Piano Fund, Sacramental Gift

01/31/2023

Council: 10019 - LEWISTON

Project Description:

This past July a member of our council 10,019, approached the membership with an idea of raising funds to buy a new piano for Holy Family church, because the old electric keyboard was broken down again. It had been repaired several times before and was now completely blown, being over twenty years old was deemed to be not financially repairable, an equal replacement would be cost prohibitive.
Now would be good time to purchase an acoustic piano. A parlor grand would last a lifetime, well over one hundred years, needing only occasional tuning. A fact-finding committee was formed and consultation with our Pastor – Fr. Daniel Greenleaf, and Director of Music – Scott Vaillancourt, suggested that we contact a local vendor for pricing and availability of an acoustic piano. The vendor was selected, and the committee made an appointment to visit his show room to review the various models available. The shop owner was happy to make us a good deal because of our church affiliation. The deal would be his wholesale price of $10,000.00, for a new Parlor Grand Piano, we were told a saving of over six thousand dollars. With that commitment in hand, we then came back to the council with a motion to allocate some of the funds that were in our banks CD account for this purpose. During the course of discussion members suggested that we conduct a piano fund drive for the church parishioners to help in this project. The motion was amended to reflect the addition of the voluntary donors for the project, voted and passed. The council would run the fund-raising project for three weeks after being written in the church bulletin. A large thermometer poster indicating amount raised with the goal of $10,000, was made and placed in the narthex of the church. This drive was very well received by everyone as evidenced of the generous donations received. After three weeks we collected slightly over $7,500! The council made up the funds for cost difference. Members of our council will always be present in tangible and meaningful ways to this strong faith community at Holy Family Church. Parishioners are now enjoying beautiful liturgy music with this wonderful instrument.
Fr. Dan suggested, December 18 for a Christmas Concert to be held at Holy Family Church to introduce the new Parlor Grand Piano to all parishioners. Musician – Paul Caron and the church choir put on a great afternoon of entertainment playing and singing many popular songs, with the audience joining in. Many pictures and video can be seen on council’s web page: https://www.facebook.com/kochf10019.
Thanks for your help Holy Family Church parishioners.