Sunday, November 7
Join Heart to Heart for worship at First Community Church. Worship times as follows:
During the services, we will hear from Heart to Heart volunteers, supporters, and employees about the work of the food pantry.
A special offering will also be taken to support our ministry. Because of the generosity of our anonymous donor, all of the monetary donations received will be matched up to $20,000. See below for details.
We also need volunteers for that Sunday’s food drive (see right). If you want to help receive, transport, and unload food donations, please visit our sign-up genius.
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by Amy Caskie
Once again, this year, our much-loved Christmas Presence program has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have come up with an alternative to enable us to assist client families in need this holiday season.
Groups, families, and individuals are welcome to sponsor a family or families that request holiday assistance this year financially through the purchase of gifts for them. Sponsors will be asked to contact their sponsored family directly to get ideas for Christmas gifts and make arrangements for delivery or pick-up. There will be no suggested expenditures for each family, as we would like sponsors to help in the way they best see fit.
Clients who are in need of assistance this holiday season will be asked to notify Heart to Heart by phone or email to HearttoHeart@FCchurch.com. Staff will get contact information and family make-up from the clients and pass the information along to our dedicated volunteer and social worker extraordinaire, Kitty Rohrer. Kitty will then match inquiring families with those looking to sponsor them.
We will continue to match families and sponsors through December 15 (extended from the previously published November 17 cut-off date). After that date, all inquiries, both clients and sponsors, will be referred to other programs by our team of resource volunteers. This small group answers emails and voicemails received through Heart to Heart’s resource line at 614-488-0681 x241. The group is made up of social workers and community advocates familiar with programs available to our clients.
We are eager to help our clients in need, but also cautious about large gatherings as the pandemic continues. We encourage both sponsor and sponsored families to follow appropriate social-distancing guidelines and wear masks, especially if unvaccinated. Hopefully, this effort will prove to be a sufficient alternative to Christmas Presence. We hope to continue the tradition of partnering with the Trading Post again next year!
If you have any questions about the program, please contact us at HearttoHeart@fcchurch.com. For information about our holiday hours and closings, click here.
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pictured above: Marcy Miller, garden volunteer, in front of this year's burgundy okra plants
Hello there!
I wanted to provide our readers with some updates from the Share & Learn garden, located adjacent to the Mary Evans Early Childhood Center at the North campus.
To begin, I want to thank and acknowledge the volunteers who helped make this garden a reality. Your generosity in your time and effort to make this garden grow is outstanding. At the end of the season (not there yet!), we will take the traditional group photo to share in a future newsletter.
The primary focus of our bountiful garden is to provide the Heart to Heart Food Pantry with fresh produce. The vegetables selected are based on what our neighbors at the pantry have told us they enjoy eating.
For the 2021 season, we grew: garlic, onions, lettuce, green beans, bell peppers, hot peppers, slicing tomatoes & cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, collard greens, carrots, burgundy okra, and some herbs.
The secondary focus, but no less important, is to educate and provide enjoyment for our daycare friends. Unfortunately with world events in the past two years, there has been less hands-on education, but just as much enjoyment.
A new flower bed planted with zinnias provided lots of discussion and questions from the children. A bonus is zinnias love to be cut and enjoyed, as well as lure in monarch butterflies. Located in the center of this new bed, is a brick path, providing a delightful detour as children leave for the day.
A large, pie-shaped pollinator bed planted a couple of years ago, has matured and overflowed with flowers. The selection of flowers and plants lures in bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects to help with pollinating our other crops.
Next season we will create a new bed to exclusively grow pumpkins for the children to pick, dissect, decorate and learn about the gourd family.
We hope you get a chance to stop by in summer 2022 to check out our plants!
Peace to all,
Kate Paulson
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by Beth Hanson
By the time this article is sent out into the ether, the Trading Post will be fully decorated for Christmas (Monday, Nov. 1). Christmas donations have been exceedingly generous this year, and we started affixing price tags to all of them a couple of months ago. (I might add that it is very challenging submerging oneself in Christmas merchandise when it is 90 degrees and sunny outside.)
During this time when so many Christmas decorations, toys, ugly Christmas sweaters, trees, lights, bulbs, Santas, angels, snowmen, nutcrackers, elves, holiday dishes, books, Christmas cards, garlands, and Christmas jewelry are stuck on container ships in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we are ready with all of these things for you to purchase today! You won’t have the hassle of ordering online, waiting for an Amazon truck or finding out you won’t get your gifts until Valentine’s Day. Plus you will be able to load up on all-things-Christmas for a small fraction of what you would have spent from a catalog or at a shopping mall……and no shipping and handling fees! Best of all, you are contributing to the missions of our church, so you can feel like your money is going to help those in need which is really the spirit of Christmas anyway, isn’t it?
Besides Christmas merchandise, we still have all kinds of other things that you may need like cookware, glassware, CD’s/DVDs/LP’s, books, artwork, fabric, linens, adult and children’s clothing, office supplies, craft supplies, hardware, lamps, collectibles, décor, and so much more. New donations come in daily, so the Trading Post is always evolving and changing, and shopping with us is always a treasure hunt. Also, this year we have official Trading Post gift cards in $10 & $25 increments.
Recently a young college-aged guy was shopping at the TP (buying a trench coat and OSU t-shirt) and I asked him if he had ever shopped here before. He said, “Oh yeah…..I love coming here. Your prices are the best and the place has such a chill vibe!” It really cracked me up. It made us feel downright hip! But we do like to think that we provide a kind and relaxed atmosphere that lures shoppers back to see us over and over. Many have told us the Trading Post is their happy place.
We are open every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. Plus for the next two months, we will be open the first Saturday of the month from 10 am to 4 pm (Sat. Nov. 6 and Sat. Dec. 4). If you haven’t been to see us before, we are located in the basement of the Annex Building which is the one-story brick building at the rear of the South Campus parking lot. The street address is: 1944 W. 1st Ave. We look forward to seeing you!
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Trading Post Upcoming Events | | |
Did you miss the last issue of On a Mission! blog? There's a great story from the Trading Post. View it, and all past issues, by clicking the link below. | |
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Did you know Heart to Heart is on social media? Click the buttons below to follow us.
We also have a blog! Read the weekly blog posts at h2h.FCchurch.com/blog
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Did you know Trading Post is on Facebook? Click the button below to follow us. You can also sign up for the email list for occasional announcements, sales, and events. | |
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