New Year, New Projects

The Christmas Angel Project went very well this year. Next year, however, there are a few things to remember in no particular order:

• We didn't use a tree in 2009. Will we want one next year?
  
• Rachel provided gift suggestions along with each angel.
• We may want to ask people for their phone numbers or email addresses so we can remind them of the deadline for purchasing the gifts.
  
• We won't be able to begin angel distribution at the 2010 UMW bazaar as it is slated for the first Wednesday in November 2010.
  
• We may wish to coordinate our giving with the distribution of food baskets next year.
  
• Rachel may try to organize her list both by family (according to color) and by geography to streamline the distribution process.
  
• No Santa was used this year, cutting the distribution from three hours to one.
  
• Buying Satanta sweatshirts/hoodies for the 7-12 angels worked well. We'll repeat this if possible for 2010. We paid full price for the hoodies this year, so we should continue to do so in the future. The bathrobe boxes worked well and were cheaper than gift bags.
  
• We have infant/toddler gifts leftover. No more will need to be purchased for 2010.
  
• The Sweet Shoppe went over really well, and these funds helped to fund extras like tissue paper for gift bags and whatnot.

Thank You Sunday

Next Sunday, January 3, 2010, Leanne will offer thank you sugar cookies to the congregation as a thank you for their support of our projects in 2009. We'll offer coffee as well.

Speaking of Thank You's

We are tentatively planning a thank you lunch for the congregation (see reason above) on February 21, 2010, at the community building to include non-members who have given us their support. The menu will include chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, relishes, and Texas sheet cake. More details to follow.


MAM Room

It's time to clean up and throw out old clothes. We plan to start the new room with a clean slate. Plan to meet on Wednesday, December 30 at 10:00 a.m. for a work morning with lunch to follow.

Grant

The grant project is already underway. The deadline for submission is January 8, 2010. Ardith Dunn will administer the funds, and the New Genesis class will pick the grant recipients. It would be nice to get some publicity (pics for the paper) when the grants are given. Giant checks anyone?

Garage Sale

The tentative idea is to postpone this project until the community-wide garage sale date--usually in June.

UMC Live

Anyone up for a spoof Methodism? Let's plan it out. Think April performance/dinner date.

Last-minute Angel Tree Preparations

All of the angels have been claimed, and we're hoping that all the gifts will be delivered on the 13th so that we can deliver them between church and the Christmas program.

Ryan has the sweatshirts we ordered from the SHS freshmen class, and he plans to shop for the last three angels for which money came in for as well as gift sacks, tissue, and toddler/baby gifts. These purchases will largely be covered by profit from our candy sales.

Please plan to help deliver the gifts if you are available on Sunday, December 13th at 1:00 p.m. It takes a lot of work to make Christmas a little brighter for the children in our community, but we get paid back in the smiles of the children who receive the gifts. Hope to see you there!