"Babies shouldn't have to pay the price..."

Below is a press release sent out today about the next big community service project our congregation is taking on:

PRESS RELEASE
[for immediate release]

The ongoing economic crisis and recent state funding cutbacks have given impetus to a project designed to see to it that the parents of local infants and toddlers have food and diapers for their children.

Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan is teaming with the Logan Health Department and the Hocking County MRDD for a Drive-Through Community Baby Shower. It happens on Saturday, August 22, from 10am to 2pm, when residents are asked to drop off baby formula and disposable diapers at the back door of Saint Matthew’s building facilities. Saint Matthew is located at 258 East Hunter Street in Logan, the church with Noah’s Ark in the yard.

The donated formula and diapers from the Drive-Through Community Baby Shower will go immediately toward helping infants and families served through the Logan Health Department’s WIC program and two programs of the county Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities: Help Me Grow and Early Intervention.

All of those programs receive state support. But that support has been drastically reduced in the recently approved state biennial budget. This, in turn, has reduced the numbers of children and families who can be helped here in Logan and Hocking County.

The Servanthood Team at Saint Matthew felt, says Saint Matthew pastor Mark Daniels, “No matter how one feels about the cuts, our babies shouldn’t have to pay the price.”

So, the Servanthood Team, led by Saint Matthew member Becky Webb, hit on the idea of the Drive-Through Community Baby Shower.

“People won’t even have to leave their cars when they drop off the formula and diapers,” Daniels notes. People will be asked to pull up to the back door of the Saint Matthew facilities, where members of the congregation will be waiting to take donations. There will be no preaching and no Bible tracts, just people coming together to share God’s love in a practical way for infants right here in our own community.

In addition to Webb, the Saint Matthew Servanthood Team includes Fran Funk, Cindy Garrelts, Jim Kalklosch, Dee McLain, Christa Myers, Ann Daniels, and Kelly Taulbee.

Individuals who have questions about the Drive-Through Community Baby Shower on August 22, are urged to contact the Saint Matthew church office at (740) 385-2272.