Micah Children's Initiative
Updated: 1 day ago
Fall 2026 Update
What is the Micah Children’s Initiative (MCI)?
For the past five years, MCI has partnered with the East Hartford Public School System and the Robert J. O’Brien School, providing support in many areas. MCI volunteers work inside and outside of the O’Brien classrooms, forging connections with students and their families. Together, they identify needs—as well as hopes and dreams—to enrich the learning environment for students, families and staff.
Mark your calendar for October 18! O’Brien School Principal Diane Leja will offer a brief Moment of Sharing during our 10:00 a.m. service, followed by a more in-depth Micah Moment at 11:30 a.m. Diane will help bring to life the impact our MCI volunteers have on O’Brien School and the broader community. Hear how our involvement helps make a difference in the lives of children, families and teachers in the community.
What’s MCI Up to this Fall?
Our MCI team leaders attended the O’Brien School open house for new students on August 24. They welcomed students and their families with cookies and fruit before the students headed to their classrooms to meet their teachers. It was a wonderful way to begin preparations for the new school year! During the first few days of school in late August, MCI volunteers were at the school helping O’Brien teachers and staff welcome students, particularly kindergarteners and those attending the school for the first time, off the school buses and into the classrooms. MCI volunteer Jim Hartung continues to work closely with O’Brien staff to ensure that the school’s uniform closet is stocked to meet the potential needs of the students. Uniforms can be a costly expense for parents, and the O’Brien PTO has launched a uniform recycle program to supplement these efforts. Jim also makes sure that the O’Brien food closet is well-stocked so the needs of those families affected by food insecurity are met each weekend.
There Are Many Ways to Get Involved!
Ask any of our MCI volunteers about their experience—you’ll quickly hear how rewarding it is to be part of this ministry. Please consider the following opportunities:
We currently have 18 volunteers, and if you want to get involved, let us know!
November 14 – Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day: Volunteers are needed to help support this special event. Learn more about the significance of the day at https://rubybridges.foundation/walk-to-school-day/.
November 21 – Turkey Bingo: Come join the fun and excitement by helping support this school community event!
To learn more about volunteering with MCI, contact Jennifer Anglim at anglimjennifer@yahoo.com. For general MCI questions, contact Gail Gagnon at gailgagnonct@comcast.net or Merryl Rees at merryl@glastonburyfirst.org.
About the Micah Children's Initiative
We believe in the inherent dignity, worth and value of every child and their right to a good education. It troubles us to live in a region where the local tax base plays an outsized role in the educational support that children receive. Through the generosity of our congregation, we provide volunteers and material support as we partner with the children and staff of O'Brien School.
Over the last several years we have opened a clothing closet with school uniforms and winter apparel, read remotely to students for the United Way’s Read for the Record program, conducted teacher appreciation events and cleaned the school courtyard. We have also donated children's books and other classroom materials, purchased water bottles for each student, provided COVID-19 safety supplies and added a new welcome banner to the school entrance.
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.
Capital Campaign 2022
In his address to the Second Annual Meeting of the Southern New England Conference
(SNEC), our Executive Conference Minister, Rev. Darrell Goodwin, challenged us to be
the Church that wants to be noticed! Our founders chose to locate our Meetinghouse
in the center of Glastonbury and decided to rebuild it after fire and hurricane with
the tall steeple so that townspeople would notice. We decided to renovate the Hale
House property into the Micah House and Chapel – a sacred space for spiritual
renewal, conversation and learning, engagement, discipleship and worship – so our community would notice. We chose to enter into covenant with many other UCC
congregations to be in community with all children of God as an open, welcoming
and affirming congregation. And, we chose to implement the recommended mission
endeavor of a school-church partnership with the East Hartford Public Schools
(EHPS) and their O’Brien School.
What do all these choices have in common? When we choose to be noticed,
what do we start with? The answer is a lot of trust – in our leadership, in ourselves and in God – yet still, a leap of faith. What will we look like at the end, how will we be changed, can we really do this? These are all questions that might be asked at the beginning of any major new initiative. But we confidently asked the EHPS to leap with us in a collaborative, multi-faceted, needs-based, participatory, well-funded, sustainable and
strategic partnership. We chose O’Brien over other options for the opportunity to change the lives of children, to make a difference in our community and world – to be noticed.
During the pandemic, we began to lay the foundation for this transformative partnership.
Our work so far is only the tip of the iceberg in what we envision for our long-term
partnership. Initiatives funded are guided by the needs of the O’Brien students and community.
Even through the difficulties of a pandemic, our MCI team laid the foundation for
improving the education and the lives of the O’Brien children: providing water bottles
to each child, collecting gently used books for our kindergarten cohort, hanging a new
welcome banner at the school entrance, conducting a teacher appreciation event with
yummy cupcakes, opening a clothing closet with Hartford Foundation grant funds we
were awarded, sprucing up the school courtyard and reading remotely for the United
Way’s Read for the Record program. There is so much more to do, so much more we can
do, and we are only limited by the time and talents of First Church volunteers.
