What would you like to know about St. Joan of Arc? Do you have a story about our parish or of general interest that you think others would like to hear? For story ideas, contact Jeff Rholl, jeff@stjoan.com.

Have you seen the Sock Angel bins on the way to Mass?

The sock angel program was developed by Pat Snyder about three years ago. Pat got the idea for the program when she saw that the homeless were getting free shoes, but not getting socks. Anna Mae Vagle from St. Joan's says that Pat felt she could help. Anna Mae said, "Pat thought that the people who received free shoes from the Basilica shoe program also needed socks to keep their feet warm."

Pat knew just where to look for help in developing this program. She turned to the warm hearts at St. Joan of Arc Family Mass. Pat asked if during that Advent season, SJA would use the Jesse Tree to collect socks for the homeless. (The Jesse Tree is displayed in family mass during Advent. Each year a charity is chosen and the Tree is used to display the donations.) She also asked the children to help her name the new program. They came up with Sock Angels. The participation was overwhelming. They collected almost 2000 new pairs of socks that season!

Each Spring St. Joan's holds a Sock Hop with fun and games for everyone. Instead of charging money to get in, they ask that each person bring a new pair of socks for the Sock Angel Program. This year's Sock Hop will be held on Friday March 23rd. After this event the Sock Angel Program will be put on hold until Advent. This will allow St. Joan's to concentrate on other projects.

St. Joan's is looking for a new person to head up the program. This person will be in charge of promoting the program, placing the collection bins in the church, and delivering the socks. Promoting Sock Angels involves writing notices for the Sunday bulletin and making announcement posters. The socks are delivered once or twice a month, depending on how full the bins become each week.

Marcene Stetz and Ariana Springer have been matched through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program for three and a half years. They get together a couple times a month to do fun activities together. Ariana loves to work on the computer, so they decided that writing a story for St. Joan’s web site would be a great activity. Other things they like to do together is swimming, ice skating, and going to movies. If you would like to check out the Big Brother/Big Sister program, log onto their website at www.bbbsmpls.org or call 612-333-KIDS.

If you are interested in getting involved, please call Anna Mae Vagle at 612-823-8205, extension 235.