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JOIN HANDS DAY is an exciting nationwide opportunity to bring youth and adults together to improve their communities and build meaningful relationships across generations. When thousands of volunteers join hands across the nation on one day, it makes a powerful statement to others about the impact of Thrivent Financial and its members. We encourage all of our 18 Morris County Lutheran congregations to be involved in a volunteer activity on any day between April 1 - June 30 to improve their communities. Here is how to get started: 1. Identify a need and form a service team from at least six Thrivent families. 2. Discuss and choose an activity. If possible, have the activity on or near May 2nd. 3. Contact Peggy Burke at pburke8248@aol.com (973-998-0725) to request approval of your activity and to inquire about available funds. The chapter has $500 of "seed money" that can be used to purchase supplies for your activity and/or to purchase refreshments or promotional materials. 4. Plan the activity and generate awareness. Geneate as much publicity as possible and involve the greatest number of people possible! 5. After your activity, fill out the Join Hands Day Report Activity Results form online (or call Peggy) and return it to the local Thrivent Board at 5 Nottingham Court, Morristown, NJ 07960.
Congregational Coordinators and Pastors were recently mailed a letter noting funds available for 2009 for Care Abounds in Communities. The allocation to the Morris County Chapter has been reduced from $22,000 to $18,000, so it is important to identify projects early and get in your requests. Congregational funds (through the national office of Thrivent) have also been reduced. If you received $1,600 last year, you will receive $1,250; if you received $13,000 last year, you will now receive $1,020.
Thirty four projects have been approved thus far in 2009. Examples include gifts to food pantries and soup kiitchens, housing of the homeless, food gift cards, emergency rent money, CROP, and hurricane relief. So far, approximately $10,000 of the $18,000 available has been committed. Requests are considered at the monthly meetings of the Chapter Board. Projects must be pre-approved and Thrivent must be mentioned as part of your announcements. A one-third match is provided, with a cap on the amount available for various activities. This supplemental funding can make a big difference in finding money to support your projects. Contact Peggy Burke (pburke8248@aol.com) to inquire about funding a project in your congregation.
Funds for needs of congregations are available from Thrivent. Supplemental funds can be received for hands-on projects, fund-raisers, etc. Requests can be made on-line by Congregational Coordinators at www.thrivent.com. These grants provide help to supplement budgetary items, improvement projects, repairs, etc. All projects must be pre-approved and follow-up reports submitted. Your Thrivent Morris County Chapter Board can help answer questions.
Our Board currently has several vacancies and we are in desperate need of volunteers to help us out! Board members have term limits and several of us will have to resign within the next year or two. We need people to fill current vacancies and to replace us. We welcome anyone who wants to come to a Thrivent meeting to observe how things work and possibly consider joining us!
The Morris County Thrivent Board meets monthly to make decisions regarding the distribution of funds, etc. We invite anyone who is interested in observing these actions or who may be considering joining the board to join us. Also, if you are planning to send us a project for approval, please do so a week or more before the meeting date.
If you have questioins about any aspects of how the board operates, how to submit a project, how to join the board, or anything else that we can answer, please contact one of the following board members!
JOIN HANDS DAY
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