Philoptochos
Derived from the Greek "friends of the poor," the Ladies Philoptochos Society of St. George Greek Orthodox Church is a vibrant source of fellowship and philanthropic service in our community. The Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society, Inc., is the duly accredited women's philanthropic society of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The St. George Philoptochos has been a backbone of our Church for many years. Through the efforts of this group of engaged and dedicated women, St. George Philoptochos has supported numerous educational programs at our Church, worthy causes such as Philoxenia House and the Hellenic Cardiac Fund, as well as engaged in charitable endeavors in the Greater Lynn community that aid the poor, sick, elderly and underserved.
We are here to help and as you can see we are constantly asked for help. That is the mission of Philoptochos. We thank you for all your support!
Zoe Haskell, President
Anita Rassias - Vice President
For information about and/or to become involved in the St. George Philoptochos, please contact President Zoe Haskell via email zhaskell@comcast.net.
Click here for 2023 membership letter form!
EVENTS
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September 20, 2023 - 6:30PM - MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan
Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising
their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy
New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.
Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they
both hope it will be a fresh start. And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and
Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet she wonders if she
can trust him completely. . . . Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police.
Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in Ash, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden
more than he’s shared with her.
Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.
October 18, 2023 - 6:30PM - BACK BAY by William Martin
Meet the Pratt clan. Driven men. Determined women. Through six turbulent generations, they would pursue a lost Paul Revere treasure. And turn a
family secret into an obsession that could destroy them. Here is the novel that launched William Martin's astonishing literary career and became an
instant bestseller. From the grit and romance of old Boston to exclusive -- and dangerous -- Back Bay today, this sweeping saga paints an
unforgettable portrait of a powerful dynasty beset by the forces of history...and a heritage of greed, lust, murder and betrayal.
NOVEMBER 15, 2023 – 6:30 PM - TAXI TO AMERICA by STELLA NAHATIS
Stella's journey from Thessaloniki, Greece to America begins with a pre-dawn taxi ride that she and her sister share while the coffin holding
a loved one rides along in the taxi's trunk. Orphaned and separated from her younger sister "for her own good" as the culture dictated at
the time, Stella ends up being adopted by a Greek couple that had emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts in the US. At age 11, she
overcomes multiple losses and cultural differences to find a place in her new homeland, while finding ways to stay connected to those she
loved in Greece.
This story of resilience and perseverance follows Stella's journey of becoming an "Amerikanaki" and eventually reconnecting with her
sister, who had stayed in Greece with her own set of adoptive parents. Even as Stella embraces her new life and culture in America, she
rebuilds her loving relationship with her sister after an eight-year separation. Later in life, the sisters take another taxi ride together, this
time to recover important details of their birth parents' life stories that mirror the determination to survive and thrive that marks their own.
JANUARY 17, 2024 – 6:30 PM - HORSE by GERALDINE BROOKS
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a
Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories
across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up
arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a
nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one
studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.
FEBRUARY 21, 2024 – 6:30 PM - CHEMISTRY by BONNIE GARMUS
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as
an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality.
Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star
of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with
a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott
isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.
MARCH 20, 2024 – 6:30 PM - SOMEONE ELSE'S SHOES by JOJO MOYES
Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes? Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her
husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--
she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That’s because Sam Kemp – in the bleakest point of her life – has
accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When
she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must
change—and that thing is herself.
Full of Jojo Moyes’ signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.
APRIL 17, 2024 – 6:30 PM - SMALL MERCIES by DENNIS LEHANE
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River—an all-consuming tale of
revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat
has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart.
One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead,
struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a
desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the
men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.
Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an
unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.
MAY 15, 2024 – 6:30 PM - THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act
of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with
uncovering her motive.
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public
imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes
him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume
JUNE 19, 2024 – 6:30 PM - THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY by AMOR TOWLES
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just
served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed
upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew.
But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm—the wily, charismatic Duchess and earnest,
offbeat Woolly—have stowed away in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s
future, one that will take the four of them on a fateful journey in the opposite direction to the city of New York.
Spanning ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel is a multilayered tale of misadventure and self-discovery, populated by an eclectic cast of characters, from drifters who make
their home riding the rails and larger-than-life vaudevillians to the aristocrats of the Upper East Side. An absorbing, exhilarating ride, The Lincoln Highway is a novel as vivid, sweeping, and moving as
readers have come to expect from Towles’s work.
LUCKY MARCH CALENDAR RAFFLE WINNERS
