As announced in all of the Sunday services on March 28th, the Vestry has approved a supplemental fundraising campaign aimed at balancing our 2010 operating budget.  We asked everyone to increase their 2010 pledge by 8 percent, or on average 50 cents a day ($183 a year).  We are well on our way to bridging the $24,000 budget gap for 2010.

As of April 25th we have received 65 suppl-mental pledges totaling $14,247.  We have reached 60% of our goal and we now have just under $10,000 left to raise to balance the budget.  Thank you to all who have completed a supplemental pledge card.  If you have not, please take a moment today to consider the Vestry’s request and to complete a confidential supplemental pledge card and submit it today.  We will keep the campaign open for a few more weeks, so please take action now.  If you don’t have a pledge card, you can call the church office or pick one up from the table in the narthex.

At our annual parish meeting you heard that our 2010 stewardship campaign pledges plus expected Sunday plate collections total $308,000 and 2010 budgeted operating expenses total $331,922, resulting in an expected gap of almost $24,000.

After close scrutiny of every expense item, the Vestry has recommended a special one-time fundraising campaign we are calling “Bridging the Gap”.

We received 131 pledge cards for 2010. To bridge the $24,000 expense gap we each need to increase our 2010 pledge by 50 cents per day ($183 for the year).

Another way to think about the need is our combined pledges are close to 8% under our needs, so if we each increase our annual pledge by 8% we will bridge the gap and have a balanced budget.

If you missed the 2010 stewardship deadlines and did not submit a pledge card, this campaign gives you an opportunity to do so now.

St Theodore’s is important to all of us.  We come together to worship as one.  We need to come together as one to make this campaign successful.

Please give this important request your prayerful consideration.  The campaign will be rolled out at each of the Sunday services on March 28th.  It will run for four weeks.

We know that by joining together as one we can Bridge the Gap for 2010.