Butterfly Grants
You can help those in need. And we'll help you.
Imagine the wind stirred by a butterfly's wings. Minuscule, but it has an effect. You can have an effect on someone's life! Propose a project that will help people, and if we like it, we'll fund it up to $300. Pick up an application in the office or online.
Butterfly Grants are back! Grant application deadlines are March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1, 2024.
--Social Concerns Committee
Do you have an outreach project in mind? You can apply for a Butterfly grant from the Social Concerns Committee. For more information about the Butterfly grants, click here. And if you have already received a Butterfly Grant, we would be happy to add more photos and descriptions to this page. Inspire others to flutter their wings!
Previous grants included assistance to these causes:
- Welcome Back - a program supporting returning prisoners and helping them to re-integrate into the community
- Funding for personal care products for the Poverello Center
- Creative Mood Play Program - workshops for caregivers and those with brain injuries
Warm Spirit Project
Those girls from the Warm Spirit group are back, and have they been busy! Five girls from our Church School make up the Warm Spirit. They recently applied to the Social Concerns Committee for one of their Butterfly grants to do outreach in our community. This time the girls took on the Watson Children's Shelter as their project, and after meeting with a representative from the Watson Children's Shelter, they identified some needs that they could assist the shelter with - shower curtains, bath mats, and twin-size blankets. Off to Kohl's they went, check in hand. The girls met with two management representatives from Kohl's and presented their case for why supporting Watson Children's Shelter was an important thing to do. After hearing their presentations, the Kohl's staff assisted the girls in making their dollars stretch by helping them find the best deals on merchandise and identifying clearance items that were on their wish list, and then giving them an extra 30% off! That made the girls' $300 Butterfly grant stretch to purchase $1,200 worth of merchandise! What a wonderful job they did! And a huge thank you to Kohl's for supporting this worthy project!
Into the Light
From Jeannie Warner, President of the John Ellis Endowment for Liturgical Music:
I am delighted and very excited to be able to announce that the John Ellis Endowment for Liturgical Music has completed its CD called "Into The Light." The Board of Directors unanimously voted to make the CD available at no cost, not only to Hospice organizations, but also to anyone in need of music specifically compiled for end of life situations.
To all members of Holy Spirit, JEE wants to thank each of you for your loving support and every kindness which made "Into The Light" a reality. You are the best church family ever!
--Jeannie Warner, President JEE
Scholarship Outreach Program in El Golfo
Parishioners Chuck and Maggi Teague have received Butterfly Grants to help support scholarships for students' continuing education in El Golfo de Santa Clara. Their support in the area began as a food outreach program they founded.
El Golfo de Santa Clara is a small fishing village, population about 10,000, about 100 miles south of Yuma, Arizona. Learn about the scholarship program.
Read more about the beginning of this project.
Rummage Sale Project: A Kindness Journey
Following our very successful Rummage Sales in 2016, 2017, and 2018, Mary Tromly used a Butterfly Grant to take it a step (many steps) further:
Our journey is not quite finished. The clean up crew loaded left over items onto a U Haul truck (funded by a butterfly grant ) and we took it to Havre, MT. (as far as we could go with the truck ). There the rummage was unloaded onto a large horse trailer and transported to the Service Center in Lodge Pole, MT. The head of the Service Center met with me in Havre to express her gratitude for our generosity. What a great feeling! This is the journey of our Holy Spirit Parish rummage for this year; what a week for all of us!
--Mary
The people of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation created the artwork above as a gift to the parish -- you can see it in the parish hall. Here is the story on the picture:
A Kindness Journey: Abundance of Goods Travels the Road to Gratitude and Possession
The annual Holy Spirit Episcopal Church rummage sale for 2016 proved to be a huge success both monetarily and in outreach for the "Spirit of Kindness". The church volunteers were galvanized by a tsunami of good will beginning with the organization of the sale items from huge bags of goods in utter chaos to racks with clothes, shoes, kitchen tools and dishware, electronic equipment, jewelry, children's toys, books and even a beautiful boutique filled with upscale women's clothing. As with all rummage sales, it proceeded at a fast pace ending with items left over to be catapulted to a rather distant place in Montana. The "Spirit of Kindness" of the volunteers extended to loading up a U-Haul truck at the end of the day for a road trip to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation (home to the Aaniinen - White Clay People or Gros Ventre) and Nakoda (Assiniboine) tribes. A quick stop in Havre became the meeting place for the transfer of the rummage from the U-Haul truck to a horse trailer which then headed to the Lodgepole Senior Center. At the other end of the reservation the trailer was met by the director, Minerva Alan. The dispersal of items was determined by community need.