Outreach is a priority of the St. Lawrence Parish ACW in Portugal Cove. During Easter, we provide gift bags filled with personal care items and chocolate treats to various women’s shelters in the St. John’s area. We include small toys and other items for any children who might be in these shelters. We provide our local Legion 
(Branch # 10) with sugar cookies decorated as poppies for their Remembrance Day reception. During Christmas, we provide a monetary donation to our parish Christmas Hamper program; each member also provides a gift for a child to accompany the hampers destined for families with children. Our parish is fortunate enough to house a food bank and a thrift store, and some of our members are volunteers at both. We host a playgroup one morning a week for children under the age of 5 and their caregivers, giving moms/dads/guardians an opportunity to socialize with other moms/dads/guardians while the children are playing and having fun. We also host an afternoon of cards & fellowship for seniors, a weekly event enjoyed by all who attend. Both the playgroup and the card games are open to the community at large. Our parish holds a Youth Alpha course for our Confirmation Candidates, to which our ACW will provide a meal, as well as a small gift for the candidates on confirmation day. We also assist our parish Ways and Means Committee with their annual fundraisers. These are just a few of our outreach programs, we are a small group, but very active in our parish, always ready to help whenever called upon. We thank God for giving us the ability and opportunity to serve our parish and community in his name.
