Saint Charles Borromeo Raises Over $10,000

On May 5th the St. Charles Borromeo Church Youth Ministry of Bloomington, Indiana presented Father Hilary with a donation of over $10,000. Father Hilary visited the Midwest this month and took a trip to Bloomington to connect with Father Tom of the St. Charles Borromeo Church, as he does every time he travels stateside. Father Hilary and Father Tom met when the two attended seminary together. 

Father Tom became a supporter of COVE alliance and has gained the support of the church's youth ministry. In 2014 he and Youth Director Ashley Barnet, along with a group from their church, visited COVE Uganda and committed themselves to providing a valuable gift to the COVE Children. The group selected clean water as its target project. 

When Father Hilary visited the group on May 5th, they presented him with their generous donation. Ms. Barnet had this to say: 

"Remember that time when St. Charles Youth Ministry needed to raise $4,000 to construct a water tank for our kids in Uganda? Remember how God is bigger? We blew our goal out of the water and raised over $10,000! Thank you to every family who is helping our sweet children at St. Jerome to have clean water. I'm overwhelmed by you."

Following the presentation of this donation, Father Tom presented Father Hilary with an additional donation of $2,000. The group is counting down the days, hours, and seconds until they return to COVE Uganda. COVE Alliance extends our deepest gratitude and thanks to the members of St. Charles Borromeo Church. Let us keep them in our prayers.

 University of Illinois Group Finalizes COVE Project

This semester a group of LINC students focused on student safety. The group is looking at the use of lightening arrestors to protect against lightening strikes, and fire extinguisher training to ensure that COVE students and staff know how to extinguish a fire safely. The LINC group is also investigating the expansion of its water projects within the larger community. The Illini are preparing for their trip to Uganda and we wish them the best of luck!

 Seeds of Hope Was a Great Success

Some of COVE's first Board Members attended this year's Seeds of Hope event. (From left to right: Darlene Frantonius, Deann Mealey, Fr. Hilary, Len Smith.)*

The Seeds of Hope event of 2015 was held at the Chevy Chase Country Club's Grand Ballroom in Wheeling, IL on April 25th. This celebration raised more than $21,000 for COVE Alliance. COVE also received a $2,000 donation for campus improvements and were challenged to match it. We beat our goal and raised $2,200 in matching donations!

As this year was the tenth annual Seeds of Hope event, COVE took the opportunity to recognize all of our past board members and our original funding board at this year's Seeds of Hope celebration.

The fundraiser included an African Store where guests could purchase beautiful hand-crafted items, a wine raffle for a bottle of wine worth $100 or more, a silent auction with more than 60 items, the Pick-A-Prize raffle and the main raffle.

Winners of the main raffle (shopping spree):

1st Prize: $1,000 Abt Gift Card - Mary Burtle-Gasey

2nd Prize: $500 Amazon.com Gift Card - Margaret Kuretich

3rd Prize: $250 Westfield Shopping Gift Card - Cheryl Steffens

Past board members honored include: 

Vince Abate, Carol Armstrong, Kim Clark, Annette Cowart, Terry McLaughlin, Jerry Nora, Randy Stice, Rita Stoeberl, and Valerie Werpetinski

*Not pictured: Wendy Mospan, Randy Schultz, Don Dumich

COVE Alliance Turns Ten!