Special Pandemic Relief Collection

As a church, we are aware that the pandemic has increased financial stress significantly for many people in our church and the wider community. For the first time in their lives, some people are now dependent on food pantries and/or school meal programs for their children. Others have suffered through illness and are now challenged with medical debt or have lost a job and fear losing their homes. The list sadly goes on and on. The number of people in these situations is anticipated to increase as the year progresses.

Council enthusiastically supports the initiation of a special collection, which will have financial resources available to ease ongoing hardships resulting from the pandemic, since the Board of Mission and Outreach no longer has a contingency fund for disaster relief or unexpected needs due to budgetary constraints.  Many of the congregants in our community at CCOT have generously expressed interest in donating money or their pandemic stimulus checks to those in need. The Board of Mission and Outreach will administer these funds as needs arise during these extraordinary times. The funding will augment our established budget for our current mission partners, and we will support new initiatives relevant to the pandemic, such as medical debt forgiveness programs, utility bill payment assistance, or contribute to maintain the Minister’s Fund. Residual money in this collection will be disbursed to our mission partners that provide food security.

Please consider joining us in this effort by contributing as you are able.  We will update the congregation on the disbursements of these contributions. Please be sure to note “pandemic relief” on your donation. Thank you for your support!

Pam Warren and Kathy Hartmann, co-chairs

The Board of Mission & Outreach