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.
Trinity collaborates with other organizations
to help others. Here's a video of a recent brunch at Trinity where
we looked for ways to better focus our resources on needs in our
community -- which includes the Northwest Corner of Connecticut,
Southern Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and Columbia and Dutchess
Counties in New York State:
Here are some examples of our current
collaborations:
COMPLETED!!
Habitat for Humanity--
for the past two years we've spent word days in the Summer working for Habitat.
The first year, we spent a work day in August helping Habitat prepare its new
mega thrift shop in Canaan. Last year we did the
siding on a Habitat house, also in North Canaan.
Completed!!
CROP Walk --
we participate in this
Church World Services fund raiser every year -- and now our own Pastor Heidi is
the Coordinator of the whole CROP Walk. We had 22 walkers, plus one water
point attendant, and 7 dogs on hand for the 2012 CROP Walk. Here's a video of
Team Trinity from the 2012 CROP Walk! Photos are on the
Trinity
Lime Rock Sports Facebook page.
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.
Upcoming!!
Feed a Family of Four for a Day --
an annual project we undertake for
OWL's Kitchen each autumn. Last
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.
This year, we asked the kids if they would like to do this project for the
parish, and they responded with record results. This year they collected
26 backpacks, 2 additional bags of school supplies, and a $75 cash donation.
We're really proud of them! Here's a two minute video they prepared
recapping this campaign. Have a look!!
Completed!!
Bark For Life-- The American Cancer Society, as part of
their Relays for Life program, stages events for canines called "Bark
For Life". This year, in conjuntion with our friends at Lime Rock
Park, staged the first-ever Bark For Life in our area. Needless to
say, Trinity dogs were in attendance! Here's a video about our
visit, including a demonstration by a Connecticut State Policy detection
dog.
Upcoming!!
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 Plans for 2012 are still in progress, but the
Trinity Kids have indicated that they may be interested in taking this project
on .... and if they do, we know they'll do a great job.
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. 2012 was
no exception!
A NEW Project...
Thanksgiving
Dinner in North Canaan --
This community project
was a major and much-loved outreach activity at Christ Church in Canaan.
Now we at Trinity are going to add this to our project list. You
can find more information about it in the
Trinity Times
for November 2012. We'll have more information here as our
involvement develops.
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 collaboration 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 collaborate in 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 collaboration 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 collaborated 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 collaborate with that agency to help cyclists in a similar way. We'll see!!
Hurricane Relief:
Trinity collaborated 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.
Prayer for
the Right Use of God's Gifts:
Almighty God,
whose loving hand hath given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that
we may honor thee with our substance, and, remember the account which we
must one day give, may be faithful stewards of thy bounty, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.