HONORING OUR LADY’S MESSAGE OF PEACE, WE WORK AND PRAY FOR THE UNITY OF ALL PEOPLE, AND FOR TRUE AND LASTING PEACE ON EARTH.
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE CATHOLIC CHURCH - WINDSOR, CA PRAYER GARDEN
Prayer Garden Sponsorship Plan (Page 1 of 3)
Establishing the time frame for sponsorship activities We had decided that the Prayer Garden must be completed in time for the annual celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe that would occur on 12/12/2016.  In order to accomplish this we would need to establish a schedule for the sponsorship program that would insure that the sponsored items would be available to be installed in accordance with the construction schedules.  There were to be two phases in the construction of the Prayer Garden. Phase-1 would take place in the month of November 2015.  The four sponsored olive trees would be planted during this phase. Phase-2 would begin in the middle of June of 2016 and would continue through November of 2016.  This phase would include the following sponsorship-related activities: Installing the sponsorship bricks Installing the bronze statue Installing the metal benches Purchase lead times The item requiring the longest lead time would be the bronze statue.  The statue would need to be ordered in January of 2016. The sponsorship bricks would need to be ordered in May of 2016. To allow these purchases to be made, all sponsorship activities would need to be completed by the end of April of 2016. Establishing a pricing structure for the items to be sponsored Olive trees and metal benches The prices of sponsorship for the four olive trees and the five benches were determined by the total cost associated with each of these items. These were: Olive trees - purchase price of tree, cost to plant tree, and cost of the bronze sponsorship plaque.  The sponsorship price for an olive tree would need to be $1,000. Benches - purchase price of bench, shipping cost, and the cost of the bronze sponsorship plaque. The sponsorship price for a metal bench would need to be $800. (Note: Originally we intended to offer only four benches, but we added a fifth bench because of the demand for sponsored benches.) We decided that sponsorship payments for olive trees and metal benches would need to be made no later than 1/31/16.  This would give potential sponsors approximately 45 days after the initial offering announcement to complete payment.  Early discussions with likely sponsors for these items indicated that this relatively short payment period would not be a problem. Sponsorship bricks It was our intent to keep the price of sponsorship for bricks as low as possible to be certain that almost any person, family or ministry that wanted to sponsor a brick could do so. However, in addition to paying for the costs associated with the bronze statue, we would also have to take into account the cost to purchase the engraved bricks (which would be $20 for each 4"x8" brick and $36 for each 8"x8" brick.) Small brick (4"x8") - We decided to set the cost at $50 for the first brick purchased by a sponsor.  The charge for additional bricks for the same sponsor would be $100. Large brick (8"x8") - We decided to set the cost at $500 for each brick. Our overall schedule required that payment for brick sponsorship would need to be completed no later than 3/31/16.  This would give potential sponsors a little over 100 days after the initial announcement to complete their payment.  We made this interval fairly long because many individuals and families in our parish have very limited disposable income, and so would need to set aside a little money each month in order to pay for their sponsored brick. We eventually extended the payment date for an additional two weeks. Designing the Sponsorship Brick Area The amount of space around the Grotto platform reserved for the installation of the sponsorship bricks was intentionally designed to exceed the space required for bricks to be sold in order to pay for the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This was done with the intent that the sponsorship brick fund raising concept could eventually be used in support of other programs.  The installation pattern for the bricks to be installed in the area includes a certain number of "blanks" in addition to the engraved bricks.  Our design of the Grotto Area will ultimately accommodate approximately 450 engraved small bricks and 40 engraved large bricks.
To go to Page 2 of the Prayer Garden Sponsorship Plan, click here