FCC Louisville Takes Lead in Getting Over 4,500 Volunteers to Serve our Community!

For four days in early July 2016,

4,582 volunteers served in over 150 projects throughout the City of Louisville.

While this effort required the help of many, it was made possible in large part because of First Christian Church.

Taking lead on the project was church member Alan Parsons. Working with Group Work Camp, Alan's task was to provide volunteer service opportunities for the youth and adults who came to The Evangelical Free Church of American Youth Conference.

Here is a sample of some of the projects they did:

• Packed 40,000 meals for Love the Hungry

• Sorted 136,500 syringes and then packed them into 210 boxes or about 1,470 pounds worth of syringes for shipping by Supplies Over Seas (SOS) to Sierra Leone.

• Cleaned nearly 1,000 headstones in Eastern Cemetery

• Spread 600 cubic yards of playground mulch and purchased an additional 100 cubic yards for another park to receive at a later date.

• Picked-up over 2.85 tons (over 5,700 pounds) of dry refuse during neighborhood litter pickup that covered over 600 square blocks of Louisville neighborhoods.

• Served 24 different agencies and nonprofits including, but not limited to: USPIRITUS (Brooklawn Campus), St. Matthews Community Ministries, St. Joseph’s Children’s Home, Louisville Grows, Love City, Dare to Care, Wayside Christian Mission, Toonerville Neighborhood Association, Christian Care Communities (two campuses), Nazareth Homes, the Louisville Nature Center, Salvation Army, Volunteers of America, Clifton Neighborhood Association, Waterfront Parks, 15th District PTA, Louisville Rescue Mission and Cabbage Patch.

• Renovated playgrounds, buildings, striped parking lots and painted picnic tables, benches and exercise stations in 6 Louisville metro Parks.

While First Christian Church helped to underwrite this ministry with a wholeness grant and provided a base of leadership, something of this size takes considerable partnership. Here is a list of those who helped make it all happen:

• The office of the Louisville Mayor

• Louisville Metro Council members

• Louisville Urban League

• Man-Up

• God’s Lives Matter

• Plymouth Community Center

• Louisville Division of Solid Waste

• Operation Brightside

• Metro United Way

• The Louisville Convention and Visitors’ Bureau

• Louisville Center for Neighborhoods

• Northeast Christian Church

• Louisville Metro Parks

Thanks to the generosity of First Christian, and so many others, the team was able to raise over $37,000 of funding to purchase and materials and supplies to support the projects.

All of the above brought a lot of wholeness and hope to our community!

The wholeness grant used to fund this ministry was made possible through your faithful financial support of our church and its ministries and help fund a variety of efforts to make our world a better place. You can find more examples of those efforts or apply for a grant to make the world a better place by clicking here.