Our Condolences to the Family of Holly (Wilson) Boese

The 21st Time Class has given a $200 gift card to Holly (Wilson) Boese and her family to help defray expenses from the fire that destroyed the family's home and took the life of Holly's two-year-old son. The little boy's funeral will be held at the Satanta United Methodist Church this coming Saturday, July 16. Our hearts go out to the Wilsons as they face this tragedy.

Pool Party

The 21st Time will host a pool party on July 31 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Bring food and/or beverages to share, and invite a friend. We're always looking for new class members!

School Supply Project Update

We will begin fundraising for our annual school supply project this coming Sunday with an announcement in church followed by the posting of signs around town and note being placed in the paper describing the project. Our materials indicate that we'll take monetary donations through August 8.

We will begin advertising that we are offering school supplies around the first of August with the expectation that we that giving will end August 12, which the weekend before school starts in Satanta.

Tiffany suggested that we might be able to get corporate support for our project by writing Crayola, Mead, Rose Art, Elmer's, and Kleenex. She will look into undertaking this project as soon as possible.

We also discussed purchasing drawstring bags to give along with our supplies, but at $200, many thought this money could be better spent on supplies.

School Supply Project Update

We've finalized our school-supply project plans. This year we will offer to purchase school supplies to any student in the USD 507 school district who needs them, but rather than offering a form to every family at enrollment, we'll print up business cards that Nancy and Shelley will offer at enrollment to families in need during the enrollment process. These families can then contact us directly.

We have also discussed using drawstring backpacks to deliver the school supplies in. These could be purchased via a website like www.4allpromos.com, but first we will inquire to see if Mary Oliver and her UMW sewers might be able to make these for us.

To finance this program, we will post flyers around town (and at local churches) with bookmark reminders asking community members to donate $10 (or more) to our group in support of our "Erase Poverty" school supply campaign. These flyers/bookmarks have already been created and prepared for posting around town. We'll post them as August draws nearer.

What We're Working on Now

Our garage sale proceeds have already allowed us the freedom to make an impact in our community. So far, we've done/planned to do the following:

• Re-stocked the food pantry with food items that are easy for children to prepare. (We worked on the assumption that many children in our community feed themselves during the summer months.)
• Donated $250 the Dudley Township Library in support of the Summer Reading Program to allow Julie Smith to have a July 28 pizza party to celebrate the successful end of the program's run. Julie plans to provide school-supply goodie bags to each child in attendance.
  
• Begun the discussion of the 2011 school-supply project with an emphasis on providing for individual children in our community. The latest version of this idea would have Nancy and Shelley provide a business card with contact information for our class to those in need of school supplies.
  

Let us pray that each of these projects touches the life of someone who needs to hear the most important message of all: "You are loved."

Thank You

Dear 21st Time Class,

Thank you so much for the goodies and the itunes gift card. While on the 10-day trip, new songs on my ipod were needed, and I also enjoyed and shared the snacks.

The METour let me grow stronger in my faith, and I also met 47 other girls who were very strong Christians. I had the opportunity to tour DenUM and interact with people in homeless shelters and with low-income children. I also had the opportunity to help UMCOR pack birthday kits for African children. I also volunteered at and toured several clothing and food pantries. We ended the trip by visiting Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.

The main focus of the trip was poverty and living in a small community. This trip opened my eyes to the needs the country has. I will definitely have to share more about my trip when I am home in July. Thanks again so much.

Love,

Katy Clawson

Garage Sale Success!

Thanks to all who contributed toward the Satanta United Methodist Church garage sale. We raised over $1,400, which we will re-invest in our community food bank, the Dudley Township Library, and our local school. Our commitment to end poverty through education continues as we seek new ways to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.