Many Sacred Heart parishioners took time after Mass on Wednesday, June 1, to help assemble Disaster Relief Kits. Our parish purchased the supplies with funds that came from the Social Justice and Charitable Outreach Commission budget.  The Commission voted at their May meeting to answer the call from the Arkansas Rice Depot to help provide personal care kits, food kits and cleaning bucket kits for the victims that were devastated from the tornadoes and floods during the April storms.

Bernie Kernen, John Bodensteiner and Dick Hill did the comparative shopping and purchasing of the items to make up the disaster relief kits. Thank you to all that helped in the assembly of the disaster relief kits.

The Arkansas Rice Depot is still in desperate need of emergency food kits, flood bucket kits and personal care kits to distribute to the needy. Gathering the supplies and assembling the kits is an ideal project for Vacation Bible School, summer programs and men's and women's groups.  The kits can be dropped off at Arkansas Rice Depot at 3801 W. 65th St. in Little Rock or call Lauren at (501) 565-8855 and ARD can send a truck to pick them up.                                                             

Pictured following a clean-up effort at Elizabeth Barry's residence: (front l-r) Pat Perilloux, Ed Miller, Don Levac, John Bodensteiner; (back l-r) Jim Passe, Dave Witchger, Tom Auel, Bob Bowman, Mike Frantz; (not pictured) Tom Thornton and Marvin Young.

After the first destructive storm in April, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Disaster Respnse Team (DRT) worked at four sites for a total of 60 volunteer hours.  Following the April 25 tornado through May 18, the DRT worked over 540 hours on 30 different sites, some of them in collaboration with the Balboa Baptist Church team.  

While most of the work has been done in the Village itself, the case management requests have come from outside of the Village following the “One Stop Assistance” event, which DRT case managers and one interpreter helped staff.  The case manager coordinator also visited a number of individual households outside the Village to assess damage and evaluate requests for assistance.Also, the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) has asked the Sacred Heart Team to investigate several requests for assistance near Royal, west of
Hot Springs.

Men’s Club Fish Bake guests enjoy their meal while waiters serve food and Pastor Fr. Bill Elser (center rear) welcomes those attending.

On April 15 Sacred Heart Men’s Club sponsored their annual Fish Bake.  Over 375 meals were served as guests were treated to baked fish, potatoes, vegetables, cole slaw and special bread from Chicago.  A Sacred Heart Ladies Guild and CCD Students joined in by selling Pastor Fr. Bill’s home made ice cream which was a special added treat. 

The Men’s Club Fish Bake is one of the two major fund raisers the club sponsors during the year.  The money raised at these events goes to support charities in the community including Jackson House, the McCauley Center and various parish ministries.

The Men’s Club Assistant Program Chairman, Mickey Jordan, greets Jerry Grote before his talk to the April Sacred Heart Men’s Club meeting.

Mr. Jerry Grote was the guest speaker at the April 12^th meeting of the Sacred Heart Men’s Club.  Mr. Grote has been a resident of Hot Springs Village for 6 years with his wife Anne who is a floral designer and manager of The Bee Hive.  Jerry was an all American athlete in college in both baseball and basketball.  Following college he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and the St. Louis Hawks NBA team.  He decided to play basketball and played for both the Hawks and the LA Lakers.  Following his professional sports career he was a college basketball coach, a television announcer for the LA Lakers and involved in the insurance business.

Jerry spoke to the Men’s Club about the importance of daily scripture reading, the value of daily prayer and finding satisfaction through service.  He used examples from his experience along with numerous humorous antidotes to bring his presentation to life.  His talk was followed by a lively question and answer period.

Sacred Heart Men’s Club is an organization of men from Sacred Heart Parish that meet monthly for fellowship and provide services and financial donations to various community charities.

Sheila Harrison allowing the third grade students to carefully feel the owl.

The third grade classes at Mountain Pine Grade School had a special opportunity to learn about and also to touch and feel a screech owl. The owl visited the school on March 28^th through an outreach program conducted by the Little Rock Museum of Discovery.  The Museum provides a live animal from their collection to visit classrooms accompanied by an employee or a trained volunteer.  Through these visitations the students learn about the animal’s habits and habitat as well as having an opportunity to actual experience a live animal in the classroom.

The Mother Teresa Guild of Sacred Heart Parish has supported the third grade classes at Mountain Pine for a number of years.  Their support has included providing students with needed school supplies, conducting parties, providing volunteer readers and various projects.  Last year, Sheila Harrison, a member of the Mother Teresa Guild for 10 years, took the training for the Lively Science Program which provides the animals.  Over the past two years Sheila has been a regular visitor to the third grade students accompanied by a new animal each time.  For her March visit she brought along a screech owl which the children really enjoyed learning about.  After introducing the students to the owl, Sheila carried him around the classroom for each student to see it close up and to gently touch its feathery back.  Other animal visitors have included snakes and even an alligator.  This program certainly helps to bring natural science to life for the Mountain Pine third graders.

Left, Becca Clark showing Sheila Harrison, President of Ladies of the Sacred Heart, a daily file with folders for each day of the month for organizing daily tasks.

The Ladies of the Sacred Heart welcomed guest speaker, Becca Clark, to the March meeting.  Ms. Clark is a Professional Organizer and owner of Creative Convenience in Hot Springs.  She has  been in this business six years. Since Spring is usually the time of year to de-clutter and get organized, Ms. Clark’s talk was timely and informative. As she said, “who wouldn’t want to be more productive, reduce stress, and de-clutter?”

She spoke about the importance of de-cluttering, obstacles to clutter, which includes “mental clutter,” and her Top 12 Tips for getting organized.  The first of Ms. Clarks TOP TIPS is “When in doubt about what to keep and what to let go, keep this concept in mind: everything around you should be functional, beautiful, or both.”

Sacred Heart Launches Lenten Wednesday Celebration

As part of its celebration of Lent, Sacred Heart Parish has added a special Wednesday evening program.  On all the Wednesday evenings during Lent, starting at 5 PM, soup and sandwiches will be served in the church halls.  Parishioners are asked to sign up in advance so the appropriate amount of food can be delivered.  After the lite supper, a 45 minute video presentation from the Michael Cumbie Micah Project series is shown on the large screen.  Through a series of six dynamic and often humorous lectures, Mike Cumbie talks about why the church in America is relevant today, sacramental theology and liturgical worship.  The presentation is then followed by Mass in the church.  The kick-off for the weekly series was on Ash Wednesday and the church halls were overflowing.  The food, which is being catered by Home Plate, was excellent and the presentation was almost spellbinding.  With such a great kick-off, the program is certain to be an outstanding success.

The Sacred Heart Parish’s Pastoral Council gathers for its first meeting following the recent election including, from left to right, Fr. Bill Elser, Dave Witchger, Bill Hurley, Marcia Bresnahan, Jan Lipsmeyer, Tom Canavan, Don Ritter and Marge Newburn. Missing was Ed Keearns.

Recently parishioners at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish conducted the annual election for representatives to the Pastoral Council.  Members elected serve as Council representatives for their respective commissions for a two year period.  There are four commissions headed by elected representatives including Parish Life, Education and Formation, Social Justice and Charitable Outreach and Liturgy.  In addition, there is a fifth commission, Finance and Administration, which is appointed by the Pastor.  The new members elected to serve two year terms include Bill Hurley (Parish Life), Marcia Bresnahan (Education), Don Ritter (Education), Ed Keearns (Social Justice) and Jan Lipsmeyer (Liturgy).  In addition to the newly elected members the council includes Tom Canavan (Parish Life), Marge Newburn (Liturgy) and Dave Witchger (Finance).

The Pastoral Council meets on a regular basis to provide coordination and consultative assistance to the Pastor.  The council members will report on activities within their respective commissions, work together to provide recommendations to the Pastor on specific parish needs, and assist in the preparation of the annual parish budget.

Sacred Heart Men’s Club serves dinner to the students, parents and teachers of the Sacred Heart CCD Program.

The religious education program for grade school and high school students at Sacred Heart parish, called the CCD program, meets on Wednesday evening beginning at 6:30 PM.  The teachers are all volunteers, parents and parishioners who give their time to provide religious education.  Recognizing that it is challenging for parents to always get their children fed supper and to class by 6:30, the Director of the CCD Program, Angela Isaacs, asked the various organizations within the parish if they would provide supper for the students, teachers and parents one Wednesday evening a month during the school year. 

The parish organizations responded enthusiastically to this request.  Over the past school year the Ladies Guild, the Men’s Club and the Knights have provided a supper one Wednesday a month.  The meals have ranged from picnic style to sit down dinners and have included a wide variety of foods.  The students arrive at church at 6 PM and parents are invited.  They eat with their teacher and in addition to a great meal they usually enjoy a neat dessert including ice cream that is home made by Fr. Bill Elser, Sacred Heart’s Pastor.  The meal concludes in time for all to get to class, well fed and ready to learn.

Stephanie Stone (l) is greeted by Mickey Jordan representing the Men’s Club before her talk at the Men’s Club meeting.

Stephanie Stone, Assistant Director of Golf, Recreation and Club Services of the Hot Springs Village POA, addressed the Sacred Heart Men’s Club on Tuesday, February 8^th at the club’s regular monthly meeting.  Stephanie has worked for the POA for 21 years having started in 1990 in Accounting.  She has two sons, one attending the University of Central Arkansas and one a high school senior enrolled at the University of Arkansas for the fall.

Stephanie, who started in her current position only 9 months ago, talked about the many challenges now confronting the POA including the significant changes in management that have occurred over the past year.  She emphasized that she sees a lot of positive change coming.  Her group has received the recently developed strategic plan for the Village and is currently developing and evaluating action plans to meet the plan’s goals.  In addition, there is an increased emphasis on marketing the Village through advertising and promotion.  In the past this was an activity done by Cooper.  Now it is a priority of the POA.

In talking about some of the current challenges she is facing, Stephanie discussed the concerns about some of the aging facilities and the Village restaurant situation.  The POA and the Community Foundation are cooperating on plans for a major fund raiser in order to provide upgrades at the Woodlands and the Coronado Center.  They hope to be able to provide a state of the art lighting and sound system at the Woodlands so the facility can attract outstanding entertainment.  As part of her responsibilities, Stephanie deals with the ten restaurants that are under the POA’s supervision.  There has been a steady turnover of in restaurant management due to a variety of reasons including health, costs and labor.  At the present time the POA is looking for new management for the 19^th Hole at DeSoto and the Wood N Iron at Cortez.