New York (Upstate)

Share a smile on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:52:27 -0500

Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT-Caritas

Share a smile this Mother’s Day. Share a smile and the warmth of a blanket. Share the gift of good health…the greatest gift a mother can give her child. Share through the CWS Tools & Blankets program and bring smiles to the faces of mothers around the world!

The smiles may belong to mothers, aunts, or grandmothers in your congregation, when they are honored on Mother’s Day through a gift to this life-changing program of Church World Service.

The smile may belong to the young mother pictured here in the town of Kubum in the Darfur region of Southern Sudan. The height and weight of displaced children is carefully monitored at a nutrition and health center in Kubum, and mothers with at-risk babies are given supplemental food. The program is sponsored by CWS-supported ACT-Caritas, a coalition of Action by Churches Together and Caritas International Confederation, one of the largest humanitarian programs in South and West Darfur. It is estimated that 2.2 million people are uprooted in Darfur and Church World Service is helping to provide food, blankets, medicines, water and sanitation, health and nutrition, school support, and agricultural tools to hundreds of thousands of people in camps for the displaced.

Share a smile this Mother’s Day through the CWS Tools & Blankets program. Many other minute-for-mission stories, children’s sermons, and tips for organizing can be found in the Tools & Blankets Congregational Kit. Posters, bulletin inserts, and collection envelopes are also available. Click here to order materials online or order locally by calling the CWS Upstate New York Office in Syracuse at 315-458-8535 (toll-free 888-297-2767).

Honor Fathers on Father's Day, Sunday, June 15

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:49:11 -0500

Don’t forget that June 15 is Father’s Day, a day when congregations honor fathers by providing “tools” to other fathers through the CWS Tools & Blankets program. Why “tools”? Many churches lift up blankets for Mother’s Day then take the program full circle to show how offering the right tool after a disaster, civil war, or simply in areas of extreme poverty can help families not only rebuild their lives but also their livelihoods.

Blankets and tools are just two of the many ways Church World Service helps people in need through the Tools & Blankets program. They transform the lives of mothers, fathers, and children struggling to build a better life. And we get transformed in the process…our hearts get bigger, our lives are richer, we are more connected to the rest of the world!

I knew I wanted to do something to help someone else

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:00:36 -0500

Marcellus High School Senior Donates 126 School Kits to Church World Service

Photos: Stu Holden

As a graduation requirement, Marcellus High School seniors must do what is called a "Senior Project." This project is a "hands on" project and each senior must spend a minimum of fifteen hours on their chosen task. I knew I wanted to do something to help someone else, something community based. I realize I have been very fortunate in many, many ways and that there are many people much less fortunate than I. I thought the best way to help others was to work with an agency/organization that does this every day. I chose a proven organization called Church World Service. Choosing them was easy, as I started hearing about them at a very young age at our church. I remember many years ago hearing about and participating in "The CROP Walk" and I remember "Blanket Sunday." I remember for "The CROP Walk" being carried by my Mom and Dad when I was too small to walk, being carried part of the way as I got bigger, and then walking all the way on my own. "Blanket Sunday" made me realize how many functions a simple blanket could perform. It could provide: warmth, shade, privacy, wind barrier, carry all, a litter to carry/drag someone injured or ill. These are just some of the ways I remember how a blanket could be used. “Blanket Sunday" at our church was and continues to be a very important day to my family and I.

In my research of Church World Service, I read that one of the many programs they manage is the collection of school kits. I found out that these school kits are sent within the United States to where natural disasters have taken place, such places include to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and overseas to such places as Kenya and Zimbabwe to mention a few. Just like the "simple" blanket, I had always thought of the school kit items as being pretty basic or "simple" and that pretty much everyone had these items. I was surprised to learn how many kids/students don't have these items and in fact, when they do get them, these items may very well turn into cherished possessions. Based on my research of Church World Service and based on the need of school kits by so many students in this country and around the world, I chose the collection of school kits to be my project.

I learned several things in the process of doing my project.

1. It helps to believe in what you are doing.
2. It is good to work with a person, group or agency that also believes in what you are doing.
3. Never any harm in asking for help. I asked for help in terms of advice, places to deliver my message, and for donations of items and money.
4. You really need to be organized and have a plan as to what will be done when.
5. I was reminded again of how good and generous people can be. People were very kind to me and very generous. One person, who does not know me, wrote a check for $100.00. His money was used to buy some of the lesser-donated items.

I am pleased that I chose this project and believe that the items I collected will be put to good use.

Sarah Holden

NYS Quilters Sew 548 School Bags

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:18:38 -0500

QCNYS President, Dolly Monteleone, (front) and representatives of some of the participating guilds are shown with a portion of the 548 school bags collected.

Compeer Quilting Bee quilters proudly show the school bags made for CWS.

In the spring of 2007, Church World Service (CWS) issued a special appeal for children’s School Kits. Inventories of School Kits in the warehouse had been pulled down to critical levels due to the demands of major emergencies over the past two years. School Kits need school bags and school bags need sewers. Sewers were needed. Aha! Sewers are quilters!

A call to Dolly Monteleone, president of the Quilters Consortium of New York State (QCNYS) resulted in CWS staff person, May Arnett, attending the consortium’s June delegate meeting, where member quilt guilds and businesses were challenged to make school bags. The project information was posted on the home page of the QCNYS web site. At the December delegate meeting held at the Schweinfurth Art Museum in Auburn, NY, more than 500 beautiful school bags were collected!

One quilt group, the Compeer Quilting Bee sewed 47 bags. This not for profit agency serves individuals with mental illness and mental health issues in the Rochester, NY area. “The Quilting Bee works on skill-building and teaches quilting as a therapeutic program with emphasis on living and social skills,” says J. Charmaine Bennett, Quilting Program Coordinator. More than 45 women are served in the program throughout the year and they often give back to the community. They responded immediately to the Quilters Consortium school bag project and sewed 47 bags for Church World Service.

The bags were soon filled with school supplies. One group helping to fill the bags was The Western New York Consortium of International Baccalaureate High Schools. They took 250 bags and collected school supplies to complete CWS School Kits as part of an area-wide service project in February.

Church World Service Kits

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:30:44 -0500

Church World Service shipped more than 150,560 Kits from January through September in 2007. In areas of extreme poverty, CWS partners welcome these precious resources, especially School kits and Baby kits, to support their outreach programs. Following disasters, families displaced from their homes and living in temporary shelters are grateful for Hygiene kits and appreciate the cleaning supplies found in the Emergency Clean-up Buckets when the long task of cleaning up begins. Click here for the most recent shipping report.

CWS Kits make a world of difference in the lives of refugees, displaced people, and victims of natural disasters.

Photo: © Annie Griffiths Belt for CWS

New Kit Guide Available
Please call the Upstate New York Regional Office in Syracuse at 1-888-297-2767 for a copy of the new CWS Kit Guide or use the links at the bottom of the page to order online. Note that several changes have been made to some of the Kits this year so read the Kit Guide carefully for the list of items in each Kit.

Pattern for School Bags
Click here for a printer-friendly (PDF file) pattern to sew school bags for School Kits.

2008 Drop-off Sites and Dates Announced
Drop-off locations are set and dates are on the calendar for our annual spring collections of CWS Kits from the Upstate New York Region. Click here for a printer-friendly (PDF file) listing of drop-off sites for 2008.

Parish-Hastings Youth Group Sew School Bags

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:16:33 -0500

When the call went out for School Kits in the fall of 2007, the Parish-Hastings Youth Group not only answered the call, but decided to sew the school bags for the Kits. They completed 28 School Kits and delivered them to Syracuse for special delivery to the warehouse in New Windsor, Maryland in October.

Here, Tim Raner, helped by mom Julie Raner, Alex McAdam, and Kayla Guindon are busy stitching the bags, while Tia Guindon and Kelly Murphy wait their turn at the sewing machines.

100 Kids Kits! Congratulations to Fortsville United Methodist Sunday School

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:10:06 -0500

The Sunday School students of Fortsville United Methodist Church recently completed a year-long mission project. The students put together 100 Heart-to-Heart Kid Kits for Church World Service. The students raised money through bake sales, bottle and can returns, held a pancake supper and a coin drive. The students shopped for the supplies and packed the kits. The kits will go to needy children around the world.

Sheryll Hagy
Fortsville United Methodist Church

Church World Service Mission Trip To New Windsor, Maryland

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:37:59 -0500

May your kingdom come
for those who have for centuries awaited a life with dignity.
May your will be done on earth and in heaven,
and in the church, may it be a church on the side of the poor.

- excerpted from: The Lord's Prayer from a Christian community in Nicaragua

So ended devotions on the morning of Thursday, November 8, 2007 at the Church of the Brethren Conference Center in New Windsor, Maryland, where a group of 42 volunteers from Upstate New York had gathered for worship before heading to the warehouse and distribution center to work on CWS Kits. Group participants from Albany to Buffalo, and Watertown to Binghamton enjoyed the fellowship of working side by side to pack shipping containers with School Kits, assemble over 100 Emergency Cleanup Buckets, and perform “quality control” on Hygiene Kits.

	Volunteers pack School Kits into shipping containers.


	While in the warehouse, volunteers packed over 100 Emergency Cleanup Kits from supplies made available through a cooperative effort of CWS and Church of The Brethren. The previous week, 400 Emergency Cleanup Kits helped homeowners clean up after the California fires.

	The pile of Hygiene Kits never seemed to get any smaller, as volunteers worked to remove the toothpaste! Following new guidelines for Hygiene Kits, toothpaste is no longer enclosed in the Kit but boxes of toothpaste are added to each container at time of shipping.

	Just prior to our group’s visit, a shipment of 2,655 Kits from Central NY had arrived in the warehouse and was ready to be unpacked.
Many volunteer hours were also spent in the SERRV, International processing center . This non-profit agency sells food and handcrafted items from artisans around the world. SERRV relies heavily on volunteer groups to help process the merchandise and prepare it for sale. They were very happy to host our large group of industrious workers during the busy holiday season.



CWS calendars provided photos and vignettes of CWS programs for morning devotions each day.

2008 CROP Hunger Walks

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:13:15 -0500

Committees are being formed and dates set for the 2008 CROP Hunger Walks. Check back for an updated list of communities and dates as plans progress.

CROP Walk	Location	Date
Adams	Adams	May 18
Addison	Addison	October 19
Albany	Albany	May 4
Alden	Alden	October 19
Alexandria Bay	Alexandria Bay	October 5
Altamont	Altamont	Fall
Amherst – Williamsville	TBA	Fall 2008
Amsterdam	Amsterdam	May 4
Argyle	Argyle	May 4
Auburn	Auburn	October 19
Aurora – Union Springs	Aurora	October 19
Avon	Avon	May 10
Baldwinsville	Liverpool	October 19
Batavia	Batavia	October 19
Bath	Bath	October 19
Brasher Falls-N. Lawrence-Winthrop	Brasher Falls	October 19
Brockport	Brockport	May 4
Buffalo/South	South Buffalo	October 26
Buffalo University	Amherst	October 19
Canandaigua	Canandaigua	January 13
Canastota	Canastota	October 26
Cape Vincent	Cape Vincent	October 19
Carthage	Carthage	October 19
Castleton	Castleton	May 4
Cattaraugus	Cattaraugus	September 28
Cazenovia	Cazenovia	October 19
Charlotte Valley	Charlotte Valley	September 28
Chautauqua Lake	Mayville	September 28
Chittenango	Chittenango	October 19
Cicero/Oneida Shores	Oneida Shores	October 19
Clinton – Kirkland	Clinton	October 26
Colton	Colton	September 14
Cooperstown	Cooperstown	No Spring Event
Corning	Corning	October 26
Cortland	Cortland	October 19
Coxsackie	Coxsackie	May 4
Cuba	Cuba	September 27
De Ruyter	De Ruyter	October 19
Delhi	Delhi	October 19
Dolgeville	Dolgeville	October 19
Dryden	Dryden	October 19
East Aurora	East Aurora	September 28
Eden	Eden	September 26
Elmira	Elmira	October 19
Fairport – Perinton	Fairport	May 4
Fort Plain	Fort Plain	October 19
Freeville	Freeville	October 5
Fulton	Fulton	October 5
Gilbertsville-Morris-Oxford	Gilbertsville	November 2
Glens Falls-Hudson Falls	Hudson Falls	May 4
Gloversville – Johnstown	Gloversville	October 19
Grand Island	Grand Island	September 28
Greece	Greece	May 4
Greene	Greene	May 4
Greenville	Greenville	May 4
Greenwich	Greenwich	May 4
Hamburg	Hamburg	October 19
Hamilton	Hamilton	September 28
Hammond	Hammond	October 5
Hannibal	Hannibal	October 19
Harmony – Harford	Harford	October 19
Herkimer	Herkimer	October 5
Highland/Milton/Marlboro	Highland	October 19
Honeoye Falls	Honeoye Falls	Fall 2008
Hudson	Hudson	May 4
Ithaca	Ithaca	October 19
Jamestown	Jamestown	February 24
Jordan – Elbridge	Elbridge	October 19
Kenmore	TBA	October 19
Kingston	Kingston	May 4
Lancaster – Depew	Lancaster	October 19
Lansing	Lansing	October 19
Leicester – York	York	October 19
LeRoy	LeRoy	October 5
Lockport	Lockport	October 19
Malone	Malone	October 12
Marcellus	Marcellus	October 19
Margaretville	Margaretville	No Spring Event
Marilla	Marilla	September 28
Mechanicville-Stillwater	Mechanicville	October 19
Minoa – East Syracuse	Kirkville	October 19
Moravia	Moravia	October 19
Naples	Naples	May 17
Nassau	Nassau	May 4
New Berlin	New Berlin	September 28
New Paltz	New Paltz	October 19
Newark	Newark	May 3
Niagara Falls	Niagara Falls	October 5
Norfolk	Norfolk	October 19
Northern Columbia County	Kinderhook	May 4
Northern Tier	Champlain	October 5
Oneida	Oneida	October 19
Oneonta	Oneonta	April 27
Orchard Park	Orchard Park	October 19
Oswego	Oswego	October 19
Owego	Owego	October 26
Palmyra – Macedon	Palmyra	May 3
Penn Yan	Penn Yan	May 4
Phoenix – Pennellville	Phoenix	October 19
Plattsburgh	Plattsburgh	September 28
Pompey – Fabius	Fabius	October 19
Pulaski – Sandy Creek	Pulaski	October 5
Ravena	Ravena	May 4
Richfield Springs	Richfield Springs	October 5
Rochester/Lyell-Otis	SW Rochester	May 4
Rochester NE – Irondequoit	NE Rochester	May 4
Rochester SE	SE Rochester	May 4
Rome	Rome	October 26
Rose – Wolcott	Wolcott	May 3
Rush – Henrietta	Tinker Nature Center	May 4
Saranac Lake	Saranac Lake	October 19
Saratoga Springs	Saratoga Springs	October 19
Sauquoit	Sauquoit	September 27
Schenectady	Schenectady	May 4
Schoharie County	Cobleskill	May 4
Sherburne	Sherburne	October 5
Sidney	Sidney	October 19
Silver Creek	Silver Creek	October 19
Skaneateles	Skaneateles	October 19
Sodus	Sodus	May 4
Speculator–Lake Pleasant-Wells	Speculator	September 28
Spencerport	Spencerport	May 4
Stamford	Stamford	September 7
Sullivan County	Liberty – Swan Lake	October 5
Syracuse/Downtown	Syracuse	October 19
Syracuse/ Suburban East	TBA	October 19
Syracuse/Suburban North	Onondaga Lake Park	October 19
Syracuse/Suburban West	Camillus	October 19
Thousand Islands	Clayton	September 14
Ticonderoga	Ticonderoga	October 18
Tonawanda/N.Tonawanda	Tonawanda City	October 5
Troy	Troy	May 4
Trumansburg	Trumansburg	October 19
Tully	Tully	October 19
Tupper Lake	Tupper Lake	October 19
Walton	Walton	October 19
Walworth	Walworth	May 4
Warsaw – Silver Springs	Warsaw	September 14
Watertown	Watertown	October 19
Watkins Glen	Watkins Glen	September 28
Webster	Webster	May 4
Weedsport	Weedsport	October 19
Wellsville	Wellsville	June 8
West Seneca	West Seneca	October 26
West Winfield	West Winfield	October 19
Williamson – Ontario	Williamson	May 4

Please contact the Regional Office for more information about any of these CROP Hunger Walks. Don’t see a Walk in your community? Call the Regional Office toll-free 1-888-297-2767 to see how you can organize a Walk!

Webster

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:04:44 -0500

Pastor Michael Ware sends Walkers on their way with a blessing.

One of many helpers behind the scenes counts the donations.

Warsaw

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:58:26 -0500

Families enjoy walking together in Wyoming County’s CROP Hunger Walk.

Mugsy the Clown offers face painting to Walkers.

Hudson Falls

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:52:49 -0500

Young walkers can have their faces painted while waiting to walk in Hudson Falls.

Community leaders compete to raise the most donations for the CROP Hunger Walk; kissing the llama is the prize.

Visit CWS on our online networks

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:27:46 -0500

Church World Service has a MySpace page: http://myspace.com/cwscrop. We encourage you to explore the page and point others there, and if you already have a MySpace profile of your own, become a "friend" and spread the word.

CWS has created a "group" at www.Facebook.com. If you are a Facebook member, we hope you'll search for our group (Church World Service) and join it--and invite your friends!

We've also consolidated our YouTube presence at http://youtube.com/churchworldservice and created a "playlist" for CROP Hunger Walk videos that have been created by folks across the U.S. Take a look and become a subscriber.

Lastly, people can now download a variety of CWS banners and buttons for their own website, blog, or profile at http://www.churchworldservice.org/buttons.

Thanks for passing the word!

Walworth

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:13:29 -0500

Walkers gather at the United Methodist Church for their spring CROP Hunger Walk.

Palmyra

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:09:37 -0500

The town crier rounds up the Walkers for the opening ceremony for the spring CROP Hunger Walk in May.

The Walk coordinator reviews the safety instructions.