The holidays are quickly approaching and The Divine Mercy House is in need of your help to make this a warm happy holiday for our residents and their babies. Through the kindness of others, we would like each woman and child to be able to experience the excitement and joy of the holiday season. If you are looking for a way to give back this Christmas, please consider participating in our sponsorship project.

• Each Resident completes a detailed wish list that includes clothing size and age of their child and information on themselves and their wishes this season.
• Sponsors can provide gifts for mom and baby or just choose one item off mom’s wishlist and The Divine Mercy House can pair several donors to one woman.
• Would you like to sponsor a woman but don’t have the time to shop? The Divine Mercy House staff would be happy to shop for you.

For more information, please email info@divinemercyhouse.org.

Divine Mercy House is greatful to all of our volunteers who share their time and talents with our residents. Each volunteer means so much to our ministry and we would not be able to continue our mission without you! Our volunteers do everything from tutoring to crafts, baby rocking to just “hanging out” with the residents. If you would like to learn more about becoming a Divine Mercy House volunteer, please contact the staff using the online comment form, or by calling (904) 268-6282.

If you or someone you know would like to sponsor a soon to be mom living here at the house, please contact the Divine Mercy House Executive Director Jodie Cetnar at (904) 268-6282.

The Divine Mercy House is dedicated to helping pregnant women in crisis by providing a nurturing, loving, spiritual environment where mom and baby florish. By providing safe housing, facilitating access to work, education, medical services, personal growth and counseling, DMH helps women better prepare themselves for a more successful future.

Each bottle filled and returned will enable the staff of Divine Mercy House continue our mission and help more mothers choose life.

Bottles will be distributed during Mass at St. Joeseph’s Catholic Church beginning October 2 and ending October 30, 2011. If you or someone you know may be interested in distributing bottles through your church, school, or business, please contact the Divine Mercy House Executive Director, Jodie at: 268-6282.

The Divine Mercy House began taking donations for our first annual garage sale starting the first week of August, and by the time the day of the sale rolled around, the garage was bursting at it seams! So many items were given, that staff and volunteers began storing and sorting inside the house, and in the end, a storage unit was brought on site to accommodate all of the large furniture donations. The community gave freely and generously to help provide for the residents of the DMH program.

The sale began at eight am, but volunteers came around five-thirty am, setting up tables, tents and finally arranging the thousands of items for sale. Shortly after eight the parking lot and street was busy with the hundreds of people attending the sale! By the end of the day, most of what was set out was sold, leaving Divine Mercy House with much needed funds that will help in so many ways!

Thanks to all of our volunteers who spent so much time sorting, organizing, planning and finally working the sale as the Divine Mercy House would not have been successful without your hard work and dedication.

Saturday August 27 8am-1pm

Are you getting the itch to clean out a closet or the garage and don’t know what to do with all the stuff you need to get rid of? The Divine Mercy House will be happy to take your old treasures off your hands!

Each donation will help us fund our programs throughout the rest of 2011 by providing money for our resident’s needs and household expenses.

At this time, the Divine Mercy House is full with five women and three babies. With the assistance of Divine Mercy House staff and volunteers, each woman has developed a life plan and a set of goals with the aim of becoming more self sufficient and independent, which will lead to a more successful future for themselves and their child.

How To Help

We will begin accepting garage sale donations Saturday August 20 through Friday August 25 at 4118 Loretto Road in Mandarin. For more information, or to volunteer to help with the set-up or on the day of the sale, please email info@divinemercyhouse.org or call: 904-268-6282.

Pictured from left to right: Adriana Jenkins (Iberia Bank), Jodie Cetnar (Divine Mercy House Executive Director), Joyce (Iberia Bank).

Pictured from left to right are Nellie Aviles (DMH Staff), Bobbie Rountree (Seacoast representative), Jodie Cetnar (DMH Executive Director and RoseAnn Maturo (DMH Staff).

The event was also featured on page 16 of the May Mandarin Newsline:

Mandarin’s Divine Mercy House, a home for pregnant women who are 18 and over, was the focus of Seacoast Christian Academy’s monthly mission project this last May. The students and teachers of Seacoast pre-school held a “baby shower” collection for the mothers and infants residing at the Divine Mercy House which amounted to a truckload of much needed items such as diapers, wipes, baby clothing and other baby gear. To the delight of the Divine Mercy House staff , the items were dropped off on a sunny afternoon in May by Seacoast’s representative Bobbie Rountree who stated that they “were just glad to help!”

page 16 | Mandarin Newsline