St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Gravenhurst is doing an All-You-Can-Eat Taco Bar fundraiser on Aug. 24 to repair its 50-year-old building.
Michelle Hodgkinson, St. Paul’s Parish administrative assistant, says they need to raise over $400,000 to fully complete the entire roof project and repair the existing water damages.
“We have pre-sold 40 tickets but are hoping for a great response from the general public to come out,” says Hodgkinson. “Our hall has a 186-person capacity, so we can always hope for an entire hall full.”
She says the fundraiser is being held because they don’t want to take away from some of their community outreach programs.
“Our church supports the St. Vincent de Paul, which is a volunteer-led outreach ministry that provides grocery gift cards to those that are facing food insecurity challenges locally,” says Hodgkinson.
She says even though they have “fantastic congregation,” they can only help a certain amount before it impacts their support of other causes.
“We ultimately combined three ideas together for a taco bar, a games night and a karaoke night so that there would be something for everyone,” adds Hodgkinson.
Hodgkinson says there are families that have helped supply goods.
“Through generous donations of the ground beef and the turkey by a farming parish family, Anderson’s Produce being generous with the fresh produce needed for toppings and many other parish families helping out with other little supplies, even more of what we raise can go into the building fund as our overall supply costs are lower,” she says.
The All-You-Can-Eat is $25 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., and according to Hodgkinson, the event will also have a cash bar.
