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Following Christ’s admonition
“Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to
me,” the Outreach Ministry provides opportunities for the people of Grace
Church to give their time, talent, and treasure to outreach of all
kinds—local, regional, diocesan, national, and worldwide—as we seek to feed
the hungry, clothe the poor, and spread the Kingdom of Christ.
Coordinators
Peter Iovino is the 2008 Vestry Program Coordinator and
Barbara Read is the non-vestry Program Coordinator for the outreach program.
Local Outreach
Local outreach ministries work with
the Alexandria/Arlington community and those in need. Through these
ministries, Grace Church provides funding to many organizations that offer
assistance to sick or elderly citizens and other needy persons. Funds come
from the parish outreach budget and from special donations. Local outreach
activities include:
Alexandria Tutoring Consortium
Volunteers work with first and
second grade Alexandria City School students to improve reading skills.
Tutoring sessions are held at school during class hours, usually between
8:30 AM and 3:30 PM. Tutors may work individually or with a partner to
ensure that three 30 minute sessions (the suggested number) are held each
week. Barbara Biebrich is the
coordinator.
ALexandrians InVolved Ecumenically (ALIVE!)
ALIVE! brings together volunteers
from nearly 40 religious congregations and the community to work together to
address short-tem to long-term needs for those who are less fortunate.
ALIVE! serves more than 12,000 Alexandrians annually with shelter; low-cost
early childhood education and childcare; financial help for rent, utilities,
medical care and other critical needs; emergency food; and deliveries of
donated furniture and house wares. In addition to volunteer support, Grace
Church supports ALIVE! with an annual financial grant. Larry Thompson is
Grace Church's representative on the ALIVE! Board.
Return to Top Arlandria
Neighborhood Health Services
Located in the heart of the
Arlandria community, the Arlandria Health Center provides critical primary
and preventive health care services in English and in Spanish. Grace Church
supports the Center with an annual financial grant. Volunteer service
opportunities are also available. For information about service
opportunities, please contact the Center at 703-370-7630.
Bienvenidos Tutoring Consortium
Volunteers are needed to tutor 11th
grade Latino high school students at T. C. Williams High School in various
academic subjects. Tutors need not be bilingual. the program aims to lower
dropout rates, raise grade point averages, and increase the number of high
school graduates. Beginning volunteers receive professional training. Grace
Church supports the program with an annual financial grant. Gary Carter is
the Coordinator for Bienvidos Tutoring.
Brown Bag Lunch Program
Parish volunteers prepare
sandwiches, pack lunches and serve lunches at Meade Memorial Episcopal
Church on a regular schedule. Preparation of sandwiches also provides an
outreach volunteer opportunity for the students of Grace Episcopal School.
Contact Mary Fox, the Brown Bag program coordinator, and check the
Outreach bulletin board in the hall outside the parish office for the Brown
Bag schedule and to sign up for sandwich preparation or other volunteer
duties.
Grace next serves Brown Bag Lunch
June 30 through July 3.
Return to Top Carpenter's Shelter
Carpenter's Shelter provides free
comprehensive services to homeless men, women and children through a daytime
drop-in shelter, an overnight hypothermia shelter, a temporary residential
shelter, an aftercare program for shelter graduates living in the community,
and transitional housing. The Outreach Committee, Lay Eucharistic Ministers
and the Grace School Parents Association take turns preparing and serving hot meals
once a month, in addition to offering staff support throughout the year.
Grace Church
also supports the Carpenter's Shelter program with an annual financial
grant.
The Outreach Committee will be preparing and serving the meal on Tuesday,
May 20.
St. Clement's Overflow Shelter
From January through March, Grace
Parishioners join with other churches to staff an overflow shelter at the
Church of St. Clement. Clients are referred from Carpenter's Shelter and
spend the night at St. Clement's.
Community Lodgings
Located in the Arlandria area of
Alexandria, Community Lodgings provides transitional housing and counseling
for homeless and low-income families, computer and job-betterment training
for disadvantaged adults, after-school help for at-risk children, and
affordable housing for low-income families. Grace Church supports Community
Lodgings with an annual financial grant. Volunteer service opportunities are
also available. Contact Carl Seward or
Community
Lodgings at 703-549-4407
for further information.
Grace Church Food Pantry
The food pantry provides emergency
food supplies to families and individuals referred by Alexandria Social
Services. The pantry is open from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM on Mondays and Tuesdays
and 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM on Fridays. You can assist in distributing food from
Grace Church to those in need. Grace Church parishioners contribute both
food items and monetary gifts in support of this outreach ministry. Barbara
Sherlock is the coordinator for volunteer scheduling.
The school is one of the most
significant outreach ministries of Grace Church. Volunteer in the
library—assisting and reading with the children—or share a special skill or talent. The
opportunities abound. The students help with Grace Church's outreach efforts
with the Easter Basket project and the Brown Bag Lunch program. Send your children to Grace Episcopal School
(preschool through 5th grade) with its wonderful academic, nurturing,
Christ-center environment.
Return to Top Meals-on-Wheels
Volunteers deliver a cold lunch and
a hot dinner to those who are currently dependent on the generosity of
others for their meals. Grace Church supports the delivery program on the
first Friday of each month. Sign up for delivery duties on the Outreach
bulletin board in the hall outside the parish office. Stu Perry is the
coordinator.
Youth Outreach Programs
Help develop and implement this new
program for outreach opportunities for the youth of Grace Church. Since age
can be a factor in outreach (for example, they cannot go to the Carpenter's
Shelter), we are looking for ways to get the youth more involved in the
Church and the surrounding community. Khacki Berry is the coordinator.
La Gracia
La Gracia sponsors interaction and
support for Spanish-speaking parishioners and neighbors. Lucy-Lee Reed is
the coordinator.
Return to Top Special Outreach Opportunities
Grace Church also
sponsors many outreach efforts during the year requiring volunteer time
and/or donations. These include:
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The Walk
to Fight Breast Cancer, each year in October, benefiting the Alexandria Breast Cancer Fund at INOVA Hospital.
June Huber is the 2008 coordinator.
Pictures from The Walk on October 20,
2007.
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Thanksgiving
Food Baskets.
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Holiday Sharing
Program (Christmas gift boxes).
Beyond the Local Area
Grace is sending out two mission teams
again in 2008.
EYC mission trip to New Orleans
July 8-14. The mission team consists of the youth and their sponsors and a
group of adult missioners.
An adult mission trip to Our
Little Roses in Honduras July 19-26.
If you are interested in proposing a
mission trip for 2009, please use this
proposal template and
submit your proposal to the Mission Trip Subcommittee.
The deadline for
submissions is October 1 each year.
You can
view our 2006 and 2007 Mission
Trip photos:
EYC
mission trip to New Orleans in July 2006
Mission
trip to Our Little Roses
in Honduras in August 2006
July 2007 mission trip to Our
Little Roses.
Read
The Sending a sermon concerning
mission trips, preached by The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley on July 8, 2007, The
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost.
Diocesan Fund for Human Need
The Diocese of Virginia maintains
this fund to help those in need.
Episcopal Relief and Development Fund
Formerly the Presiding Bishop’s fund
for World Relief, the Episcopal Relief and
Development Fund helps people respond to and recover from disasters and
emergencies.
United Thank Offering
Georgiana Greely is the 2008
coordinator. The annual United
Thank Offering ingathering takes place each November on the Sunday
before Thanksgiving.
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