Author: shannon

Every month I (Shannon) make four family-sized meals that are delivered by Freedom Outreach to families in and around Wilmington, DE. Each meal is enough to feed a family of 8. I thought I’d give you a sample of last month’s menu.

Chicken Pot Pie– a chicken pie loaded with potatoes, carrots, green beans and a biscuit topping.
Mandarin Coconut Salad– a sweet fruit salad made with mandarin oranges, green grapes, pineapple bits, coconut and marshmallows.
And for dessert… cupcakes! Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and strawberry cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

We held our 2nd Annual Walkathon and Holiday Boutique fundraisers, and also kicked off a Volleyball League and Casino Night. These were all fun and profitable events. Our fundraising efforts for 2009 raised almost $3,000 dollars!

The Dinner Project has been steadily growing since its launch in April 2009. By year end we had prepared and given away 28 family-size meals.

During the summer a pastor in New York contacted us on behalf of a young mother who had just lost a child to stillbirth. The Remembrance Project contributed $500 dollars toward the funeral costs of that baby boy. It was extremely gratifying to be able to ease the financial worry of a grieving family.

In September, The Backpack Project donated 100 backpacks filled with school supplies to Bancroft Elementary School in Wilmington, DE, who distributed them to students in need. A special thanks to WSFS Bank employees for donating nearly half of those supplies!

Carasmark would like to welcome Josh Robinson to the board of directors. Josh teaches Physical Education at The Charter School of Wilmington. He joined the board in August of 2009 and we are happy to have him working with us.

Carasmark kicked off the Dinner Project at the end of April by providing home cooked meals to two families residing in Wilmington, DE. The meals were delivered by Freedom Outreach, an organization that seeks to build lasting relationships within diverse communities in Wilmington. Carasmark will continue to provide monthly meals for these families and plans to include additional families in the near future.

Carasmark’s first year was a big success! Our goal was to raise $5,000 and it was met. We are ready to embark on three exciting projects for 2009 (see “projects” for more info).