Trinity United Methodist Church of New Kingstown delivered the fruits of their labor to Caitlin’s Smiles this past week.
Their smiles journey began a few months ago when Jane Ober, a Sunday School Superintendent at the church reached out to Caitlin’s Smiles to see how their church could help with Bags of Smiles outreach. After discussion with Caitlin’s Smiles staff, Jane was ready to share information about the project with her church. They decided to assemble bags for 15 Preteen/Teen Boys and 15 Preteen/Teen Girls. They set up a donation bin in their church lobby for church members to contribute the supplies to fill Bags of Smiles. They also asked a neighboring church – St. Stephen Evangelical Lutheran Church – if they would like to join in the project by collecting Play-Doh for the bags, and they did. Trinity’s United Methodist Women added helped by decorating the 30 bags that would hold the donated arts & crafts activities. Sunday school students were called upon to create cards and the Women’s group purchased any items still needed for the Bags of Smiles. Organizers then set up craft kit making stations. Once the kits were completed the volunteers switched gears to assemble Bags of Smiles.
Organizer Jane Ober said of the experience, “It was truly a team effort with St. Stephen’s providing us with 128 cans of Play Doh. We used 60 cans in our bags and donated all of the rest of the Play Doh to Caitlin’s Smiles. We also donated extra of most items as we received more than our 30 bags required. It was a pleasure to work together to serve sick children by providing them Caitlin’s Smiles bags. Thank you for this opportunity to serve!”
Caitlin’s Smiles Director, Cheryl Hornung, accepting assembled Bags of Smiles from Trinity UMC Church representative, Jane Ober.
