Twist on Advent Giving Tree in Yonkers Builds Houses in Haiti

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Five years after Haiti was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless, some 85,000 people are still living in ramshackle temporary shelters.

St. Ann’s parish in Yonkers is making it possible for at least one family, and possibly two, to soon move into a brand new sturdy house. The parish is paying for the house after parishioners raised $8,137.10 during Advent to have it built. In fact, the 650 parishioners raised enough to help pay for a second house, far exceeding their original goal of raising $5,520, which they considered very ambitious.

That was how much they were told it would cost to fully construct one basic home in Haiti by Cross Catholic Outreach, the Catholic relief and development ministry that is building houses in Haiti as part of its outreach to the poor in dioceses around the world. Cross Catholic is aligned with the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican’s relief agency.

“I knew the people would come through because the people of St. Ann’s always do when we have one of these causes, and I knew the collection for Haiti five years ago when the earthquake took place was one of the largest,” Father Andrew Carrozza, pastor of St. Ann’s, proudly told CNY.

“I did not expect $8,000. The fact that we did $8,000 floored me. We set the goal to say $5,520 because that was the cost of one house. I thought maybe we could do $3,000. We knew if we fell short they could combine it with money from another parish and between two parishes they would buy a house for someone. But I wanted to be able to call them and say we got a house for a family. When I called them and told them we raised $8,000, the woman was like, ‘Excuse me how much did you say? Wow!’”

Father Carrozza came up with the idea after representatives of Cross Catholic told him last August of their project, called “No Room at the Inn,” to build houses for the people of Haiti. The pastor had been thinking of a way to do something a little different this year with the traditional Advent giving tree, a fixture at Catholic parishes around the country.

The Cross Catholic venture was exactly what he’d been looking for, especially as it had a direct Christmas tie-in. The Holy Family had also been homeless when it was turned away from the inn. He handed off the ball to the newly established Knights of Columbus Council 15745 at St. Ann’s and they ran with it.

“We’re still getting ourselves settled, still recruiting new members,” said Hank McAllen who spearheaded the drive. “This was our first big major success story, and this after only a year and half being around with very little ramp up time.”

The Knights decided to set up a traditional giving tree but with a twist. Instead of parishioners taking a decoration with a suggested gift tag from the tree, the tree went up at the back of the church bare. The idea was to put a decoration on the tree as you donated to the campaign. By the time Christmas Eve arrived, the little tree was fully festooned with bright paper decorations, each with a dollar amount written on it.

“The first weekend we got over $1,000 and the momentum just picked up from there,” McAllen said. “I was there for each Mass the first week and in subsequent Masses we’d all take turns being at various Masses. We scheduled a running crew of guys. I would see people coming back a second and third time. One person gave a thousand dollars!”