CEDAR CITY – St Jude’s Episcopal Church, in an attempt to close gaps in the community, has been collaborating with other local churches to raise the much-needed money for a new family accessible shelter.

According to the press release issued by the church last week, the latest fundraising endeavor will be a rummage sale scheduled for this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and until then donations will be accepted in the back of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church, 70 N. 200 West in Cedar City.

Pat Brajnikoff, co-chair for the planning of the event, said it has taken more than 20 hours of planning so far to coordinate the sale, not including sorting and pricing items.

“The St. Jude’s community is committed to helping the Iron County Care and Share build the new shelter with much needed new quarters for men, women and families,” Brajnikoff said. “We appreciate the support of the entire community for this worthy cause.”

Susan Wiltsey Smith, vicar for St. Jude’s, said they, along with four representatives of the local LDS church, began almost a year ago to work out a plan for a Cedar Area Interfaith Alliance.

“We contacted all of the Christian churches in the area of Cedar,” Wiltsey Smith said. “We also contacted as many people as we could from other religions, because it was important to us that it be an Interfaith and not just Interdenominational.”

Wiltsey Smith said that with an intention of demonstrating unity to the community they decided to find one major project to focus on.

“At this time Dixie Leavitt and I were introduced to Donna McNabb and Tom Walker, board members of ICCS,” Wiltsey Smith said. “They presented a proposal to our board in early spring 09, letting us know that a new emergency shelter was direly needed for Cedar.”

Since then, St. Jude’s and the Cedar City Interfaith Alliance have become heavily involved with this cause, holding a concert and dinner at the Heritage Center in May called Community in Unity, which raised $5,000 toward the new shelter, and 100 percent of the profits from Saturday’s sale at St. Jude’s will be given to the ICCS.

Wiltsey Smith said she thinks that stewardship is a way of life.

“The residents of Cedar City and especially the members of the LDS church have made Cedar a fertile place for all of us to connect, to love, and to live in gratitude … ,” she said.

For questions contact Susan Wiltsey Smith at (435) 586-3623 or Pat Brajnikoff at (435) 704-4616.