Walter Doyle, Co-Director

First let me say “Happy Easter” to you and yours from all of us here at 242. As I am writing this to you it is 88 degrees outside, and I am loving it. This year, our 43rd in the service of the Lord, is
moving right along. It seems like we just finished up with the Christmas Progam, and now we just
zoomed by Easter. Things are moving along.

The Little Store is moving right along also. In the past two years, we have gone from 30 to 50 customers a day to 50 to 75 customers a day. Our Little Store team under the leadership of Charley O’Neill is making it happen every day. We are constantly going out and doing pick ups of household items, furniture, appliances and bedroom items so the look of the store changes almost daily. If you would like to see what is going on in the Little Store, you can go to thelittlestoreat242.com and see all the beautiful items we have in stock.

The Urban Missionaries will be holding a Zoom meeting for our annual business meeting. This
year we are going to tackle the problem of how to find more people to join us as Urban Missionaries
of Our Lady of Hope, and we are also going to put together a plan for a Pilgrimage to Pontmain,
France where Our Lady of Hope appeared. It just might include a side trip to Normandy and Paris.
We will be sending out an invitation to all sometime before July 1, 2023.

Our flea market efforts started April 15, 2023 at 4:45 A.M. We delayed the opening due to Holy
Week and Easter falling on April 2, through April 9, 2023. I cannot tell you how many people stop
me starting around the first of February asking, “Are you doing the flea market this year?” or
“When will you start doing the yard sale?” Needless to say there are more than a few that are
anxiously waiting. If you have time we are open every Saturday from 7:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. rain
or shine. We would love to see you there!

We are happy to report that our Student Incentive Program has received another $5,000 donation
from Judy Cassella. This will allow the program to continue until December 2023. As you may
know, this program is the brainchild of Stephen Devincent. He had been helping families from
Myanmar work through the resettlement process when he noticed a number of the high school
teens were having trouble raising money for their sports equipment and driving lessons. He
approached us with the idea that he would fund four students and we would give them each a
stipend of $30/week if they would volunteer three hours/week for service work at the
Little Store. That was back in June of 2020. Since that time we have met a lot of wonderful young
men and women. It has been life changing for them and life changing for us. We have been
blessed!