by Karin Salzman, Director of Children’s Ministries, Green Valley UMC
Green Valley UMC’s Pioneer Club kids started raising money in February for our spring mission project which benefits the non-profit Together We Rise. We set a goal of $2500 which would buy 100 birthday boxes for local foster children. Our kids brought money every Wednesday night to feed to our “offering robot” and their parents and leaders wrote generous checks. We had a deadline of April 7 so that we could send in the money and still have time to decorate and assemble the boxes before Pioneer Club ended for the year.
Our congregation had generously helped us reach $2000 but I knew we really wanted to bless 100 kids so I went before our congregation on Sunday morning and told them we were only $500 away from our goal. Our incredible congregation met this need and exceeded it! We raised $2,722!! Enough money to bless 129 kids and pay the shipping! We are so excited to decorate and fill these boxes with love for local foster kids! We invited the congregation to help us with that task on Sunday, May 5th and then we will bless the boxes in worship on our Pioneer Club Sunday, May 19th.
To learn more about birthday boxes, go to this link: https://www.togetherwerise.org/team-building/birthday-boxes/