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Local Hands-On Opportunities

 

 

Bloomfield Backpack Project - In September 2009, Eunice Medwinter, an active member of the Bloomfield UCC Church, started the Bloomfield Backpack Project to make sure the children of Bloomfield had enough to eat over the weekends. It is coordinated by First Church, UCC, in Bloomfield. First Church helps financially and sends teams of volunteers to pack the backpacks with food on the second Thursday of each month. If you would like to volunteer, sign up here or contact Nikki Beagle at beagles113@verizon.net.

Carol's Closet - Along with other churches and the synagogue in town, we help with the paper pantry started by members at St. James Church. We have a collection box in the back lobby and we periodically help package items for distribution. The nonperishable items are given out monthly to Glastonbury residents.

Connecticut Foodshare
Mobile Connecticut Foodshare Truck
 - Mobile Foodshare is a "Farmers Market" style food distribution service, which provides fresh produce and other food to individuals and families in need. A mobile food truck comes to First Church of Christ, Glastonbury every other Wednesday and our volunteers help in the food distribution. Click here to sign up.
Connecticut Foodshare Warehouse - On alternating Wednesdays, when the mobile food truck is not here at church, we have a team of volunteers who carpool to the Foodshare Regional Market for an 8:30-11:30 a.m. shift to help sort and package the produce that is distributed by the truck at various sites across the state. Please contact Jim Hartung at ctsdncmnfolk@gmail.com or 860-430-2123 to join the team.
Turkey and a Thirty Drive - For many years, the Board of Christian Service has collected “A Turkey and a Thirty” from church members on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The turkeys and money are donated to Connecticut Foodshare.
For more information on Connecticut Foodshare go to their website: http://site.foodshare.org/

Covenant to Care for Children - For many years, we have “adopted” two social workers and responded to the needs of the children and families that they work with. We also periodically hold diaper drives to support the families of Covenant to Care.

Family Mission Immersion Days - We believe in giving people of all ages, including children, the opportunity to serve in the community. Four times a year we offer Mission Immersion Days, where families go into the community and work with various agencies to serve an underprivileged population. We also serve our own members with cards and treats to brighten their day. See our home page to sign up for the next Mission Immersion Day.

Family Promise of Central Connecticut - In April 2018, First Church became a host church for Family Promise of Central Connecticut. Family Promise fights homelessness one family at a time, by partnering with local congregations to help families with children remain intact and become self-sufficient. We support Family Promise in their homelessness prevention program by helping a mom and her young daughter by donating specifically-requested items and grocery and gas gift cards. If you want to donate a gift card, please contact our Family Promise Volunteer Coordinators, Amy Woodruff at 860-333-4400 or ahwoodruff913@gmail.com or Kate Ersevim at kersevim@travelers.comFor more information, visit: www.fpcct.org.

Food Collection - First Church has a long tradition of collecting food items for our neighbors in need. Our donations go to Horace Bushnell Children’s Food Pantry in Hartford, Glastonbury Links Together Backpack Project and Manchester Area Conference of Churches (MACC). Please drop off your donations in the back lobby or in the Narthex. If you need a food donation picked up, please contact Karin Carlino at michaelkarin.carlino@cox.net or 860-841-8363.

Fred Wish Elementary School - For more than a decade, volunteers from First Church have visited this Hartford school weekly to help the kindergarten children with basic reading skills.

Giving Trees/Giving Train - Each Christmas season, First Church sets up giving trees that benefit several organizations. Members of the congregation choose tags and purchase Christmas gifts for children selected by Family Life Education, Covenant to Care, Glastonbury Social Services and  Manchester Area Conference of Churches.

Good Samaritan Group - First Church has a group of skilled “Good Samaritans” willing to help other members who are having trouble finding the right help or resources to perform various “odd” jobs around the house at no cost. Contact the Church Office to see if your household task or project is something the group is willing and able to take on.

Hands on Hartford - We provide lunch and servers at the soup kitchen on several Mondays during the year. For more information visit http://www.handsonhartford.org. See our home page to sign up to help for our next HOH meal.

Hunger Walk - We publicize and recruit people to walk and/or sponsor walkers in the Hunger Walk in May sponsored by Connecticut Foodshare.

Manchester Area Conference of Churches (MACC) - In 2010, the Board of Christian Service voted to become a member church of MACC. A few times a year we help at their community food pantry, thrift store and soup kitchen.

Micah Children's InitiativeThe Micah Children’s Initiative is our school-church partnership with the Robert J. O’Brien STEM Academy in East Hartford. Through the generosity of our congregation, we provide material support and staff and volunteer time to the children and staff of O'Brien School. This speaks directly to our beliefs about the inherent dignity, worth and value of every child, and their right to a good education in a region where the local tax base plays an outsized role in the educational support that children receive. Our MCI team has laid the foundation for improving the education and the lives of the O’Brien children by providing COVID-19 safety supplies, opening a clothing closet with school uniforms and winter apparel, reading remotely to students for the United Way’s Read for the Record program, donating children's books and other classroom materials, conducting teacher appreciation events and cleaning the school courtyard. We have committed to the East Hartford Public Schools that our partnership will be collaborative, supportive, multi-faceted, needs-based, participatory, well-funded, sustainable and strategic, and we envision in the coming decades a continuing blossoming of this relationship. Please contact Nancy Tandon at nancymtandon@gmail.com or Judy Rozie-Battle at jrbattle@aol.com for more information.

Mission Trip (Adult and Alumni) - For more than 15 years, following the devastating damage of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf coast, First Church has sent upwards of 50 adult and college age people (ages 17-75), to participate in the disaster recovery work of Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi. Back Bay Mission was established in 1922 to help the poorest of the poor in that fishing community. To this day, Back Bay, a mission of the United Church of Christ, continues to serve the Biloxi area, and each year since 2005 First Church has been privileged to lend its skillful and faithful hands to housing repairs, new construction, and assisting with emergency relief work. For more information on Back Bay Mission, visit: http://www.thebackbaymission.org/.  

Mission Trip (Youth) - Our Youth Mission Trip is a highlight of our Senior High Fellowship Program. Each year we journey across the country to get involved in God’s work on a social justice topic. Whether we’re serving meals to the homeless in Washington DC, rebuilding the storm ravaged Gulf Coast, or providing classroom help in Los Angeles, each trip is memorable and spirit-filled. Dozens of students from our church and the local community explore a new part of the country and share in a week of sacred community together.

Rummage Sale - We hold a rummage sale each year. All proceeds go to the Board of Christian Service for distribution.

SERRV - For more than twenty years, SERRV products have been sold during the Advent season at Common Fellowship. SERRV is a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating poverty wherever it resides. When people purchase SERRV products, they make a direct impact on our global market's great injustices and the inequality in income and quality of life for people living in developing countries.