500 coats…

coats

I announced Sunday that the “smart thing” to do right now as a church would be to get one of those cheesy thermometer graphics on the screens and start raising/saving money for a “Building Fund”. Sometimes the “smart thing” is not the “right thing” when it comes to living a life of faith.  Besides,  we’ve never done the “smart thing” as a church…and we’re not about to start now.  :-)

Here’s what I think we should do instead.   First,  Keep praying and asking God about our next venue. (Not forgetting to thank him for our extended time at Club 19!)   Second,  Focus on OTHERS.

We’ve been asked as a church if we would consider gathering/ purchasing winter coats for kids who do not have them in the York City School district.  When we asked how many coats they could use the answer was 500!  Yeah seriously 500…   I never even imagined that many kids could not have proper winter coats…in York City alone.    It’s a big “ask”…a really big task.  A project that will really stretch us as a church.  Our plan is to take coats to schools each week instead of gathering them all for some sort of big “presentation”.  (It’s getting Cold now…)  This project will definitely be a decision to “do good…not just look good”.  It will be a “no strings attached” moment of generosity for all of us who make up actionchurch.

Here’s what we all can do:

1.   Purchase Children’s Coats when we go to the Big Box Store(s) for “supplies”.  Consider leaving an Item out that we would normally purchase and purchasing a coat instead.  (A child in York can be warm all year for the price of a DVD.)

2.  Check Your Closets we want to give 500 LIKE NEW coats…  Nothing ratty or worn out.  Kids grow fast…so lots of us have perfectly great coats that are just hanging in the closet…too small but “too good to throw away”.   Bring em!

3.  Tell your Friends at work…at school.  We will have tags to Give out for folks take to bring a coat.  Consider leaving them out at your place of business to invite your friends to be part of the action….

4.  Keep your Eyes open for Sales…Deals.   See a super sale on Childrens coats and can’t afford to buy the whole rack?   :-)   let us know… Send us an email.  info@actionchurch  or post it in the comments.  We’ll spread the word.

5.  ?????   There are ways to provide coats for our neighbors in York City that we have not thought of yet.   Speak up…we’d love to hear your ideas!

6.  Show up Sunday…bring coats…get tags…let’s get this thing kicked off.

3 thoughts on “500 coats…

  1. I just heard 70% at Burlington and 50% off at Old Navy.

    I bought all clothes for myself at Good Will, Salvation Army or Rescue Mission. But what if every thing I buy keeps others from having a chance to buy their kids the most affordable things that might fit into their budgets? I don’t want to do harm in trying to help. I’ll try for sales. I know this is hard; my unemployment ran out weeks ago.
    This is DO ABLE! How many seats do we put out each Sunday? 100? It looks like most of them are filled. If every adult were to try to do two coats, in 2 1/2 weeks we could give every child listed some of our warmth. Let’s put the thanks in Thanksgiving.
    FYI- A friend of mine (who was in seminary) is teaching English in South Korea. He went to work in the school wearing his deceased father’s fleece jacket. There he saw children without vitamins getting sick (I sent a bottle of 300 multiple vitamins ($10) that would be worth $300 there.) He saw children shivering in poorly heated schools (they go to school til 10 PM M-F and “just” 8 hrs in Saturday); their school meals (kimchee, rice) make ours look like a banquet. My friend took his coat off and put it on a child. He could only help one; here we are so lucky because we can help more. :)

  2. Here was a suggestion a friend emailed me. I will pass them on in case they have merit and someone has the energy and time to do these things.

    1. Find a large organization that will match one for every two coats donated. Then when you call the second company say so and so said they would go two for one what are you gonna do… none of the corporate sponsors want to be seen in a bad light to other companies so they figure if they donate a few coats they will be seen as generous corporations.

    2. Call your state/local rep and say “The children in York need warm clothes. Can you call some companies/contacts and get them some warm coats?”