From The Pastor’s Desk, July 29, 2012

God has truly blessed us with a wonderful summer – with much heat and some rain off and on…who was foolish to say that Winnipeg is not a great city to live in, work in, play in, and yes, even pray in…we do have4 very much to be grateful for.

We especially as a parish, are most thankful for the number of dedicated men over the years who have been most supportive and generous with their time and energy.  Back on November 25, 1955, the St Joseph’s Recreation Club under the guidance of Mike Geluch, Steve Fedeniuk, William Dolinski, and Harry Swenarchuk held its first bingo to raise funds for the newly founded parish of St Joseph’s.  This weekly bingo continued determinately over the past 57 years , raising $1000’s upon $1000’s of dollars for the operation of our parish.  Many of our major renovation projects – the roof replacements, the window restoration, the sidewalk paving, etc.  the list goes on and on – were directly funded by the hard-working bingo workers.

The original Club of workers evolved over the years into the Brotherhood BUK, then into the St Joseph’s Wildlife Association and eventually into the present Men’s Club.  Regardless of the name of this group of parishioners, the commitment and dedication to St Joseph’s has been phenomenal.  Some of the Thursday evening workers have faithfully and weekly participated well over 30 years;  many of them have been called to their eternal rest, God bless them all!

Because of diminishing attendance and participation (part of the cause is the ever-increasing casino), the Men’s Club jointly came to the conclusion – we cannot continue to host a Parish Bingo.On Thursday, July 19th, the St. Joseph’s Men’s Club worked their last bingo., gave away all the prize money listed on the board and terminated a 57 year tradition.  Many of these committed workers are in their 70s, 80s and even 90s.  Truly they deserve a much needed rest.

As pastor, on behalf of all our parishioners, I sincerely wish to thank each and every one of them.  They have all worked above and beyond the call of duty, they have supported St Joseph’s financially and generously over the years – with their time, talent and treasure!  May God bless them and their families for such great dedication and devotion to our parish.  Hopefully with more research and time, we may be able to list all of them by name in the bulletin and acknowledge them personally!  Thank you!

Fr. Frank should be returning soon, Fr. Volodymyr has left for his vacation in Ukraine, and we continue to share our time with you and give thanks and praise for each and every one…God Bless!

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