The 23rd Annual World Hunger Bike Ride is Saturday, June 2.
Help raise money for Heifer International, the Church of the Brethren Global Food Crisis Fund,
RAM and Heavenly Manna Food Bank in Rocky Mount. The ride begins at Antioch Church of the Brethren, located at 2996 Callaway Road in Rocky Mount. The ride has courses of five, 10, 25 or 50 miles along with rest stops.
The ride begins at 8 a.m. at Antioch Church of the Brethren. There is a $15 registration fee–and riders can get sponsors for extra donations to the cause. The registration form and more info can be found online at www.worldhungerauction.org (look under event calendar), or call 540-389-1381 or 540-483-4173.
Jenny Quakenbush's oboe students performed on Sunday, May 6, at Cave Spring United Methodist Church. Photo courtesy of Jenny Quakenbush.
Jenny Quakenbush shares this photo and says:
Oboe students of Jenny Quakenbush performed in a recital on Sunday, May 6 at Cave Spring United Methodist Church. The students were accompanied by pianist Carla Crouse.
Performing were Laken Ayers of Cave Spring Middle School; Ryan Iler, Lauren Hirsch, Juliana Crouse and Emily Chrisman of Cave Spring High School; Sidney Thompson and Rachael Thayer of Hidden Valley Middle School; Patrick Kelley of Northside Middle School; Amy Allen of Glenvar High School and Robert Staniunas of William Fleming High School.
The students and staff members at Faith Christian School gathered together in an assembly the week after their annual service day, Project Faith, which was held on Friday, April 27.
Students, staff members and parents all came together to offer some much-needed volunteer hours to several organizations in the area. This year’s Project Faith served Manna Ministries, Charity Cottage and the Rescue Mission in Vinton and Feeding America Southwest Virginia in Salem. Representatives from each organization stopped by during the assembly to thank the students for their hard work.
The fresh paint and the colorful mural were a big improvement to the Manna Ministries space, according to Ron Willard, who is on the Board at Manna–which serves 1,000 families a month! That hard work was matched at Charity Cottage. “Every time I turned around, someone was doing…everything!” said Linda Mahoney of Charity Cottage.
One hundred and sixty volunteers turned out at the Rescue Mission–and the excitement to work was palpable! Leslie Littlefield, volunteer coordinator at the Rescue Mission, said that the FCS volunteers were “eager beavers” and “almost fanatic at [their] tasks!” Likewise, at Feeding America, around 15,000 pounds of food were moved in just three hours!
Apart from being an incredible volunteer resource for the community, Project Faith acts as a fundraiser for Faith Christian School. Each year, the students set their goals high. They send an enormous number of letters out to potential donors prior to Project Faith.
The Lower School students set a goal to raise $80,000 this year. They easily surpassed that, raising a total of $88,335! The Middle and Upper School students set their goal at $55,000 and raised a whopping $81,936.90!
With an additional $26,000 from corporate sponsors, this year’s Project Faith grand total was $196,574.02.
Said Project Faith coordinator Stacey Lilley to the students, “it’s truly humbling the blessing God’s doing through you guys.”
Nancy Wheeler will be the presenter of the Ninth Ecumenical Beatitude Study: Greatly Honored Are you Who Put Your Honor on the Line for Christ’s Sake.
This is the concluding session of this community-wide study which meets on the third Thursday, May 17, from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. in the Disciples Hall at Fort Lewis Christian Church, located at 2931 West Main Street in Salem.
Friday, April 27 marked the 11th annual Project Faith, a community service project at Faith Christian School.
All students from Kindergarten through 12th grade helped to provide community services to several organizations. This year, the students, staff and parent volunteers at FCS helped Manna Ministries, Charity Cottage and the Rescue Mission in Vinton and Feeding America Southwest Virginia in Salem.
Their help was well-received and much needed: Manna Ministries served around 700 people on Thursday evening, April 26.
The volunteers helped to paint, clean, pull weeds, sort donations, spread new mulch, make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and tossed salad, create table favors with inspirational quotes and much more. The art students at FCS also painted a mural at Manna Ministries.
In line with their theme this year, “Feed My Sheep,” the students helped to prepare “6,000 ‘gleaning bags’ for Gleaning America’s fall fruit harvest, which will go to help feed the hungry” according to Susan Childs at Faith Christian School.
Also according to Childs, fundraising efforts as part of Project Faith has totaled over $1 million in the last 11 years, and the last three years alone have totaled over $500,000. (Be sure to check back here for more information on final tallies next week!)
Working indoors and out, the students, parents, staff members and volunteers were certainly lucky to have such beautiful weather on Friday.
“We’ve been doing this for 11 years,” said Sam Cox, Head of School at Faith Christian, “and we’ve had no rain on the day of Project Faith so far. It’s poured the day before or the day after, but not on that day.”
Faith Christian School students Graham and Davis Lilley meet Virginia Tech football standout David Wilson. Photo courtesy of Tim Lilley.
Tim Lilley shares this photo and says:
My two sons, Graham and Davis Lilley, first and third graders at Faith Christian School, with Virginia Tech football standout, David Wilson. As you probably know, David is last year’s ACC football player of year and is expected to be selected [this] week in first or second round of NFL draft. He was at Gobbler Gear store in Salem [on Friday, April 20] signing autographs and posing for pictures. The boys are so excited that they got to meet him!
Faith Christian School, a distinctively Christian classical school serving students in grades K – 12, is excited to share that its annual service project and fundraiser, Project Faith, is coming up next Friday, April 27th.
The theme of Faith Christian School’s twelfth Project Faith is “Feed My Sheep.”
Over 550 students, faculty, staff and parent volunteers will be helping organizations in the community who serve the hungry. Volunteers will be working at Manna Ministries, Feeding America, Charity Cottage and The Rescue Mission. Workers will be painting, cleaning, sorting food, clothing and other items, washing fences, mulching and making repairs at these locations. In addition, students will be assembling over 6,000 gleaning bags for Gleaning America’s fall fruit harvest, which will go to help feed the hungry.
In all, volunteers will donate over 2,000 hours of service to this community on Project Faith day.
Originally started as FaithWalk, this event began as a walk-a-thon to help raise much-needed funds for the school. In 2001, FCS decided to change from a walk-a-thon to a service project and changed the name to Project Faith.
For the fundraising portion, students send out letters to family, friends, neighbors, and others asking for support for the work they will perform. Our fundraising goal for 2012 is $160,000. These much-needed funds go towards FCS scholarship programs, to help pay teachers and to provide the best in classroom materials for its students.
In 2011, Project Faith won four categories in “The Best of” in The Roanoke Times’ SWoCo readers’ poll as the Best Elementary School Event, The Best Middle and High School Event, The Best Community Event and The Best Fundraiser.
“We are honored to serve our community every year with this project,” states Sam Cox, FCS Head of School, “it’s a way for us to continue our vision of ‘A Mind for Truth, A Heart for Christ, and A Will to Serve.”
Submitted by Susan Childs, Faith Christian School.
Last year, Project Faith helped out at Mill Mountain Zoo, Mill Mountain Garden Club, the Mill Mountain Discovery Center and Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Click here for photos.
Starting this week, Cave Spring United Methodist Church is doing their part to help battle hunger in Southwest Roanoke County.
Cave Spring UMC will launch a pilot program on Thursday, April 19 to provide nutritious food and drinks to kids in need at Green Valley Elementary School. Church members will collect monetary and food donations each week; from those resources, they will fill bags with foods and drinks. Each Thursday, they’ll deliver the bags to Green Valley Elementary School, and principal Ashley McCallum and guidance counselor Karen Garlow will distribute the food bags to students each Friday.
As part of the school community, teachers and administrators know they can feed their students for breakfast and lunch throughout the week. Dinner and weekend meals, though, can be less certain, according to McCallum. She and Garlow came up with a list of students they felt might benefit from a little extra help, then sent home permission slips to the parents of those children. McCallum and Garlow also double checked for food allergies.
The program, similar to what churches in other areas are calling backpack ministries, will provide not only a dependable food source over the weekends to students who may not always have one, but will also provide snacks throughout the following week. And there is definitely a need in Southwest County.
“There’s this misnomer that the land flowing with milk and honey is Southwest County, but there are needs in Southwest County that need to be attended to,” said Cave Spring UMC pastor Ronnie Morris. “We wanted to do something here [in our community]…we can’t do everything, but we can do something.”
Other churches have started similar programs using special backpacks that they fill with food goods, according to Morris. The churches started out using obvious red backpacks, then moved to a more subtle blue. However, the colored backpacks still drew attention to the children receiving help from the program. Most churches now use black backpacks, but at McCallum’s suggestion, Cave Spring UMC will use double-bagged plastic grocery bags.
McCallum and Garlow will put the grocery bags in the children’s backpacks while their classes are away at ‘specials’ like art, music or P.E. This will allow the identities of those students participating in the program to remain as anonymous as possible.
“We’re not drawing any attention to the kids receiving the food,” McCallum said.
At this time, 20 to 25 students are participating, but Cave Spring UMC hopes to be able to serve as many as 100 to 125 students in the future, according to Rick Robers, who is helping to head the project at the church. The program is slated to continue through the end of the school year, but if it is successful, Cave Spring UMC will serve students in the coming years.
This program will “help to develop a relationship with the school community, and down the road, there are other needs to meet,” Robers said.
And McCallum is “ecstatic” that kids at her school can benefit. She helped with a similar program at Masons Cove Elementary School last year, and “got nothing but good feedback,” she said. It’s a great thing “any time we can partner with the community,” said McCallum.
If you’re interested in helping out with the program, contact Ronnie Morris at Cave Spring United Methodist Church by calling 540-989-3673 or emailing pastor@cavespringumc.org.
The 14th annual Lebanese Festival at St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church will be held June 1-3 at the church, 4730 Cove Road NW, in Roanoke.
The festival features delicious Lebanese food, including various vegetarian choices and freshly grilled lamb and beef kabobs, toe-tapping Lebanese music by a professional musician and traditional Lebanese dances in full costume.
As it has since 2007, WDBJ7 will again sponsor the festival, which will be held rain or shine. Hours are Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission and parking is free; there is a moderate charge for food and children’s activities.
Photo courtesy of Carol Abbott
New this year will be “A Taste of Lebanon,” a special area displaying unusual Lebanese musical instruments, ornate Lebanese dress, a hookah, colorful rugs and a special device used for baking the famous Lebanese flat bread.
Activities for children include face painting, an obstacle course and a Moon Walk. There will be a well- stocked Silent Auction featuring gifts from local businesses, gift baskets and restaurant gift certificates. Samer Jazrawy, professional musician, will be on hand to provide the live rhythmic Lebanese music that persuades guests to get up and dance.
In addition, tours of the church will explain the rich history of the Maronite Catholic rite, one of the oldest churches within Christianity. There will be takeout available for food orders (form may be found on website and faxed to 540-562-1300). There will also be “Frozen-To-Go” bulk food of select items also available to purchase for heating at a later time.
For more information, call St. Elias Church at 540-562-0012 or visit the website.
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Welcome to The Notebook, the community gathering place for news and tidbits from SWoCo, by community journalist Avery Eliades. You can share your comments, stories, links and ideas here, too. This is your community conversation.
