Wrapping Up and Celebrating our
2021 Medical Debt Relief Campaign!
Nearly $6 Million in Debt Abolished!
Greetings, Illinois Conference!
In the fall of 2021, from October through December, the Illinois Conference held a ten week Medical Debt Relief campaign, encouraging our churches and individual members of the Conference to raise funds to help abolish debt through RIP Medical Debt - an organization the United Church of Christ has partnered with more than a dozen times to abolish debt across the nation. The UCC is RIP's largest faith-based partner.
Over the course of these ten weeks, we were able to raise over $45,000! We had 33 churches donate and 36 individual donors. A list of all the churches that donated can be found at the bottom of this email. Sue Harvey, who was the moderator at Faith United Protestant Church in Park Forest during the campaign, shared why it was such a meaningful and impactful campaign in their church:
"While FUPC has a long history of community service, the mood was that we are getting older, tired and less able to run the big projects we had always done to impact our neighborhood. ... We are people who know what it is like to have unplanned medical expenses devastate the family budget. We asked people to imagine our neighbors opening the mail and seeing the words, 'your debt has been forgiven.' While we will never meet the people who open the envelopes, we know how it would feel."
It has taken us awhile to fully bring this campaign to a close as there have been a few bumps along the way in getting the money from the Illinois Conference to National and eventually to RIP to make the buys.
At the end of 2022, RIP made three buys, culminating in a total of $5,993,142.72 debt abolished for 6,513 families across Illinois!
Thank you to all of our donors who helped make this possible! Because of your generosity, countless individuals and families will be able to rest easier without the burden of debt weighing them down.
Illinois churches forgive almost $6 million in medical debt statewide - United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ continues to assist people struggling to get out from under medical debt. The latest effort touched more than 6,500 families in Illinois. They recently have received letters learning that their medical debt has been abolished, courtesy of the churches of the Illinois Conference UCC.
Thank you to the 33 churches who participated!
Bethel United Church of Christ, Elmhurst
Church of the New Covenant, Elmhurst
Church of the Good Shepherd, Chicago
The Congregational Church of Algonquin
Congregational UCC of Batavia
The Congregational UCC of Park Manor, Chicago
Congregational Church of Jefferson Park, Chicago
Epiphany United Church of Christ, Chicago
Faith Community UCC, Prairie Grove
Faith United Protestant Church, Park Forest
First Congregational Church of Wilmette
First Church of Lombard
First Congregational Church of Lockport
First Congregational UCC, Downers Grove
First Congregational UCC, Moline
Immanuel United Church of Christ, Streamwood
Lincoln Memorial Congregational UCC, Chicago
Lyonsville Congregational UCC, Indian Head Park
Mayfield Congregational Church UCC, Sycamore
Open Prairie UCC, Princeton
Open Table UCC, Ottawa
Pilgrim Congregational Church, Oak Park
Pilgrim Faith UCC, Oak Lawn
Ravenswood United Church of Christ, Chicago
Spring Creek UCC, Rockford
St. Peter’s UCC, Elmhurst
St. John’s UCC, Belvidere
St. John’s UCC Harmony, Hampshire
St. Paul UCC, Pekin
St. Pauls UCC, Chicago
St. Peter’s UCC, Champaign
Trinity UCC, Deerfield
Wellington UCC, Chicago
