For more than 30 years, Holy Cross Ministries has supported the underserved community and the local workforce. CEO Emmie Gardner says the organization, founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, has three pillars: health, education and justice.
“While they started down in the valley, several of the sisters lived up here, and were beginning to notice the change in the community, Gardner said on KPCW’s Local News Hour,” Aug. 25. “We’ve talked about how the immigrant population here started as the Irish immigrants, right? Immigrant populations change over time, and as we saw that really kind of shifted more to kind of a Spanish-speaking immigrant population, and that's kind of where they leaned in and said, ‘Hey, we're going to really support this community so that we can really support the town.’”
Like many nonprofits, Gardner says Holy Cross Ministries is facing financial challenges, largely because of cuts to federal funding.
“What we hear from our family foundations or funders is that they're trying to take their existing funds and spread it even further, so that they can make up the difference," she said. "We continue to have an amazing grant writer, but she is on track nonstop, trying to do this, and we're tracking the decrease in funding, even from continued funders that we have, right? And they're very gracious, but they're like, we can't give you what we gave you last year. We're going to have to cut it by $25, $50,000.”
Garnder says the organization has lost as much as $100,000 because of the funding cuts. She hopes some of that can be made up at its Autumn Harvest Benefit Oct. 8.
Development Director Andy Cier says the theme of this year’s event is Holy Cross Heroes.
“We felt like there's just several people in the community that have just done so much, and they've kind of they exemplify the spirit of the sisters in terms of compassion and we always say that the short mission of the sisters is, see what needs doing and do it," Cier said.
This year, he says local leaders Anna Williams who founded Latinos in Action and Father Bob Bussen, a longtime pastor at St. Mary’s and leader in the Latino community, will be honored as Holy Cross Heroes.
Early-bird tickets are on sale through the end of August for the event, which will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at St. Mary’s Parish Hall.
Click here for a link to purchase tickets to Holy Cross Ministries Autumn Harvest Benefit.
