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Move A Mountain Missions 2nd Annual Fundraiser held at Brother Andre’s Cafe

by Julia Fieldhammer

Move a Mountain Missions held it's 2nd Annual Fundraiser at Brother Andre’s Cafe on Sunday November 21st. It was the 2nd spaghetti dinner, prepared by our favorite Chef, Father Nick Vaskov.


This event was to benefit Move A Mountain Missions (MMM), the non-profit organization that Brother Andre's Cafe is a part of. MMM was started by Father Chris Donley and Dan Gallagher. They begin by providing opportunities for local high school and college students to go on mission trips in Jamaica through Mustard Seed Communities. Part of the focus of MMM in Jamaica is the disability community. These mission trips usually happen every year but unfortunately due to Covid, they haven't been able to go for the past two years. All the beautiful pottery found at Brother Andre's is handmade by individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities(IDD) in Jamaica.


Move A Mountain wanted to get more involved in the Pittsburgh area and the idea of Brother Andre’s Café was the perfect fit! Brother Andre’s was named after Saint Andre Bessette. He opened doors physically and spiritually for people. Saint Andre was very friendly and welcoming towards everyone he encountered. Some also suspect that he had a disability. Thus, he was not allowed to proceed into the Priesthood as he desired at that time. For this reason, MMM chose to name our cause after Saint Andre.


I really enjoyed the dinner. There were 250 people who attended. Father Nick cooked dinner for all of us and he did a wonderful job. Volunteers from MMM were the servers. We had spaghetti and meatballs, of course. There were also some appetizers like cheese, fruit and olives. I had a table with my family. Two of my aunts came along with their husbands and my great aunt came as well. I really loved getting to celebrate Brother Andre’s with my friends and family. After dinner all the employees went up to the front. Patrick introduced us one by one. I thought it was really special because as Patrick introduced everyone, he said a little fact about them. The Brother Andre’s employees then passed out cookies to each table. Someone from Move A Mountain helped me go to some tables and hand out cookies.


One of the best things that happened at this event was the first annual Door Opener Award and it was proudly presented to Mrs.Terri Fitzgerald. This award was named The Door Opener Award because Brother Andre Bessette used to open doors for a living. When he died in Montreal in 1937, millions of people gathered to celebrate an amazing person known as The Door Opener. Mrs Fitzgerald is hard at work almost every day, volunteering her time to help her son Patrick bake our wonderful cookies.


I’m so happy that Mrs. Fitzgerald got this award, she truly deserves it! I was extremely thrilled that I got to be a part of the spaghetti dinner fundraiser event. I hope this function will become a Brother Andre’s tradition for a very long time!

 

 



 

 

 

 

*absent: Danny Shipe

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