Francisco, orphaned at the Sumpul River massacre, raised at COAR, holds the twins, Brenda and Andrea, at the 25-year alumni reunion in 2005.
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This is the future we are going to secure:
Salvadorans taking care of the next generation.
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2009 Annual Benefit
Transitioning from the CCVI Sisters to
Direct Management by the Archdiocese of San Salvador
“Caritas” – all the charitable ministries of the Archdiocese
Click to download flyer >>
Goal exceeded!!: $84,454 - Thanks!! |
| COAR Peace Mission * 4395 Rocky River Drive * Cleveland, Ohio 44135-2569 * (216) 252-5572 |
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
11:30 am to 1:30 pm *
Lunch served at noon
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Stages Restaurant at the Cleveland Playhouse
8501 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland, OH 44103 (216-795-7000)
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Purpose
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"Securing the Future Fund" - strategic planning and outside experts
Goal: $80,000
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click here to learn more, below>>
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$50 per Person*
Corporate Table of 8: $500
~ Individual table of 8: $400
* $33.25 per ticket is tax-deductible
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<<
Archbishop Escobar Alas with
COAR Board of Trutees on 9/19/2009
He visited our office to Secure the Future of COAR!
So, what is the "Securing the Future Fund"?
Goal: $80,000
Goal exceeded: $84,454 (thanks!!)
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The Incarnate Word Sisters who have run COAR for 25 years announced to the Archbishop of San Salvador that they would leave COAR on August 1, 2009. They made it almost the first agenda item for the new Archbishop, José Luis Escobar Alas. He was installed February 14 th and they announced to him and our Board of Trustees on February 21 st . Our trustees knew it was coming eventually. The new vocations coming out of Latin America are just not drawn to the heavy administrative load of a place like COAR. They want the hands-on ministry of caring for orphans and the sick and that means smaller ministries. COAR is huge, especially by Salvadoran standards.
But the Holy Spirit is always at work! Clearly it was time for the Salvadoran Catholic community to take on the care of their own. We were overwhelmed with offers of support, local prayer and service groups, the pastor of our parish, Padre Chicas of Señora del Pilar, and Msgr. Romero's oldest supporter: Msgr. Urioste. The entire community of Zaragoza and the Church has come together. The only thing we were missing – until August 1 st – was the Archbishop's choice for a new Director. Her name is Licenciada Maria Isaura Aráuz Quijano. She is a godchild of Msgr. Romero, has known COAR from its beginning, and is great friends with many of the staff. She is taking early retirement from the Ministry of Education to take this on, but she feels truly blessed to have found this ministry. She is working with Msgr. Rich Antall, head of Caritas in the Archdiocese of San Salvador. Caritas handles all the charitable ministries of the Archdiocese. Can you imagine what that looks like in El Salvador ? Msgr. Rich also happens to be a Cleveland priest serving on our Diocesan mission there. The Holy Spirit again, saying it is time to integrate COAR into Caritas.
We are doubly blessed because it is the right time for COAR to upgrade all its processes to function like a professional Salvadoran charity. We will lose the charm of the way the Sisters ran things, alas, but we will gain much more. With the benefit project, the “Securing the Future Fund” we will make significant investments in new accounting procedures, computer skills and software, bookkeeping, and personnel management – all those things we take for granted here but will make COAR a shining beacon on a hill in El Salvador. The staff will love being trained to a higher professional level. And of course, the children are the ultimate beneficiaries. The Archbishop made a special trip to COAR, among his first as Archbishop, to tell us that his highest priority is care of these impoverished children. (He is just wonderful!) It feels like the most secure foundation we could provide for them is a COAR that will run well through good times and bad and into the future.
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