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Youth take the lead in Conference Reach Out! program
Stephanie Ellis (right) and her mentor, Laura Buck, members of Grace Congregational UCC in Framingham, with some of the baskets Stephanie put together to deliver to children at Massachusetts General Hospital. April, 2002
It wasn’t difficult for Stephanie Ellis, a participant in the Massachusetts’s Conference’s Reach Out! youth leadership development program, to decide on her service project.
“I have a lot of health issues and I’ve been in and out of the hospital most of my life. I know how hard it is,” said Ellis, a member of Grace Congregational UCC in Framingham. “That is why I chose to make gift baskets for children in the hospital.”
Fifteen senior high youth and their mentors are taking part in the Reach Out! program.
“The goal of Reach Out! is to help youth discover their undeveloped leadership skills, and at the same time learn how to live out their faith by helping others,” said Carl McDonald, Associate for Youth and Young Adult Ministries. “And bringing together youth from seven different churches gives them a chance to experience the larger United Church of Christ.”
The program’s participants are all working on service projects, which they are scheduled to complete by early May. They will create displays explaining their projects for the Conference Annual Meeting in June. Through the course of the program, the youth will have gathered together four times for fellowship, leader training and worship.
Their service projects are varied. One girl is working to educate young children about the dangers of smoking. Some youth are working with shut-ins, while others are working with preschoolers. Several youth are raising money to go on Conference mission trips.
> Go to complete information on the 203rd Annual Meeting In addition to raising funds for her trip to Honduras, Amy Pratt of the North Congregational Church in Middleboro is collecting donations of art supplies to distribute there. She has written a letter to local businesses requesting donations, and will also collect contributions at church.
“I thought it would be a way to help the community there and to brighten lives,” Pratt said.
Stephanie Granger is one of three girls from Mittineague Congregational Church in West Springfield who is holding a baby shower for five needy women in the community.
Granger said there is a lot of discrimination in her community against Russian immigrants, some of whom will be recipients at the shower.
“We want people to know that we don’t discriminate like that,” she said.
Ellis collected enough donations of items and money to create 22 gift baskets containing crafts, puzzle books, angel pin bookmarks and several items, such as silly putty, which help patients to recover their motor skills.
With some leftover funds, she plans to buy movies and other items for the children’s room at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she will be bringing the baskets with her mentor, Laura Buck.
“I’m really looking forward to delivering them,” she said.