|
My Fellow Parishioners,
I would like to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make the 2010 Grecian Festival one of the best festivals we have had. I want to thank the Parish Council for diligently working together to help me make all ends come together. Thank you to the numerous sponsors who supported the festival and in turn our community through financial and in kind donations. We couldn’t have done it without you. I want to extend a personal thank you to those who sold ads for our program book and for those who supported our festival by placing ads in our program book. I heard wonderful things about this year’s program book. Sarah Kyriazis and the entire design team, and those who offered content and editing produced a book that will remain a keepsake. It spotlighted our community and the history of our festival to everyone through the pages it contained. I want to also thank all those who helped with the food lines, the Kafenio, the bars, the fast food, facilities, the cultural and musical aspect of the festival. The Agora was a big success as were the Cathedral Tours where our beautiful Cathedral was viewed by hundreds attending the festival. This year we offered the Cinema Room which shows that our festival continues to evolve as our community grows. The festival once again succeeded in opening our Cathedral grounds, and for three days offer a bit of our Hellenism, culture, art, history, music, youth activities, lots of delicious food, pastry and most importantly our pheloxania to Worcester and Worcester County.
Speaking about our community growing, this year we congratulate the largest number of high school and college graduates and have given out more scholarships then in the history of our Cathedral. We wish our young students the best in their endeavors, either school, or work, and to know that your church will always be there for you.
Our community has finally reached the historic milestone we have been working towards, the renovation and construction of our Family Center. Throughout the summer you will be seeing the different stages of construction starting with Stage 1, which includes the West Wing upgrade of the existing classrooms, the new Founders Room on the first level, bathrooms, beautiful new foyer, book room, air conditioning, and more. Based on the construction bids coming in at more than 40% below the original estimates it will make it possible for us to sequentially continue with Stage 2 of the Family Center , which includes the Cotsidas Auditorium, the Academic Center and Orthodox Food Pantry. Therefore, for those who have pledged to date, your generosity has made this happen. For those who have waited to see if the project was going to commence, this is the time to pledge to ensure we have raised the funds needed to build the full scope of the project, including the new Academic Wing. There are many options to making your pledge which they can review with you. For most community members we encourage you to consider $3,000 over 3 years. For others who have been blessed, we ask that you give more. Please contact Christina Andrianopoulos, or Nick Paleologos to make your pledge arrangements.
As you prepare to make your vacation plans, please make sure that you are up to date with your Stewardship Pledge. We may all be off on our vacations, but the Cathedral continues to operate in full force throughout the summer to ensure our ministries, religious and educational programs, and various activities flourish in the fall. Also, remember to enroll your children in our wonderful Pre School, and Greek Language program and net year our children will be in our new classrooms.
Have a wonderful, relaxing and safe summer.
Gus Giannakis |
