Kits Are Part of a Tradition of Giving
When the church assembled 600 hygiene kits on April 13, we were carrying on a long tradition.
In 1996 the congregation’s Pathfinders Fellowship Group began a project of assembling hygiene kits to be distributed by Church World Service to communities struck by disasters in the US and around the world. This project has grown from about 40 kits assembled in the home of Keith and Marilyn Hummel to a project embraced by the entire congregation.
The most recent 600 kits brought the total number assembled by our congregation over the past 25 years to more than 23,000, according to Suzanne Schaudel, who has provided leadership for the project for many years.
In addition to the hygiene kits, for the past several years our congregation has been assembling 100 clean-up buckets and 100 school kits each year.
All these numbers caused Outreach & Service Team Chair John Byers to wonder whether CWS could provide additional giving history. In response to John’s inquiry, CWS Development Operations Coordinator Rev. Dr. Tiffany DeTienne reported that CWS donor records indicate that since 1983 our congregation has donated $60,890 in cash to CWS through the CROP Hunger Walk, donations to pay for shipping of kits, and other gifts. The various kits of all types donated by our congregation since 2008 are valued at $178,994.00
“Thank you for your continued partnership and generosity,” wrote Tiffany. “It truly makes a difference.”