Outreach: YEAR 2024
The 2024 Outreach Committee Members are: Billie Burton, Rebecca Landolt, Judy Lyle, Celeste & Bob McAllister, Teresa Nixon, Ann Thornton, and Doug Vander Molen. Chairman: Melanie Dawson
January
• We collected a special offering on Sundays, December 31 and January 7, to the Disciples Mission Fund (Christmas) Offering which is designated to go to our regional ministries. The regions are often recognized for the ministries of camps (like our Camp Kum Ba Ya), conferences and assemblies. The regions also play a critical role in the development of new pastors and assisting churches in the process of calling and ordaining new ministers (Total $530).
• On Sunday, January 28th, our church family gathered to assemble 320 back pack sacks for the Backpack Program. These are being delivered to Murray High School during the months of February and March.
February
• February Laundry Love check ($250) was cut and sent to St. John’s Episcopal Church.
• Souper Bowl of Caring offering was taken up on Super Bowl Sunday, February 11th. Our generous congregation gave $516.50 towards next year’s 2025 Backpack Program.
• For 9 Sundays, staring the first Sunday in February through Easter (March 31st), we asked our church family to bring an item or two for our Blessing Box. We have containers in the back of the sanctuary and down in the Fellowship Hall. Terry Hart did a shopping trip to Sams, paid through Outreach, to help stock up our collection of items. We also posted calendars for February through May on an easel in the back, for people to sign up to check on the Blessing Box. We want to do a better job of keeping it stocked.
• I delivered 40 “Little Acts of Kindness” bags for the kids to the ER at the Murray Calloway County hospital on 2/27/24. We only have 26 bags left.
March
• Mailed $300 check to Murray Christian Fellowship.
• From the Allocation of 2023 Year-end Balance sheet presented at the March 10, 2024 Board meeting, I mailed the $3000 check to the West Area for our 2024 Congregational Giving.
April
• Dispersed all of the Alternative Gift funds to 12 different organizations for a total of $535.
• On Sundays, April 7th and April 14th, a special offering for Week of Compassion was taken up. The total amount received was $728.
May
• May Laundry Love check ($250) was cut and sent to St. John’s Episcopal Church.
• We are helping prepare for the 400 food insecure children in our community through the Soup for the Summer Lunch & Literacy Program. You can support this program by monetary donations, helping pack the meals on Friday mornings, and collecting food items. Our congregation is collecting (small and large) cans of chicken, spaghetti O’s and ravioli. On Wednesday, May 29th, my two daughters, Emily Dawson and Elizabeth Howard, and I delivered 140 cans to the North Elementary gym. Our congregation collected 70 large cans of chicken, 7 small cans of chicken, 20 cans of ravioli, and 43 cans of spaghetti O’s. My grandson, Clay, and I delivered a check for $350 on May 31st. Since then, we have received an additional $200, that check was delivered.
• Need Line has been receiving many food items from Feed America. To circulate the food and keep it fresh, they started a Monthly Drive Thru on the last Friday of the month. We want to thank Ann McKeel, Amy Roos, and Greg Gierhart for helping pack boxes of food on Thursday, May 30th. 230 boxes of food were picked up on Friday. We didn’t send any volunteers on June 27th. They are not having the drive thru in July.
June
• Outreach paid $159.90 for Mayfield/Graves County NAACP annual Zoom renewal. (Bruce Dobyns asked me).
• The Life House Baby Bottle campaign ran from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day. Between the checks and money in the baby bottles and the money sent straight to Life House, our congregation contributed $408.24.
July
• Due to your generous support, I made two deliveries of School Supplies (July 24th and July 29th). We collected many bags of school items. Outreach sent a $100 check to each, Murray’s FRYSC and Calloway’s Angel Fund, to help cover the cost of other school supply purchases
August
• August Laundry Love check ($250) was cut and sent to St. John’s Episcopal Church.
• Child Sponsorship:
-I introduced Trinity Kirabo to the congregation on Sunday, August 18, 2024 and information in the Tuesday emails.
-As a church, we can support her in three ways: 1) pray for Trinity, 2) communication (send her emails), and 3) monthly financial support.
-I paid for the sponsorship months of June, July, and August. So far there have been contributions of
$785 (Aug & Sept) made.
-I emailed Trinity at the end of August, telling her about me and sent a picture of my family.
September
• Child Sponsorship
-I sent a check for $315 ($35 X9) to cover the last 9 months of her sponsorship (Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec of 2024 and Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, and May of 2025).
-Some background information: Uganda’s post office has a “tax” for picking up packages. The tax is 55% of the value of the contents mailed. (Example: contents valued at $62, tax would be $34.10). That is why we really can’t send Christmas gifts. We send monetary gifts by October 1st so they can shop for the Christmas gifts.
- A check was cut and mailed for $100 to be sent for “Christmas”.
-You can send Care Packs (one gallon size bag per child) of hygiene items, small toys, school supplies, socks, t-shirts, etc. These care packages are collected at the Florida office until they have a mission team traveling to Uganda. They don’t know when the next trip will be.
-Judy Lyle bought two beautiful wooden ornaments for Trinity at an Arts & Crafts Festival. I was trying to figure out how to get them to Trinity by Christmas. Rae Jones, my contact person for the Sponsorship Team in Florida, suggested that I mail them to the Florida office and they will try to send it back with the choir when they return to Uganda. On 9/21/24, I mailed a box to Rae Jones at the Florida office for Trinity. The box had the two ornaments, spiritual t-shirt, socks, toothbrush, coloring book and little plush puppy.
OCTOBER
• World Communion Sunday was October 6, 2024. We collected a special Week of Compassion Offering (Oct 6th and 13th) earmarked to help communities/individuals affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. A check for $1736 was sent to them.
• Our church participated at the Halloween Trail of Treats. Thank you to Lillian and Angela Gierhart, Cassi Olazabal and Brenda for dressing up and manning our table. Thank you for all of the donated candy.
NOVEMBER
• November Laundry Love check ($250) was sent to St. John’s Episcopal Church.
• Checks for $300 have been sent to both the Murray FRYSC (Tiger Christmas) and the Angel Fund (Laker Christmas).
• Our congregation again this year partnered with Need Line to provide Thanksgiving Baskets to twelve families. We want to thank all of the workers at Food Giant who collected and packed the items for us, Rebecca Landolt for organizing this project, and Terry Hart for picking up and delivering all of the boxes to Need Line. We also want to thank everyone who donated to this project. We collected over $1300 and had some leftover to go towards next year. Thanks for your continued support to help families in our community
• This year, Need Line packed 605 Christmas Food Baskets for needy families. Our congregation collected 403 mac-n-cheese boxes (200 boxes were purchased by Outreach funds) to go in these baskets.
There were also donated mac-n-cheese cups that were used in our Blessing Box. Thanks to Terry Hart for delivering these boxes to Need Line.
• Outreach has purchased loaded iWash Cards and city Murray Calloway Transit cards. If you could use one of these or you know someone who could, please contact someone on the Outreach Committee.
DECEMBER
• Our church participated in the Main Street Merriment on Friday, Dec. 6th, as a Christmas photo opportunity. They could take funny and beautiful Christmas/Family pictures in front of our tree. There were 91 guests. Thank you to Terri Benton, Steven Reed, Krista Crass, June Vander Molen, Jean and Chris Owens, and Carmen Garland (organizer) for greeting and taking photos.
• The “Season’s Serenade: Piano Duets for Christmas” provided by Kala Dunn and Lisa Copeland raised about $1200 for Need Line. They did an amazing job.
• Copies of the Alternative Gift Catalog are in the three entrances to the sanctuary. Again this year, you have the opportunity to give alternative gifts in honor of someone. Perhaps instead of buying yet another gift for a family member or friend who already has an abundance, you might consider making a donation in their name to help support these ministries. Murray’s Kids Care for Hunger in Calloway, HOPE Calloway, Church World Service, Serenity Recovery, Main Street Youth Center, Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House, Need Line, Soup for the Soul, CASA by the Lakes, Week of Compassion, Calloway County Collective, or Habitat for Humanity- Murray/Calloway.
• Outreach disbursement of funds to finish out the 2024 year.
NONPROFITS: (total $2500)
A) A check to the Murray-Calloway County Community Foundation for $2000 was sent as part of the Weaver Challenge.
Here was the breakdown:
-Murray Christian Fellowship $400
-CASA $500
-HOPE Calloway $300
-Serenity Recovery $300
-Soup for the Soul $250
-Journey Bags $250
B) Checks were also cut and I delivered to:
-Merryman House (Murray) $250
-Main Street Youth Center $250
• Outreach also wrote checks totaling $1050 to individuals in our church for a little Christmas help
• The 2024 Christmas Eve offering will be split evenly between the Angel Community Fund and the United Way- Affordable Housing. A total of $913 was collected.
Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House Angel Community Fund:
The Angel Community Fund was established by a donation from the now disbanded Angel Community
Clinic Board. Its purpose is to benefit the working poor of our community through financial assistance
to pay residential charges at the Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House that are not covered by
medical insurance. Patients may apply for the assistance and a committee reviews each application for
approval.
United Way-Affordable Housing
United Way is currently raising money to work with HOPE Calloway to build a structure that would
not only be a shelter, but also a value-added temporary/transitional housing unit where families could receive assessment, training for job skills, family budgeting, life skills and economic meal planning. This planned facility would be called Opportunity Place.
• We collected a special offering on Sundays, Dec 29, Jan 5 and 12, to the Disciples Mission Fund Offering which is designated to go to our regional ministries. Regional ministries support things like our Camp Kum Ba Ya and the work required in calling and ordaining new ministers. (Total $250)
BIG THANK YOU to our Wednesday Soup for the Soul volunteers (ongoing and monthly ministry):
-Big thank you to Doris Cella who has taken on organizing and scheduling volunteers for this project
-January Wednesday Soup for the Soul didn’t happen. If the City Schools are closed for weather so is Soup for
the Soul.
-February: Donna Cathey, Susan Jackson, Teresa Nixon, Richard Reed, and Nancy Tam.
-March: Teresa Nixon, Jean Bennett, Amy Roos, and Judy Lyle.
-April: Teresa Nixon, Jean Bennett, Chris Owens, and Janet Schell.
-May: Richard Reed, Celeste McAllister, Teresa Nixon, and Doris Cella
-June: Teresa Nixon, Beth Stribling, Lillian Gierhart, Joe and Lynda Chaney
-July: Larry Jackson, Dianne Miller, Karen Dunham, and Teresa Nixon.
-August: Donna Cathey, Judy Lyle, Teresa Nixon, Jordan Clark, and Lewis Clark.
-September: Richard Reed, Beth Stribling, Amy Roos, and Teresa Nixon.
-October: Joe and Lynda Chaney, Celeste McAllister, and Teresa Nixon.
-November: Dianne Miller, Teresa Nixon, Jean and Don Bennett.
-December: Marie Taylor, Doris Cella, Teresa Nixon, and James Fail.
BIG THANK YOU to everyone for their food item donations and giving of their time in checking on our Blessing Box. We are definitely doing a better job. A thank you to Terry Hart for making Sam’s Club shopping trips, paid for by Outreach.