This Thursday: Give STL Day,
Remaining Projects,
and New Partners

It’s that time of year again: this Thursday, May 7, is the annual Give STL Day, in which the St. Louis Community Foundation makes a way for generous people to support their local St. Louis nonprofits.  Last year, after being in operation just a few months as a start-up nonprofit, our donors stepped up to affirm our mission by donating $20,000 to A Seat at the Table!

For this Thursday’s Give STL Day, we’re excited to announce that we have a couple of “challenge-match” donations offers totaling $5,000! This means, that if we raise $5,000 through your Give STL Day donations, the organization will receive an additional $5,000 from our challenge-match donors! 

As you’ll see in the “Remaining Needs” article below, as well as on our website Wish List, we have significant needs to get things ready for our incoming 4 program participants. So, you don’t even have to wait until May 7. You can donate “early” to A Seat at the Table HERE and help us double your donations thanks to our generous “challenge-match” donors!

Remaining A Seat at the Table Needs
in a COVID-19-Stalled World

Once our shelter-in-place orders are lifted here in the St. Louis area, we’re looking forward to safely gathering a limited number of volunteers to help with these, and other remaining projects, that have been on-hold for the past several weeks:

• Cutting and installing 1st level baseboard trim (as thankfully, thanks to Evans Flooring, 1st level flooring was installed just prior to the shelter-in-place orders. See photos below.)
• Replacing the backyard fence
• Removing cracked backyard concrete parking slabs
• Re-plumbing and installing a double-vanity in the 1st level full bath for our incoming guys
• Installing a kitchen island and other kitchen updates
  
  

We need to complete these projects to make things ready for our next 4 program participants to move in to our 4176 Flad Ave duplex in the Shaw neighborhood.  Keep an eye on our social media postings and website for updates as we plan volunteer workdays. 

LOVEtheLOU: our new Partner Youth Organization

"Thank you" to our Business Partners!

In addition to the dozens of volunteers in pre-COVID-19 days late last fall and earlier this year, we’d like to also thank our special business partners highlighted below. They have each given to A Seat at the Table in unique ways, by donating the likes of labor and/or materials, sharing proceeds from apparel sales, rounding up furniture or provisions for our participants, or, in the case of real estate agent Paul Alexander at Coldwell Banker Gundaker, tirelessly searching dozens of properties throughout St. Louis to find just the right first property for A Seat at the Table!

These businesses set a great example of giving back to our community and making a way for our A Seat at the Table participants to live and flourish in a great environment!  Please patronize and promote their business when you can!

We'd love to hear from you!

Do you know of individuals, companies or foundations for whom serving the under-resourced would be a common passion?  Or, do you have an email address for someone whom you think would like to hear about A Seat at the Table? If so, please contact us HERE and let us know those names and/or email addresses! We are always looking to talk to those who have a similar heart to reach across racial and economic divides in our city and beyond.  Our goal is to have A Seat at the Table chapters in major cities around the country!

Also, if you have questions about A Seat at the Table, contact us HERE as well. We want to hear from you!

A Legacy of Love,
our next Open House...
and Volunteers still needed!

There was an Iranian student from a local university to take in during the midst of the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis. There were friends of their own kids…and numerous grandkids…who, for various lengths of time and for a variety of reasons, all needed at least temporary housing at the Bacotts. There were bible studies and church small groups to host…and very often, a welcoming “Come on over. We’d love to see you here” dinner invitation, even with a small army of their own to feed.

So, it’s not an accident that Chrissy (Bacott) and Bob Stergos founded A Seat at the Table. As they have been blessed with great, welcoming families-of-origin, they seek to carry on their respective parents’ legacies of love. If you’d like to contribute to A Seat at the Table in memory of Oliver, a WWII Navy veteran, you can earmark a special donation in his honor to help continue this legacy of love and unique level of hospitality. Your donations will help us procure needed paint, supplies, flooring and fixtures for the 1st level of our A Seat at the Table duplex in the Shaw neighborhood, into which we will move our next 4 program participants by mid-March. (When donating, be sure to “write a comment” indicating that your donation is in memory of Ollie.)

Volunteers needed this Saturday, Feb. 15

Join us for our Sunday, March 1 Open House

If you’ve been a volunteer, a financial contributor, a decorating, flooring or construction partner…or you’re just curious about this ministry, you’re invited to come celebrate the progress at our A Seat at the Table Open House, Sunday, March 1, 2-6 PM.   Tour both levels of our new duplex and see how close we are to inviting in our next 4 program participants (hopefully, by mid-March).  Our address is 4176 Flad Ave, at the corner of Flad and Klemm, 4 blocks north of Tower Grove Park in the historic Shaw neighborhood.

While things won’t be finished when you stop by (at least on the 1st level), you’ll see how God has made a way through all of YOU who have prayed for this ministry, who have spent hours laboring here and/or financially supported the organization to make this all possible. 

We’ll have snacks and refreshments available as you tour.  You’ll get to meet some of our key decorating, flooring and construction partners who have contributed their materials, installation and overall expertise.  Most importantly, you’ll get to meet some of our board members as well as past and future program participants!  RSVP Here.  Below are photos from our 2nd level.  Work continues on our 1st level. Hope to see you here! 

We'd love to hear from you!

Do you know of individuals, companies or foundations for whom serving the under-resourced would be a common passion?  Or, do you have an email address for someone whom you think would like to hear about A Seat at the Table? If so, please contact us HERE and let us know those names and/or email addresses! We are always looking to talk to those who have a similar heart to reach across racial and economic divides in our city and beyond.  Our goal is to have A Seat at the Table chapters in major cities around the country!

Also, if you have questions about A Seat at the Table, contact us HERE as well. We want to hear from you!