"Walk the walk"

"Outreach" is church talk for walking the walk -- actually getting out there and doing for other people, whether in our community, our region, or somewhere else in the world.     

Our Outreach chairpersons are Lou and Katrina Piezzo. 

Here's the Outreach Committee. 

Please contact either Katrina or Lou, or Pastor Heidi, or one of the Wardens if you think you might like to help out with one or more of our Outreach activities. 

Here's what we're doing right now to walk the walk

"Bead for Life" -- a sale of jewelry made by Ugandan women to support themselves and their children.

COMPLETED!!

Habitat for Humanity -- we spent a work day in August helping Habitat prepare its new mega thrift shop in Canaan.  This new store will be big enough to handle something really needed here: used furniture, and will also provide revenue that will help Habitat build more houses. 

COMPLETED!!

CROP Walk -- we participate in this Church World Services fund raiser every year -- this year it was held on Sunday, September 25, at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.  See the photo of Team Trinity!

Ongoing...

OWLs Kitchen -- our community food bank -- they tell us that Trinity is one of their most dependable churches in terms of food for area families.  There's always a collection basket in the sanctuary for food items that are taken to OWLs weekly.

COMPLETED!!

Feed a Family of Four for a Day -- an annual project we undertake for OWL's Kitchen each autumn.  This year we provided OWL's Kitchen with more than 30 bags of groceries and several checks as well. 

COMPLETED!!

Back to School Backpacks -- every year we help needy area families send their kids back to school with new backpacks, filled with school supplies they'll need.  We collected 22 backpacks filled with needed school supplies for middle schoolers in North Canaan on August 7.

COMPLETED!!

Christmas Gifts for needy area kids -- each year we confer with the social worker in North Canaan and get requests for Christmas gifts for kids who would otherwise have bleak Christmases.  Here's a photo of some of the gifts collected in 2011.

COMPLETED!!

Bishop's 5K for Kids -- we send a team to this annual 5K run/walk each May in West Hartford, raising funds for needy kids all over Connecticut and usually take a sponsorship as well.  2011 was no exception!

Ongoing...

Toiletries for Homeless in Hartford -- when we travel -- or when we stop by a drug store -- we pick up single-use toiletries for use at a homeless shelter in Hartford.  (There's always a bowl in Walker Hall where these can be left.)

There's more -- please read on!

In some cases, our gift to others is ourselves in the form of labor  --  building houses for Habitat for Humanity is a good example of that.  So is the mission trip to Honduras undertaken recently by Pastor Heidi and two parishioners to help build houses and cookstoves there.

In other cases, it's in the form of goods:  food (for example, our ongoing food ministry in cooperation with OWLs Kitchen), backpacks with school supplies, or other needed objects we are in a position to provide for others. 

We have other forms of outreach, too, including some that are a bit unusual, particularly for a church -- such as our Sports and Recreation ministry program, to which the entire community is invited. We provide a rest stop (with a food sale) for members of the New York Cycle Club on their Berkshire Ride.   Trinity is proud to be the founding sponsor and the current home of the Crescendo music program, serving the entire tri-state area and beyond.  We support an ecumenical ministry to the elderly at Noble Horizons via twice-monthly worship services there conducted by Pastor Heidi and a parishioner, as well as a monthly book group there called "Exploring spiritual paths".

Finally, although we are not a wealthy parish in terms of dollars, sometimes our outreach is in the form of money.

We walk the walk through involvement in many areas, and our congregation is very much involved in determining where and how our efforts will be directed.

An example:  Feed a Family of Four for a Day:

In anticipation of Thanksgiving each year, Trinity parishioners provide groceries that will serve to feed a family of four for a day in cooperation with OWL's Kitchen. OWL's Kitchen feeds approximately 80 families every day.

Here is a recommended menu.  Feel free to modify it, but please make sure that all of your choices are nutritious ones.

Breakfast:

1 large can fruit juice (not fruit drink)

1 box pancake mix or 1 box oatmeal or 1 box low fat low sugar cold cereal or granola

1 box powdered milk

1 small box tea bags or 1 small jar instant coffee

1 box cocoa mix

1 jar jam or marmalade

Lunch:

2 packages macaroni & cheese or 2 cans condensed soup

2 cans tuna fish or 1 jar peanut butter and 1 jar jelly

1 large can fruit

Dinner:

1 large can spaghetti and meatballs or 1 box pasta and 1 jar marinara sauce or 2 cans beef stew and 1 small box rice

1 large can vegetables

1 large jar applesauce or fruit

Thank you for feeding your neighbor!

Here are some of our other recent Outreach efforts:

Christmas Outreach:

--In 2007, for our Christmas project, we consulted with the Social Worker for our neighboring community of Falls Village -- which has no Episcopal Church of its own (many Falls Village people are members of Trinity, and we view Falls Village as part of our community).  We collected specific gifts for needy young people of that town.  We also collected small gifts for the elderly of Falls Village, such as toiletries, stationery, and the like -- the sort of things that elderly people on Medicaid cannot afford for themselves, but which help provide a small sense of dignity and self-worth in old age.

Lunchboxes:

Trinity partnered with Salisbury Family Services to contribute lunchboxes and non-perishable snack food for needy children to take with them when school opened.   (That project expanded into the Backpack Project.)

Appalachian Trail:

For a year or two, the Appalachian Trail detoured right past Trinity.  We were glad to provide hikers with a place to sit in a real chair for a little while, use a real bathroom, refill water bottles, and charge their cell phones.  This was "Companionship along the way" as well as "walk the walk" in a literal sense, and we were all a little sad to see the Appalachian Trail return to its usual route, a half mile away from Trinity.  There are plans afoot to for the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area to route their Housatonic River bicycle trail past Trinity, so perhaps we'll be able to help cyclists in a similar way.  We'll see!!

Hurricane Relief:

Trinity partnered with the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, the Episcopal presence at Tulane University.  Their building and its contents were largely ruined by Katrina -- effectively leaving the students, faculty, and staff of that great university without a campus home of the Episcopal Church. 

Our organist and choir director, Christine Gevert, organized a "Hurricane Concert" for relief in storm-damaged areas of the South.  Thanks to help of the Hotchkiss School, the concert, with a choir of well over 100 voices, conducted and accompanied by professionals who contributed their time, raised a significant amount of money for relief.  We also have a parishioner who serves on our Diocesan Disaster Relief committee.