For information on these or more volunteer opportunities contact us at kobb@kirkofbonniebrae.org
Most of our volunteer opportunities are child friendly so we can teach our children through example and engagement that a life of faith is a life of service.
Hope & Home Toy Drive
Hope & Home is having their annual Christmas Toy Drive! They are accepting donations of NEW toys and gifts to their Denver Office, right here at the Kirk. You can either donate new toys to the toy bin in the Narthex, or have new toys shipped directly to the Kirk, addressed to Hope & Home. All gifts will go directly to Hope & Home, a local foster care agency. Once your toy is donated, it is placed into an amazing Christmas Shop for parents to come and pick out gifts for the kids in their care! You can view Hope & Home's Amazon Wish List HERE.
Afghan Refugee Support Group
Last week a group of 6 metro area UCC churches, led by 6th Ave UCC, met via Zoom to discuss the possibility of hosting an Afghan refugee family. Since it was so early in the process there were more questions than answers, but the group on Zoom offered many talents and experiences.
We will be working with an organization that helps to find housing and job assistance. Each church will be providing around $300 to help with the first month of rent and further assistance. Our goal as a group will be to set up a house from a specific list of items depending on the size of the family. Most importantly, we will be spending a minimum of 2 hours a week with the family in-person to assist with assimilation into American culture. Remember there are 6 churches to support this effort.
Please contact Susan Howard (sahoward77@gmail.com) or Vicki Wright (vswright48@hotmail.com) or Selena for more information or to lend your support as this evolves.
Holiday Alternative Giving Opportunities
The holidays are quickly approaching! This year, the Green Justice Team is providing an opportunity for you to impact climate change, improve the lives of impoverished families and give a meaningful gift to a loved one. All of this is possible through a partnership between the Kirk and Stove Team International.
STI was founded as a humanitarian mission to provide improved cookstoves for people who would ordinarily be cooking over open fires and who, consequently, are exposed to serious health risks from burns and smoke inhalation. An innovative ecological stove, called Ecocina, was invented by STI’s founder, Nancy Hughes, along with a team of engineers and local women in El Salvador in 2007. It uses a “rocket elbow” design in the combustion chamber to produce an efficient flame while emitting only 14% as much smoke as an open fire and eliminating the risk of burns.
Because the Ecocina uses only half as much wood as an open fire, each stove prevents up to 15 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This is equivalent to the average U.S. citizen’s carbon footprint for an entire year. Further, it means less deforestation which is good for the planet. It also means that people whose only source of fuel is wood spend fewer hours in the back-breaking labor of gathering it.
Our El Salvador Mission Team visited the in-country manufacturing site during their trip this summer. They experienced the Ecocina in action, having the delightful experience of cooking and eating Salvadoran “papusas” while learning about the stoves.
On November 21, the Green Justice Team will kick off our Holiday Alternative Giving Opportunity for 2021. We urge you to consider contributing to the purchase of an Ecocina for a Salvadoran family as a gift in honor of a friend or loved one. The price of each stove is $100, and our goal is to purchase 12. If we meet our goal, we will prevent 180 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere and improve the lives of 12 families. A beautiful gift that gives in three ways! When you make your contribution through the Kirk, and you will receive a gift card to let your honoree know what good is being done for the world on their behalf. Merry Christmas!
