Welcome to the world, to our newest PV...

Please join us in welcoming to the world our newest PV. Sophia Elizabeth Poirier was born November 23, 2009 at 4:17PM. She was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 inches long. Mom, Dad and Baby are all doing great.... Congratulations Tricia and David!!!

A Special Thanksgiving in Brooklyn

On November 18, 2009, TGIA celebrated its 8th annual Thanksgiving dinner, complete with delicious dishes made by the young women. This has always been one of our more festive meetings of the year, and we always spend time sharing what we are thankful for. From there we discussed plans for next week's TGIA Bake Sale, the proceeds of which will help support TGIA's service trip to our fellow community in West Virginia. The evening was filled with laughter and bonding, and the group photos are always such a challenge (and joy!).



TGIA sends heartfelt wishes for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving to all!





Giving thanks for each other!!!

In Memorium...

Clarence Tilley passed away unexpectedly this past Wednesday, November 11th. Clarence has been a faithful volunteer to the Itmann Food Bank and will be missed greatly. Many of you will also remember Clarence as a faithful friend and a big help to Fred Cross during his last year. Clarence's presence in the community will be missed. Please keep his family and friends in your prayers during this difficult time.

New Beginnings...

It has been awhile since we posted last, but there has been a lot of changes in the last few weeks. As of November first, we are officially independent of the Passionists, the physical office is now in Pineville, WV and cyber offices are set up in Cincinnati and Seattle. It is our hope that this transition goes as smoothly as possible and you as a volunteer will not notice a difference.

While all these changes are going on, TGIA, the young women's empowerment group in Bedford Stuyvesant continues meeting weekly. They are geering up for a bake sale at the church to help fund their service trip to WV in April. We will post the date when we know it so if you are in the NYC area you can stop by and support them.

Another upcoming event for the program is a special Mass for the PVs being held Sunday, December 13th at 3:00pm at Our Lady of Monserrate in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. The provincial and council will be saying the Mass to bless the transisiton to independence of the program after 37 years of direct connection with their community. We hope to see as many of you there as can attend.

We will try and update more frequently...

A few pictures, more to come...

PV's take a chilly, wet walk to the shore while in Bradley Beach for the PV Evaluation and Reunion Weekend



The view from the front porch of our house/office in Pineville, WV. Unfortunately, the picture does not show how vibrant the fall colors really were.



Not a bad setting for an office if I say so myself

From West Virginia to the Jersey Shore...

It has been a busy week...Tuesday we packed up the van and left our office for good in Union City, NJ. Wednesday morning we headed down to our house in Pineville to set up our new office. OK, we didn't really set it up, but everything is now in the house. We were also able to run around and do some much needed set up work as well. Unfortunately, it was a really quick trip as we headed out again on Friday morning. We do have to say however, that we think we must have hit the area during peak leaf changing season, it was absolutely gorgeous. I hope to put a few pictures up from my phone, but they don't capture the vibrant colors very well.

After getting home late Friday night, we turned around Saturday morning and headed up to the Jersey Shore for our annual fall reunion/evaluation weekend. It was a wonderful weekend, unfortunately, the weather wasn't too cooperative. But we didn't let that stop us from taking a walk down to the beach. And don't think we didn't get any work done, we spent a large part of the day on Saturday going through the evaluations and making suggestions for next summer. We were treated to a wonderful dinner on Saturday night by our gracious hostess Jo. Besides the PVs, Jo had invited members from her church who were integral in the pasta dinner fundraiser for the PVs the week before. (story still forth-coming) . It was a wonderful night and a wonderful weekend.

A Special Person

As we have been preparing to move our office, we have been going through a lot of files and pictures. While going through pictures, we found several wonderful pictures of Fanny Talbot. As most of you know, Miss Fanny passed away this past August after a long and painful struggle with ALS. We were grateful to be able to present at a memorial service held at Our Lady of Monserrate in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY on September 19th. It was a wonderful celebration of her life and showed what an amazing woman she was. Her commitment to her neighborhood, especially the children, has been an inspiration to many.




The pictures below are from the Passionist Presence Dinner in 2005 where Fanny received the "St. Paul of the Cross Award" for her service in Bedford Stuyvesant. In addition to Fanny, the four founding members of TGIA (Corinthia, Luisa, Tiffany and Marilyn) came to the dinner to show their appreciation for all that Fanny did for their community.