Local Church Helps Kids to Be Great
SeaCoast Grace Church and the Boys and Girls Club of Cypress teamed up this past holiday season to mobilize forty volunteers and raise over $25,000 to help kids in our community be great and dream big.
The push began this past Christmas when SeaCoast Grace Mission Pastor Dan Wendell looked for a local opportunity for the church to give back to the community. He found that opportunity right around the corner, at the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress.To start, the church's small group ministry adopted 35 Club families – providing trees, ornaments and gift cards to help the families have a wonderful holiday season.Then SeaCoast Grace , known as SCG, and the club decided to expand a mentoring program and support it financially.SCG members responded by donating more than $25,000 and stepping forward to volunteer.
Wendell said, “This is what the Church should be about.If we’re not contributing in real ways in our community, then why are we here?The Club is doing a great job of meeting the needs of families and kids in the Cypress area, and we’re honored to help.”
The Club serves more than 800 children during the year, many from families that are struggling during this down economy. With parents forced to work longer hours or take a second job, positive role models from outside the family become even more important.That’s where the club’s mentoring program steps in.Mentors help with homework, tutor struggling students, strengthen the library program, host cooking classes and even teach line dancing to the Club members. It is obvious in the smiling faces of the Boys & Girls Club members and the SCG volunteers that everyone is having a good time.
“We are so grateful for the support of Sea Coast Grace Church. Their involvement is helping us to provide more individualized support and attention to the kids who need us most,” said Anne Hertz, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress.
The program continues to grow. The Boys & Girls Club offers a monthly volunteer orientation for incoming mentors from SCG and other community organizations. The Club works closely with the mentors to place them in roles that are enjoyable and rewarding for the volunteer and for the Club’s children. All adult volunteers are fingerprinted and screened before being placed in a mentor role and they receive on-going supervision and training.
For more information about the mentoring project please contact Anne Hertz at the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress 714-527-2697 or Dan Wendell at SeaCoast Grace Church 714-761-5100.