SHAMELESS BEGGING LETTER

There is a letter going out from the Xavier Society for the Blind - appropriately entitled Shameless Begging Letter #1 - which might suggest there will be OTHER shameless begging letters. I discovered that some of my friends no longer have snail mail addresses in my records. I may have lost them, they may have moved - and we are using internet communications so much it's the kind of thing I might not notice.

Soooo - in case you (noble reader) did not get a Shameless Begging Letter, I did not want you to feel left out. And so I post it here. If you are an Iternet wanderer and have stumbled on to this little corner of the world while looking for something else, please consider this personally addressed to you. (And sending money is a perfectly acceptable way of responding to such a personal note.) And if you are a long-time friend who did NOT get such a letter, it could be I do not have your snail mail address and you should thus and therefore get in touch.

Many thanks for what I assume will be your astounding generosity in these difficult financial times.

And just for the record - in case my paltry words move you to the point of actually sending something:
Web site: www.xaviersociety.com
Mail: 154 East 23rd St
New York, NY 10010



Shameless Begging Letter #1
31 July 2008
Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola

Dear Friends of Father John,

WAIT!!! This is NOT a scam letter that is going to ask for money or tell you that you have just inherited a legacy in some African country. (Well, it IS going to ask for money but that comes later, and it’s for right here in New York City. No inheritance.)

As you may know (and if you don’t, check the Blog – www.frjohnsj.blogspot.com) I am now the Chairman of the Board of the Xavier Society for the Blind. (The technical title is President, but I was first appointed as Chairman – complicated legal stuff – and I’ve never switched over to President, unless I’m filling out a bank card or a grant application.) This note is just to catch you up on that and a couple of things and to remind you – should you hit the lottery, find money under the sofa or decide you’re going to give it all up and enter a monastery in the hills of Tennessee – we REALLY need financial help.

In case I haven’t been keeping you up properly and completely, when I finished my mini-sabbatical and sang a concert here in New York (…if you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere, and so forth) the Provincial asked me if I would go to the Xavier Society for the Blind and see if I could be of any assistance. The Jesuit Executive Director had died unexpectedly in September (he was 66) and at that point there was no replacement on the horizon. I did and enjoyed the operation and the staff.

The Xavier Society for the Blind was founded in 1900, and incorporated in 1904. It was founded by a group of Catholic laywomen, with a Jesuit as the “spiritual advisor.” He also functioned as Executive Director and was with the Xavier Society until his death in 1941. I am the 9th Jesuit to be Executive Director – and as soon as I got the title, I submitted a new set of By-Laws, separating the job of Board head and Executive Director, and we now have the first lay Executive Director, who is also a woman. She’s been with the Society for 16 years and is terrific. She has an MBA, and is probably more capable than either of the current presidential candidates. Well, close anyway. So that went well and we’re working together famously.


In 1911 the Jesuits were formally invited to manage the Xavier Society, which they did with an all-Jesuit Board until the early 1950’s. Then, for a variety of legal and practical reasons, they went back to a Board that was both Jesuit and lay, as it remains today. In 1948 they bought the building we are in today, on 23rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. It is a 7-story building (well, 1600 stories if you count the books in our library – hehehe) and we currently have around 15,000 square feet.

We are essentially a small publishing house. Without going into all the things we have done in the last 108 years, right now we print and distribute braille, large-print and audio recordings of books, magazines, prayers, Mass readings and Mass Propers, and articles to blind and visually-handicapped clients all over the U.S. and Canada. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 clients and a staff of thirteen, plus a large group of dedicated and varied volunteers. We have never charged for our services – and mail to the blind is free, fortunately – but that means we have to raise all our operating and program funding each and every year. That, of course, is one of my jobs. Runs in the neighborhood of $2 Million a year. (It’s actually a little less than that but in these times, I’m going to shoot high.)

I am also the Chaplain for the New York Athletic Club and the Huckleberry Indians, and for the Notre Dame Club of New York. I say Mass regularly at St. Malachy’s Church – the Actors’ Chapel where I am also head of the Evangelization Committee. I sing regularly with Jazz at Noon at the National Arts Club, and I am an active member of the Lambs Club. I am a paid-up member of Actors’ Equity (in case a Broadway show suddenly needs a replacement) and a member of the NY Gilbert & Sullivan Society, the Mario Lanza Society (an audition is NOT necessary to join), the Episcopal Actors Guild, and the Cornell Club. I recently did a small concert in July for a Jewish group here in the city, at least one and maybe two concerts in January in Florida, and I am talking with another group in Florida about a concert or two. (Any money raised goes to the Xavier Society for the Blind, of course. Make the check out to us and it’s tax-deductible.) AND my three CD”s are now available on line – go to www.lulu.com and type in “Sheehan” and you should get the chance to order as many copies as your heart desires. The more you order, the cheaper each copy is and we get more money per disk.

But my main job is the Xavier Society for the Blind. I’ve started a very basic web site (a larger and much more sophisticated one is on the drawing board as part of our computer renovation project, currently underway ), we’re in negotiation about selling our building, and I’ve re-vamped the structure of the organization to make it more efficient and responsive. We are shortly going to be getting rid of our audio tape operation and moving to a strictly digital distribution. (In time that will mean our clients can download material directly from the web site, as well as having it sent by mail). And each day we spend at least some time thinking about, worrying about and going after – money. ( So much for that vow of poverty thing, huh? But of course I don’t get to KEEP any of the money we raise.)

So if you have any bright ideas about places to look – please share them. (Hey, I’m even buying two lottery tickets a week, just in case – you can’t win it, if you’re not in it.) If you know any people with “extra” money (whatever THAT is) or generous impulses – put them in touch with us.

If you are suddenly and irresistibly moved to send a check, the address is back at the beginning. Check and see if your company or employer does matching gifts - and they tell me (for those who have stock) that sometimes there can be tax benefits to donating stock rather than direct cash. I have NO understanding of this, but mention it just in case.) Our web site is open and while still very basic gives you some idea of what we do. And of course, I am always available to answer questions, make speeches and sing concerts.

And since several people have asked - let me share one of our standards bits of information:
Xavier Society for the Blind (our full legal title), located at 154 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010, is a 501(c)(3) organization, incorporated in 1904 under the laws of the State of New York, meeting the charitable guidelines of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Charities Information Bureau and the Better Business Bureau. It is listed as an agency in the Official Catholic Directory under the Archdiocese of New York.

All donations to XSB are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by the law.

Even if you can’t send money, you know you are regularly in my prayers and will always be. (Actually this is just a sneaky way to keep in touch and have someone else pay for it.)

Love and hugs and prayers to all,