Thrivent 2021
Submitted by Fred Cowley
We all like to make a difference.
Thrivent offers a myriad of volunteer opportunities to carry out meaningful community service projects, each one backed by a $250 Thrivent Action Team grant. Despite the difficulties posed by Covid, we’ll do 11 of these projects this year. We purchased and delivered 15 large two-sheet sets and pillow cases to be put to use in Lutheran Social Ministries homeless program. We helped a group of Boy Scouts perform a major rehab on Faith’s vegetable garden. We provided numerous sets of children’s books for families supported by the Creighton School District Family Resource Center, funded and carried out a Thank You Note effort for donations received as a result of MOSAIC’s virtual Zoom fund raising luncheon, and we delivered summer-hardy plants to the Hospice of the Valley’s Gardiner campus plus buying picture boards and essential oils for aromatherapy as part of the Hospice’s Dementia Care program. Continuing our aid program for the veggie gardens we built several years ago for Longview Community School, we did some much needed weeding and injected 2100 red wriggler worms into the soil to feast on cafeteria waste and fertilize the gardens with “vermi compost”. In June, 28 Thrivent volunteers showed up for a combined Faith Church/Pre-school project which included painting, planting, junk removal, and cleaning. We had another big turnout for Grace Lutheran’s Pancake Breakfast for the Homeless where our volunteers buy the ingredients, prepare and serve the breakfast, and clean-up after. Faith’s “God’s Help, Our Hands” 2021 project was aided by a $250 Thrivent check which filled 10 large snack bags for Lutheran Social Ministries, for distribution to asylum seekers and homeless. Faith volunteers also packed an additional 100 Snap Pack bags with donated items from members of our congregation. Still upcoming: delivering 40 chickens and helping with Mt. of Olives Food Closet Thanksgiving Meatsgiving Day; and set-up/cleanup, and supplying lunch ingredients for Neighborhood Ministries annual golf classic fund raiser which sends inner city kids to camp next summer.
Indeed, something for everyone who wants to make a difference, so join in the fun as we look forward to 2022.
