by Laura Swanson, Editor, Tillamook County Pioneer
Several members of the Nehalem Bay United Methodist Church’s congregation have helped with the distribution of Christmas gifts, Easter baskets and back-to-school items for children in our community over the years through other local nonprofits. This past year, the organizers for a local nonprofit doing much of this work relocated, and the church decided to take on some of the programs. In particular, the church chose focusing on the children of these families. “There are other programs taking care of these families’ basic needs,” said Bobbie Mosher. “We want to give the children a childhood.”
The NBUMC, with approval of the congregation, reworked the services to be provided, and appropriately came up with the acronym “CHILD” (Christ’s Hands In Loving Devotion) to clearly state the intentions of the program.
“This allows us to concentrate our efforts on the children — the members of our community who have no voice or choice as to their situation,” said CHILD coordinator Bobbie Mosher. “We live what we learn and learn by example, and by giving these children some of the simplest things, it can make all the difference for that child and family.” CHILD programs include providing Christmas gifts and stockings, Easter baskets, back-to-school clothing, and birthday celebrations.
For the Christmas season, there are applications at Nehalem Bay United Methodist Church, located at 36050 10th Street in Nehalem, or people can contact Bobbie Mosher at nbumcchild@gmail.com. Gift requests need to be received as soon as possible.
We will be placing the tags with requests from the children in local businesses and banks in mid-November,” said Bobbie. Requests that are received by November 30th, will have individual tags put out for the children. The tag will list the child’s gift request, and donors select the child or children they want to purchase gifts for. Then drop off the UNWRAPPED gift and tag at the location they picked up the tag, or at Nehalem Bay United Methodist Church by December 11th for distribution to the families.
“If requests come in after the 1st of December, we will just try to fill them from what we have on hand,” added Bobbie. “We depend on the members of the community to support CHILD with donations of items at Christmas as well as monetary donations to purchase any needed items that are requested,” she explained. “We purchase stocking stuffers at Christmas, and then other items for Easter baskets and fillers as well as items for the birthday bags.”
CHILD has about a dozen volunteers helping with the wrapping, gathering, stockings and more. Please contact Bobbie Mosher if you are interested in volunteering, donating or need an application, at the NBUMC, 503-368-5612 or email to nbumcchild@gmail.com.
Every child deserves to experience the joys of the holidays and birthdays, please consider helping ensure that every child in our community has a childhood by supporting NBUMC’s CHILD program.
