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A Hope and A Future
United Methodist Cooperative Ministries/Suncoast, Inc. |
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Street Ministry Expanding | |
From its origins providing sandwiches and spiritual support to the people on the streets of St. Petersburg to today's nightly meal program located at the St. Vincent de
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Heritage UMC's Street Ministry Team serves up a hearty meal at Pinellas Safe Harbor. |
Paul Food Center, the Doug Brown Street Ministry has been a beacon of hope and promise of a good meal for thousands of hungry men and women.
Now, the ministry will reach even more people with the addition of a second site. Pinellas Safe Harbor, the recently opened shelter on 49th Street in Clearwater, will be the host as teams from churches, civic groups, businesses, and organizations bring in and serve dinner each evening. Recruitment, scheduling, and management of the teams is handled by Cooperative Ministries.
The first team to claim their day on the schedule is from Heritage UMC. Heritage's team has been serving meals at SVdP for many years, so they were the perfect team to get the ball rolling. After two successful nights of service, the team says the experience is great. "It's so easy to prepare the food, bring it in, and serve it up with very little clean up or mess," say team members, "and it doesn't cost a lot per meal because we get donations from restaurants and supermarkets. It feels great to be helping so many in their time of need."
If your church or organization is interested in becoming a serving team at Pinellas Safe Harbor, or at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Center, please contact Karen Edwards at (727) 442-6881 X3 or kedwards@umcm.info.
For more details about the Doug Brown Street Ministry and/or volunteering to serve, click here. |
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Coming Events
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May 20, 6:30 pm Gametime
Threshers Baseball against the Charlotte Rays - Benefit night to support the programs of Cooperative Ministries - See article below or click here for more info. |
| Want to Help? |
Would you like to be a part of one of the programs or projects of Cooperative Ministries? Click on one of the links below to get involved in the way that's best for you!
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| "Staying Healthy" Students Get First-Hand Experience | |
In 2009, Cooperative Ministries received a grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida to provide
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Cris Wolfe, Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb, Dr. Kimberly Dean |
resources for adults learning English to make informed choices about their health and nutrition. Because one of our literacy sites had served as a pilot for the development of the "Staying Healthy" curriculum, our tutors were eager to use the program with all of their students.
This past summer, the ESOL site at Pasadena Community Church was able to take the "Staying Healthy" program to a whole new level thanks to Dr. Kimberly Dean, DO, who heard about the program and offered to hold a free medical clinic for the students. "It is such a great program and I wanted to offer general medical care to people who don't have access to personal medical care," said Dr. Dean.
Pasadena partnered with Cooperative Ministries in 2006 to establish a diverse ESOL program, which this year has about 70 students speaking 17 different languages. "Many of our students come from cultures where they only see a doctor in the hospital for a serious illness or at the end of life," said Cris Wolfe, volunteer site coordinator.
For more of this story, go to our website. To find an ESOL class near you, follow this link. |
| Teacher Learns to Become a Citizen | |
We are celebrating with another of our students who is happy to have attained US Citizenship.
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Luz volunteers with the children. |
When Luz and her husband lived in Colombia, she worked as a manager for the phone company, and he was the mayor of their town. They had a happy and stable life until problems in their country forced them to leave and seek refuge in the United States. About a year after arriving, Luz became a teacher at Head Start, working with preschoolers to prepare them for success in kindergarten.
Now residents of the US for 9 years, Luz and her husband have a daughter who is 11 and a son who is 17. She first came to a Cooperative Ministries English class to improve her reading skills so that she could read nursery rhymes to the Head Start children.
Luz and her family love giving back to the country they now call home. While honing her English language skills and preparing for the citizenship testing process, Luz shared her teaching skills with the preschool children in the Families Learning Together Program.
Do you know what it takes to become a US Citizen? Click here to find out. |
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Volunteer Spotlight |
 The fact that Kurt Skrede grew up living in five different states, plus Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Paraguay gave him a love of travel and a keen understanding of the importance of being able to communicate with those around him. Kurt's 10 faithful years of putting that understanding to use as an adult literacy tutor at the Wesley Memorial UMC site has earned him the Volunteer Spotlight honor this month.
Kurt said he will never forget when he started to tutor for Cooperative Ministries. The first night was just a few days before the tragedy of 9/11 and the second a few days after. "Some things you never forget - where you were and what you were doing." said Kurt. He also won't forget one of his first students, a young Asian mother of two small children who was able to pass her cosmetology test after his help and get a good job. "We are helping people who want to better themselves, and that is a great feeling."
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| A Special Moment of Thanks | |
April 10-16 is National Volunteer Week, a time when we take a moment to recognize the many things that are accomplished by those who give of themselves to enrich others. At Cooperative Ministries, we have over 2000 volunteers working with us. While some work for one day on a special project, others serve for 2-4 hours each week of the year. In total, the value of the time our volunteers gives comes to over $500,000 per year!*
Thank you, volunteers, for blessing our lives as we work side by side each day.
You Are Special
"Special" is a word that is used to
describe something one-of-a-kind.
Like a hug or a beautiful sunset
or a person who spreads love
with a smile or a kind gesture.
"Special" describes people who
act from the heart and keep in mind the hearts of others.
"Special" applies to something that is admired and precious,
and which can never be replaced.
"Special" is the word that best describes YOU.
--Written by Terri Fernandez.
*(Each hour is multiplied by $18.20, the accepted value per hour of volunteer service for Florida.) |
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See You At The Ball Game |  Join us for a Cooperative Ministries Fun Night with the Clearwater Threshers! On May 20th, come out and see the Threshers take on the Charlotte Rays (and get a look at some future Tampa Bay Rays players). Game time is 6:30 pm, and $17 tickets include the game and all you can eat and drink in the Hot Corner Cafe from 5:30-8:30 pm. For more information or to order tickets, click here. |
| Have It Your Way |
Everyone has their favorites, so we know you do, too! Are there certain projects or programs of Cooperative Ministries that you like best? Would you rather have newsletters about those specific programs only, rather than the general E-news like the one you've received today? If so, please click on the "Join our Mailing List" link below. Since you already subscribe to the E-news, you'll be asked if you'd like to update your choices. Click Submit, and you'll receive an email with instructions to pick the news you'd like to receive. Or, if you're not yet on our list, click below to join and choose the news you'd like to start getting. If you're happy receiving news from all of Cooperative Ministries' programs and projects, there's no need to do a thing. Just sit back, relax, and continue to receive our monthly E-news with all of our updates and announcements! |
| Info | United Methodist Cooperative Ministries/Suncoast, Inc.
1625 Union Street
Clearwater, FL 33755-1363
(727) 442-6881
www.umcm.info
contact@umcm.info |
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