2003 Wish List

AVAIL, Antigo

AVAIL (Advocates for Victims of Domestic and Sexual Abuse in Langlade County), Inc. offers free services to victims of domestic and sexual abuse. Services include counseling, support groups, emergency shelter and a 24-hour crisis line for women and children. Most clients are women with children, 45 of whom received shelter last year.

Executive director Michelle Arrowood says AVAIL received a grant to build a bedroom for those with accessibility needs. However, that means tearing down their dilapidated garage, used to store donated items. If they don't build a new garage, 24 by 50 feet, this year, they will lose the grant money for the bedroom. Arrowood says AVAIL has people to build the garage, if materials can be donated.

They also need an office-sized paper cutter. Call Arrowood at (715)623-5177.

Horizon Adult Day Care, Antigo

This day care facility provides activities, companionship and peer support in a safe, structured environment designed for seniors in the Langlade County area, especially those suffering confusion and memory loss. Day care provides their families with respite and is staffed by certified nursing assistants. Horizon is linked with Langlade Memorial Hospital and assists about 25 seniors.

The center needs a VCR because the old machine "sometimes eats our tapes," said director Jennifer Renfro. "Elders enjoy watching movies and sharing some of their home movies." Call Renfro at (715)627-0657.

COTS (Community Outreach Temporary Services), Appleton

This shelter for men in need provides a room, food and counseling -- for which residents pay. COTS is an ecumenical project of various churches in the Fox Valley. The shelter needs stamps, phone cards and gift cards from local stores. Their big hope is to find facilities to start a 30-bed women's residence. The area has no facility for single women who are just out of jail or rehab programs. Call Ann Schalk or Brad Vivoda at (920)831-6591.

Villa Phoenix, Appleton

This residential facility provides a home for men with mental illness, developmental disabilities or chemical dependency. Up to 17 residents, ages 35 and up, can live there. Director Steve Hinton says the low-income residents could use a new dining area table with five chairs. Call Hinton at (920)731-1316.

Bridge-Between Retreat Center, Denmark

This rural retreat ministry of the Sinsinawa Dominicans serves more than 5,800 people each year. People of all religious faiths are welcome to study, pray and share meals at this converted farm. The center helps fund its services through an organic farm and the sale of produce, homemade jams and bread. Sr. Caroline Sullivan says they need "a firm love seat sleeper sofa for added guest sleeping," as well as evergreens for a windbreak around the farm house. They could also use an ATV to haul produce from their garden and two dehumidifiers to keep the basement dry for produce storage. Call her or Diane Eparvier at (920)864-7230.

The Gathering Place, Green Bay

For seven years, this drop-in center for adults coping with mental illness has offered support and peer support. Co-chair Virginia Bryan has schizophrenia and says the center is a place where people "can come and feel safe." The center offers educational seminars, movies, life skills classes and field trips. Membership is free and it is funded by grants and donations. The center is open every weekday and needs a new 12-cup coffee maker. Bryan says the old one broke because it is always running so that there is always fresh coffee to offer those who stop in. Call her at (920)430-9187.

Marion House, Green Bay

This Christian Group Homes community project provides housing for pregnant teens and adolescent mothers with new babies. The girls attend high school full-time, and also learn the basic social skills needed to live independently as a single parent. The home's capacity is seven and it is full. They need volunteers to baby sit. They could also use a digital camera and computer scanner for their newsletter. They also need large-size disposable diapers and wipes, cold medicines, laundry and dishwashing soap. To help, call Judy Cleveland at (920)496-1478.

House of Hope/Ozanam House Green Bay

This cooperative project of the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul Society provides housing for pregnant teens and single mothers, ages 18-21, and their children. Staff teaches the women -- who are homeless-- basic social skills to live independently as single parents. House of Hope moved to new facilities last year and can serve up to 10 women at a time.

"We are still in need of basic supplies," said coordinator Rebecca Lesperance. "For example, our vacuum cleaner is quite old. In our kitchen, we need basic supplies -- juice pitchers, a knife set, a tea pot, plastic glasses, cake pans." They also need a copy machine and educational materials for residents working on their GEDs. Call Lesperance at (920)884-6740.

Wellspring, Green Bay

This "place of peace for women" is a cooperative effort of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Cross at Bay Settlement, the Salvation Army and the Fort Howard/Jefferson Neighborhood Family Resource Center. This drop-in center in downtown Green Bay offers support to 300 women a month. They come from various faiths and ethnic backgrounds and, as Sr. Fran Bangert, OSF, says "lack strong support systems."

Wellspring needs a new computer and printer to print job resumes and class papers for the women, as well as bulletin board announcements. "It's a big wish," said Sr. Bangert, "because it's beyond our budget."

They also need gift certificates from book stores and craft marts. Call Sr. Bangert at (920)432-0155.

Elizabeth Ministry, Kaukauna

Elizabeth Ministry, started at St. Bernard Parish in Appleton to help new parents, has spread worldwide with an array of information, activities and support networks. Local parish chapters provide volunteer mentors and resources to women and families in bringing new life into the world, as well as those suffering loss or infertility. Founder Jeannie Hannemann says they would like a motor home for "a mobile resource center" and an attorney to volunteer as a consultant.

Most of all, Hannemann would like to have "a house that could become a 'retreat' place for women to come to that would focus on the 'Maternal Mysteries' of the joys, challenges and sorrows of the childbearing years. This could also serve as a place people could comeour many resources."Elizabeth Ministry operates out of a basement. A house would allow them to provide more outreach and impromptu ministry. Call Hannemann at (920)766-9380.

Holiday House, Pines Group Home, Manitowoc

For over 40 years, Holiday House has provided employment and housing for persons with disabilities. They also run a group home, housing nine people with developmental disabilities. Director Thomas Keil says they need a van (new or low-mileage used) to transport residents to their jobs.

"Our present van has high mileage," said Keil. "The seats are torn, the bottom of doors are rusted through. The vehicle doesn't heat well in winter or provide cool air in summer." Call him at (920)682-4663.

Mount Tabor, Menasha

Mt. Tabor Center offers retreats to everyone, but focuses especially on youth. More than 2,000 young people are served each year, especially through confirmation retreats. It also provides community spiritual experiences such as the Janssen Forum.

Theresa Collier says they need twin bed mattresses and bottom sheets, vestments for the chapel, colored copy paper and paper kitchen products. They could also use a PA system for retreat speakers.

"We want our youth to have a great retreat," Collier said. "And when they leave, we don't want them to talk about the gloomy rooms or atmosphere." Call Collier at (920)722-8918.

Clothes Closet, Menasha

The Community Clothes Closet distributes clothing and household items free to some 1,000 needy families a month in the Fox Valley. Families, many of whom work at low-income jobs, are referred by service agencies, clergy and domestic abuse shelters. Since its founding in 1980, the Clothes Closet has distributed over 2 million items. Executive director Diane Bishop says they need large-size clothing for men and women, linens (towels, blankets and sheets) and copy machine paper. Bishop says they could also use a checkout scanner to "allow us to track specific clothing needs." Contact her at (920)731-7834.

Menominee Community Center/St. Anthony Parish, Neopit

The community center is a joint venture of St. Anthony Parish and the Menominee Tribe. It serves as a site for religious education programs, wedding and funeral dinners and parish wake services, community dinners and gatherings. This parish in the Menominee reservation has about 320 members; most are Native American. Sr. Stephanie Spence, pastoral associate, says the parish is in the most economically depressed area of the reservation. The community center needs a used wheelchair for elders who come to events. Call her at (715)756-2361.

Salvatorian Mission Warehouse, New Holstein

For 40 years, Br. Regis Fust, SDS, and hundreds of volunteers have shipped tons of aid to missionaries around the globe. Items are donated by companies, but shipping costs run into the thousands of dollars.

Br. Regis says the warehouse -- which ships an average of one container a day -- needs money to pay shipping costs. Besides containers from New Holstein, shipments go out from facilities across the country.

On Dec. 9, School Sister of Notre Dame Charlaine Fill, wrote from Paraguay, in thanks for powdered milk, canned fruit, cookie bars and candy for a program that serves over 1,000 children a day. "Thank you, too, for the Motrin, Tylenol, iodine wipes and other medical supplies," she added. "These are always in demand, and we always share some of them with the local hospital, and especially their residential programs for indigenous people who are in treatment for tuberculosis. We also help that program with food supplies on a regular basis -- all due to your work and the generosity of your donors."

Most supplies shipped are food and medicine, but Br. Regis says they also need sheets, blankets and sewing materials. Call him at (920)898-5898.

Labor of Love, Oshkosh

This maternity home for women in crisis pregnancies opened six years ago. They have room for four residents at a time. Additionally, they serve more than 300 women on an out-patient basis. Director Burdean Schultz says that the need glider rockers "so each resident can have a rocker in her room to rock her baby." They also need a vacuum cleaner. Call Schultz at (920)231-6006.

Chaplain, Oshkosh Correctional Institution

Sr. Susan Clark, SSND, is a chaplain at Oshkosh's medium security, 1,900-inmate prison. About 350 of the men are registered Catholics. Sr. Clarke needs a portable CD player, religious music CDs, a new typewriter, subscriptions to NCR and cash donations for books. "Updated reading material is important, rather than old books being cleaned off a shelf," she said. "We like to think of ourselves as a 'parish' and so our needs are the same as any parish. We would like a CD player because music heals and touches the heart ... in the midst of what sometimes is a dismal situation for inmates." Contact her at (920)231-4010, ext. 2171.

Fr. Carr's Place 2B, Oshkosh

For 30 years, Fr. Marty Carr has built a network of services for needy and sick throughout Oshkosh, including a soup kitchen, domestic violence shelters, Bethlehem Inn shelter and a free health clinic.

Fr. Carr needs a van -- "a Jesus mobile" -- for the domestic shelter. They could also use a copy machine and new diabetic testing equipment and supplies for the health clinic, as well as cribs, single beds, desks and bookcases for the Holy Family Villa shelter for women and children.

"With volunteers and prayers, these items will better help us care for God's poor," Fr. Carr said. Call him at (920)231-2378.