Theresa House:

Jim and I were looking for a place to volunteer some of our time where we could "volunteer together". I had learned about Theresa House after I had started a new position at the School Sisters of Notre Dame. We contacted Theresa House and Pat [the shelter's volunteer coordinator at the time] suggested working with the flowerbeds. That was perfect for us since Jim loves that kind of work. "We were so excited to get started but needed to wait for flowers and other materials to be donated. Hilltop Florist and Thomas Landscaping so generously donated flowers and landscaping brick, and we went to work." Jim has put retaining wall brick around two of the flowerbeds and statue, and I have planted flowers to brighten the front entrance and sides of the building. We both work full-time, so our time is limited, but we are excited about further plans for this project in the spring. Jim says, "I look forward to doing odd jobs and the landscaping is very satisfying to me." Donna says, "Giving of my time to serve others and beautifying the grounds at Theresa House is very rewarding. After a long day of work and being just plain tired, there is something that energizes us to go down and spend some time in the evenings at Theresa House."

Jim and Donna Homan stand next to a flower bed created with materials from Thomas Tree and Landscaping and flowers from Hilltop Florist.