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Our annual meeting will be held November 16th in the Veranda Room of Safari Texas located at 11627 FM 1464, Richmond, Texas. Chapter members should arrive at 4:30 pm to enjoy fellowship and entertainment by the Brazos River Pickers. The "Pickers" are a three piece combo playing bluegrass and country music. Dinner will be served at 5:00 pm buffet style. On the buffet you will find a fresh garden tossed salad, carved roast beef, champaigne chicken, herb roasted potatoes, fresh vegetable medley, dinner rolls and butter plus tea, ice water and coffee. Safari Texas needs a firm guest count two weeks prior to the dinner. Please respond to this invitation through any one of the chapter officers by Saturday November 1st. Reservations will be finalized at that time. Following dinner we will enjoy another session of music from the "Pickers". Volunteers will then be recognized for their work this year and door prizes will be awarded. Please sign up as soon as possible for this enjoyable chapter event.
Chapter leadership elections will be held during the annual dinner meeting at Safari Texas on November 16th. All adult benefit and associate members are eligible to vote. The following lists of volunteers are willing to serve on the 2009 Fort Bend-Wharton Chapter leadership team. We meet monthly for dinner meetings at the Lodge on Lake Lohr in Beasley. We have several open non elected positions available in addition to those listed. If you would like to observe a meeting to get an appreciation of how we operate please arrange this with a chapter leader. Some of our leaders terms are limited, so we will be needing new officers in the future.
As I write this we are five weeks into the build schedule for the Habitat home our chapter is sponsoring on Habitat Lane in Rosenberg. The response from chapter churches and the community has exceeded our expectations. Our chapter committed to supply volunteers, provide hospitality for the work crews and raise $7565. We exceeded requirements for volunteers for each of the first five Saturdays. Peace Lutheran fed 78 volunteers on the first day, 46 of whom were from area churches. On the second day, after a day off due to Hurricane Ike, Living Word Katy provided volunteers and hosted 69 workers. Trinity Lutheran and Faith Sugar Land provided food for the third day feeding a crew of over 80 people. Fishers of Men Lutheran hosted the fourth day providing food for 53 volunteers. The fifth work day we had 48 workers who were hosted by St. Paul Lutheran. October 18 was hosted by St. Martin Lutheran and the 25th hosted by New Covenant Church. We will have at least two more build days to make up for storm related delays. Site hosts are needed on the 4th and 11th of November. Each Saturday through the end of the build, we will need about 30 volunteers. Volunteers can come from any of our chapter churches. Each day we have a variety of non-Lutherans show up who just like to build Habitat homes. Fund raising efforts have exceeded our 2008 commitment for funds. We will be able to bank about $4000 for our fall 2009 build that was recently approved. Our fund raising leaders have been Peace Lutheran, St. Paul Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran, New Covenant and Fishers of Men. Our thanks go to these churches for extraordinary efforts to make this build successful.
In 2008, our chapter was allocated $23,855 for fund-raising projects and hands on work. We have spent $18,300 to date and have allocated an additional $2500 in mostly hands on projects. We can concentrate on "hands on" projects for the remainder of the year since we have exceeded our goal of three dollars raised for every one dollar in supplemental funds. At the beginning of October we had accumulated $143,000 in funds raised beyond the allocated funds added. There were over 4000 volunteers hours accumulated as we worked on these projects. There is $2500 left to allocate before the year end so if you have a hands on project or a fundraiser let us know what you need as soon as possible. Projects we are currently supporting are Hurricane Ike relief kits, service member kits, quilter support and Shade Tree ministry food needs.
Each congregation is allocated $1300 of more, depending on the size of the church, to do congregation related fund raising efforts. The total chapter allocation is $28,800 in program funds for all congregations. To date, $22,528 has been raised in program funds. Thirteen of our congregations have spent all or some of their allocation while eight have not sponsored a Care in Congregations activity. We have only a short time window before the end of the years to get these projects completed. There are a lot of good works out there that need doing.
Thrivent has allocated an additional $250,000 in disaster relief funds for relief of the victims of Hurricane Ike. Contributions to this effort will be matched 50 cents to the dollar until December 15th. The process for this program is simple and can be done directly using guidelines found on the Thrivent website. Members of our chapter have gone to Galveston for hands on work to restore churches and homes. Substantial funds have been donated by Faith Sugar Land to LINK Houston for distribution of food and water to the 30 churches LINK oversees. LINC has points of distribution at its headquarters near I-45 and West road and at Ciudad De Gracia in the east side of downtown where they distribute MRE's, water and other food items each Wednesday and Friday afternoon. Trinity Lutheran had a BBQ chicken drive through last Sunday to raise funds for Ike victims through Care in Regions. There is a lot to be done to help hurricane victim over the next two months. Let's not forget them as the news of the devastation slips from the front pages of the newspaper.
We have an on going "hands on" project that will be completed soon (October or November) that involves the landscaping of the family waiting area at the Krause Youth center in Katy. As soon as a volunteer date is set we will let you know when and how you can help. There are plans for dedication following completion so that we can remember and celebrate the contributions that Ben made to our community and the lives of those who knew him.
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