For almost 30 years St. Pius X Church hosted homeless individuals and families in the Fr. Nelson Hall for a week each winter as part of Warm Nights, an inter-denominational mission opportunity. In an attempt to provide a safer environment for both the homeless and the participating churches, last year the Warm Nights program began providing food and shelter
in a central location for almost 300 homeless adults and children. That format has been continued this year.
Items needed by Warm Nights will be collected on the weekends of February 12/13 and February 19/20. Donated items will be collected in the Church Entranceway after all Masses. Donated items can also be dropped off in front of the school entrance on Sunday, February 20th from Noon – 1 pm. Look for the Warm Nights Drop-off Sign. This will be a touchless delivery opportunity. List of items needed is attached.
In addition, to make helping even easier, you can also purchase off our Amazon Wish List which will allow you to purchase items on-line and have them sent directly to us for easy transport to the shelter.
If you choose to ship to the Wish List address, items need to arrive no later than Friday, February 25 to be included with the other donations. You may also choose to ship the items to your home and then bring them to the Church on February 12/13 or 19/20 or the drop-off location on February 20.
You can access the Wish List HERE.
Cleaning Products
Full size or travel size acceptable
Non-perishable Food Items
Items should be individual size and commercially wrapped.
Toiletries
Full size or travel size acceptable
Since refrigeration is limited at the hotel, they need 100 fresh
lunches each day. Our SPX week to provide lunches is
February 27 – March 5. If you’d like to volunteer to help provide
bag lunches, please contact Sally Hein by phone (301 – 464 – 3752)
or email (hein1@verizon.net) with the number of lunches you can provide (in multiples of 10 – 10, 20, 30, etc) and your preferred
drop-off date. You will be contacted with a drop-off time and
location here in Bowie. Please do not bring bag lunches to the church. Drop-offs will be each morning prior to 10 am.
Bag lunches should include:
Bag Lunch Packaging
Please pack lunch in a plastic zip-lock bag (gallon) and label the bag with sandwich type (Ham & cheese, roast beef, Turkey & swiss, PB&J, etc.) Stapling an index card to the bag works well.
Funds are needed to purchase vouchers / gift-cards to transportation partners (Metro, Uber, Lyft) for use in getting guests to school, work, medical appointments, job interviews, etc. Funds may also be used to purchase other needed items. $25 Giant Food gift cards and rolls of quarters for the laundromat would also be appreciated.
Donations can be made:
Donations should be made no later than Sunday, February 20th.
Please make checks payable to St. Pius X Church.
Sally Hein
301.464.3752
hein1@verizon.net
Download the flyer HERE.