Dear Covenant Family:
I wanted to give you an update on our hurricane relief effort that we have now finished. There were a number of groups we helped so I will deal with each group separately. Note that $2,200 was raised and donated, in addition to much clothing that was also donated.
We had a request from the Cedar Key school for some clothing and shoe needs for 12 children at that school. Form the funds Covenant had donated, we gave $600 ($50 per student) to those families using Walmart gift cards so the families could purchase needed clothing for those children. In addition to these funds, a church member bought a pair of shoes of the needed sizes for each of the 12 students and donated them to the families. In addition, a church member purchased a $25 gas card for each family so they could travel to a Walmart to use their gift cards.
Because of these clothing needs, we asked the Covenant family to consider donating additional clothing to people who were wiped out in these recent hurricanes. We thank our Covenant family for their tremendous response to this request. We had much new and slightly used clothing donated for this effort, and it was all donated to the Baptist Church in Cedar Key who said all the clothing was greatly appreciated and needed.
Finally, we donated the remainder of our funds received, $1,600, to the Baptist Church in Horseshoe Beach. Their church sustained major damage from 2 of the 3 hurricanes that came through their area, and were in dire need of funds to help rebuild the inside of their church. In addition, this church is also managing a distribution center for food and household items needed for families with needs in this time. We told them to use the funds as they felt the priorities in front of them.
Pastor Don and Diane delivered the clothing and contributions to both churches, and they said both groups were overwhelmed by our donations to them, and they were extremely grateful!
We had originally also planned to help out the Steinhatchee area with their hurricane needs. Kyle Wilson was our local contact there but he got a job elsewhere in the state helping with hurricane relief, so he has not been in Steinhatchee for the past month. This is our reason why we ended up assisting Horseshoe Beach instead. Also, we were told that additional clothing is not needed, due to our large gift, so our hurricane relief is now completed.
I want to thank each of you for your generous contributions to our Hurricane Relief effort both this year and in the previous years. Covenant is truly “The little church with the big heart”!
Ron