Community Service (2009)
At Covenant United Methodist Preschool, the month of November was devoted to helping the less fortunate in our Montgomery Village/Gaithersburg community. The preschool children were involved in two community service projects. Thanksgiving placemats were drawn and given to the residents at the Montgomery Village Health Care Center. In addition, the children shopped for new hats and mittens/gloves with their parents. The outerwear was given to a Montgomery Village elementary school for distribution to children who have no hats and gloves.Toys for Tots (2007)
In December 2007, the children of Covenant United Methodist Preschool collected eight wardrobe size boxes of new toys for needy children in our area. The Marine Corps picked the boxes up prior to the holiday season for distribution.Manna "Smart Sacks" (2007)
Manna [mannafood.org] is a food distribution center located in Rockville, Maryland. This organization distributes food to less fortunate families in the metropolitan area. One of the programs they sponsor is called "Smart Sacks". Every Friday, kids in the program take home a backpack containing a weekend's worth of nutritious snacks, then return the backpack to school on Monday to be refilled for the next weekend.
Covenant's preschool children are proud to annouce that they collected eleven boxes of healthy snacks in November 2007, such as individual containers of noodles, applesauce, pudding, nuts, soup, mac and cheese, granola bars, cereal, etc. for children in the area to enjoy.
Montgomery County Foster Child Project (2007)
In March 2007, the children of the preschool and kindergarten collected items for babies coming into foster care in Montgomery County. Among the items collected were diapers, onesies, flannel blankets, baby socks, bottles, nipples, baby wipes, and soft knit hats. The generous contributions of the families yielded six boxes of needed essentials for the little ones! Thank you!
Montgomery County Child Welfare Services sent us this wonderful thank-you note!Visit to Friends Nursing Home (2006 to Present)
The Pre-K class of Covenant United Methodist Preschool draw turkey placemats for the residents of Friends Nursing Home [friendshouse.com] in Sandy Spring, Maryland. The residents use these placemats for their Thanksgiving meal. The children sing songs and visit with the senior citizens as part of their Fall mission project.
Visit to Sunrise Senior Living (2006 to Present)
Each Spring the four-year-old classes visit Sunrise Senior Living [sunriseseniorliving.com] located in Montgomery Village, Maryland.
In addition to talking with the residents at Sunrise, the children sing songs and participate in a craft project with them. What a wonderful time the children and adults share together!
The New Children's Home Orphanage (2006)
In February 2006, the children of Covenant United Methodist Preschool and Kindergarten participated in a community service project to benefit the children living at the New Children's Home Orphanage that is located in Kathmandu, Nepal. The preschool and kindergarten children contributed books for the children's use and enjoyment. In total seven large cartons of books were shipped to Nepal. In addition to realizing the value of helping others, the children saw how the children in the orphanage spent their day, and learned where Nepal was located and some of the local history.
Update: October 2006
The Umbrella Foundation sent in a wonderful photo and words of thanks for the books donated by Covenant. Here's what they said:
Our first Library
You may not know this, but our children love to read. Imagine their joy when Dave Stum, from USA, arrived with something like 1000 books generously donated by the Covenant United Methodist Kindergarden. We had book shelves made for each of our 5 houses and we distributed the books among the homes. Every month Macha Raja will select books from each house to move on to the next house. In this way, we hope that every child will have the opportunity to see every one of the books in the next year.
Huge, huge, thanks to Dave Stum, Shelia Mullet and the Covenant United Methodist
Kindergarden from the U.S.A for making this possible. Many of our children are all too aware that their only chance to escape the drudgery of poverty is through making the most of their educational opportunities. Having our own small library serves to reinforce this point, and shows just how much we, here at the UMBRELLA, value education.
Gaithersburg HELP Contribution
In January 2006, the Covenant United Methodist Kindergarten and Preschool held a food drive to benefit Gaithersburg HELP [gaithersburghelp.org], an all-volunteer group founded by local churches and synagogues that provides food, medicine, transportation and other vital services to those in need.
Boxes of Care (2005)
Our 2005 community service project, Boxes of Care, was a huge success! Covenant's Preschool and Kindergarten families worked with Operation Second Chance [operationsecondchance.org] and filled 90 gift boxes with comfort and convenience items such as books, hand lotion, disposable cameras, journals, pens, crossword puzzles, candies, coffees and teas. The children decorated the boxes with red, white and blue ribbons before the boxes were delivered to family members of U.S. military personnel recuperating in area hospitals. Many of these military families spent long, tiring hours in hospital waiting rooms as their loved ones recovered; we hoped these small "care packages" would provide some comfort for them. We were proud to have our project's success featured in Community Spotlight in the June 3, 2005, issue of the Montgomery Village News. [mvf.org]Printer Friendly Format