Welcome to the Golden Exchange!

Do you ever look around your house and think, "I have so many things that I don't really use, but I don't want to just throw them away. I wish I could get them to someone who really needs them!" Almost new baby clothes, books you've already read, more religious items than you could ever possibly need, a Christmas gift you know you'll never use, or the extra nine ________ that you bought in a package of ten because it was such a good deal. :) As Americans, we are often overwhelmed by the quantity of things that we have. We know there are so many people throughout the world for whom even one of these things would be a tremendous blessing...but how to get it to them?

The Golden Exchange was born of many hours spent searching the internet and making phone calls, trying to figure out who could use my family's extras. I kept wishing that the information I was slowly gathering was all available in one spot...until it occurred to me that maybe I should create that spot!

A dear friend, now a Carmelite sister, once said that if I have something extra that someone else needs, it doesn't even really belong to me...it belongs to them. And another dear Friend has said that whatever we do for one of the least of His brethren, we do for Him :) So for love of Him and of all those in need...

The Poorest Place in America

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is one of the poorest places in the United States. Unemployment on the Reservation hovers around 80% and 49% live below the Federal Poverty Level. Adolescent suicide is four times the national average. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewer. The population on Pine Ridge has among the shortest life expectancies of any group in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for males and in the low 50s for females. The infant mortality rate is five times the United States national average. Over 40,000 people are essentially living in Third World living conditions, right in the middle of our own country.

There are many organizations set up on the Reservation to help those most in need, and they are basically in need of anything and everything! Pretty much if you have something extra in your house (books, clothing, school supplies, sewing and crafting supplies, kitchen items, blankets, winter coats, etc, etc, etc), they are in need of it!

You can mail the items to the various addresses provided. Or if you or someone you know happen to be driving across the country (Mount Rushmore, anyone??) you might consider doing a donation drive at your church or amongst your friends and bringing a whole car or truckload! This would be a great project for kids or teens, and if they could deliver it in person, it could be even more eye-opening for them!


For a list of links to organizations on the Reservation that need the following new or gently used items, click here

Beading Supplies
Bedding and Linens
Bath Products
Books
Cleaning Supplies
Clothing
School Supplies
Donations for Infants and Toddlers
Donations for Children
Household Goods
Personal Care Items/Toiletries
Sewing/Knitting/Crocheting Supplies



Here are a couple of specific programs you might be especially interested in, to donate books, school supplies, sewing supplies, or winter clothing, :

"Build Your Own Library" Children's Books

This program has a list of suggested books, but will take any new or gently used children's book that you would like to donate.

School Supplies for Oglala Lakota College

School Supplies for Our Lady of Lourdes School

School Supplies for the Children at the Cangleska Battered Women's Shelter

Brownie Supplies for Wolf Creek Elementary School

You might have unused extras of these items, or you could order from an office supply store and have it shipped directly to the school.

Sewing Supplies for the Kateri Circle Sewing Group

Fabric, thread, embroidery supplies, safety pins, lace, knitting needles, yarn...you name it, they need it! Just the sort of thing that every crafty lady has extras of sitting around...you know you still have that yard of fabric that you bought back in 1987! ;)

Winter Coats, Scarves, etc. and Electric Heaters

New and/or gently used warm winter coats, jackets, snowsuits, hats, gloves, scarves, etc. and especially electric heaters. They can also use new blankets of any size. They need kids coats up to size 12 (and there are lots of babies and toddlers) and coats for women and teen girls of all sizes, as well as coats in men's sizes.


Monetary Donations Needed:

Lend a Hand with Utilities

Monetary donations to help women and children who have moved out of the battered women's shelter and are trying to set up their own households. They often don't have money to pay for utilities, which can be very dangerous in the extreme winter cold. Also, children may be taken away by social services if their mother cannot pay utilities, because of an unhealthy living situation. Donations help these struggling families get on their feet, and also help keep women and children together.

Propane Project

Donations needed to purchase propane to heat families' homes against the bitter Dakotan winter.

Support the Oglala Lakota College

Monetary donations (tax-deductible) to support students working towards a nursing degree in the Oglala Lakota College Department of Nursing.

Give Food for Free

Want to give food to the hungry, every day, without it costing you a penny??

On the Hunger Site, all you have to do is click on the button (you can do it once a day) and the advertisers will pay to give food to the poor (usually about 1 cup per click). The Hunger Site also sells beautiful items made by craftsmen around the world (often Fair Trade certified) for amazingly good prices.

This is a great site to have as your home page, so that you'll remember to click every day!

Institute of the Incarnate Word Seminary

This wonderful religious order, originally founded in Argentina, now serves in many countries throughout the world. They are especially focused on serving the poor, serving in parishes, catechesis, reverent liturgy, the youth, families, and the evangelization of culture. Here are some of their practical and liturgical needs:

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From the IVE website:

Particular items needed: We are always very grateful to anyone who can make any donation whatsoever, but there are particular things that we stand in the most need of. These include:

• food (almost anything!)
• toiletries
• undershirts
• socks
• black sweaters
• black pants
• white dress shirts (for our postulants)
• black jackets & coats
• appropriate books: philosophy, theology, history, etc.
• any nice religious artwork (pictures, prints, statues) for the (now rather bare) walls of the seminary
• wall crucifixes of any size (we need them for a number of the rooms and halls in our seminary)
• a high-quality camera (a digital SLR that can take pictures in rapid succession and has a decent photo quality in low-light conditions

Contribute to the Liturgical Life of the Seminary: There are a number of liturgical items of which we are also in need. Perhaps most particularly, we need dalmatics, the vestment which our deacons wear in the celebration of the Holy Mass—we need two of them in every liturgical color: white, green, red, purple, rose, and black (perhaps in that order of importance). First and foremost, we can arrange for our contemplative sisters to make these vestments for essentially only the cost of the fabric (contact us for more information about this). However, there are other places—one affordable place where beautiful mass vestments can be purchased at an affordable price is Luzar Vestments. (The link is for their High Mass sets, which include two dalmatics along with a chasuble for the priest, but you can also purchase their dalmatics individually). Gaspard Vestments has another line ("Regal") of dalmatics (and several other chasuble lines) that are very nice. Another place that makes very beautiful vestments (albeit not inexpensively) is Susan Maria Vestments—we would welcome donations of beautiful chasubles or dalmatics from any of the above. That said, the following items would be particularly useful:*

• wall-mounted bells to be rung at beginning of mass
• altar candlesticks
• votive candle stands
• breviaries (4-volume in English or Latin)
• Benediction sets (which consist of humeral veil and cope)
• Adoremus hymnals (available at Ignatius Press)
• Parish Book of Chant hymnals (available at Amazon)
• Gregorian Missals (available here)
• altar candles (in 1 1/2" size)
• a processional cross (crucifix)
• processional candles
• a processional canopy for Eucharistic processions
• a thabor (the stand on which a monstrance is placed)

*We know that many of these items are expensive bought new, but also know it is also possible that some of our friends and benefactors (particularly priests) might have some of these items in a worthy but used condition, and which are no longer of use to them.


If you have any questions regarding whether we might be able to use something, please feel free to contact us:

Bishop Fulton Sheen House of Formation
5706 Sargent Rd.
Chillum, MD 20782
(301) 773-3635.
sem.washington@ive.org


Make a Monetary Donation: We currently have nearly 60 men in formation in this province, all of whom we must feed and provide with health care in addition to the costs associated with their studies. Just as pressing is the fact that within the next year we will entirely run out of space in our seminary and either need to buy/build a new building or purchase houses next to our current seminary--currently we do not have nearly enough money to do either. There are also several other important projects for which we are currently fundraising. To make a donation, click here.