October has passed and November is here! Can you believe that Christmas is just 54 days away?! This year seems to have passed so quickly! Christmas decorations are out in the store, and in some instances, they’ve been out for months already!
Every year during this time, ECC raises funds to help with our outreach efforts. In the past we decided to narrow our focus to a smaller number of people, families that we have contact with all year long through our relationship with Miller Elementary School. In building relationships, we feel like we can have more of an impact. We will be focusing our efforts on helping 6-7 families. On December 3, we will have a Christmas party for these families. Rather than purchase gifts for them, we will give parents a gift card to put towards items they’d like to purchase for their children. That is one way to empower the parent(s) as it allows them the opportunity to think about and select specific gifts that will be meaningful for each child.
Our gathering on December 3 will include family pictures, a nice lunch, some fun activities for the kids and some quiet time for the moms which may include a fun craft! We will have sign ups available soon to help with some items before December 3rd and some opportunities to help on the day of the gathering. Please be on the look out for them in the next week or so.
I’m excited to let you know that because of your generosity in the past, grant money received and good stewardship we will not need to raise money to help with this event! How awesome! I was so excited when I realized that!
We do know that many of you look forward to giving towards an outreach opportunity. Since we have “adopted” Miller Elementary School, we reached out to the principals to get ideas of what they feel would be a meaningful gift for the students. We have decided this year to raise funds towards a book vending machine for the school. Mrs. Phillips and Mr. Louk, the principals, are so excited!
Below is a note from Mrs. Phillips explaining how this gift will benefit the students.
Miller students work extremely hard to become highly effective readers each day! Many of our students arrive to Miller behind or as nonreaders due to the lack of consistency in attending one school over their educational journey during the elementary school years. Miller students also continue work on improving reading skills from loss due to Covid. In 2022, Miller increased IREAD3 test scores seventeen percent!
The Miller education staff would love to reward our students who display positive behaviors, good attendance, and great effort each day! We would love to have a book vending machine.
A book vending machine, operated by tokens, would encourage our reading initiative in conjunction with our Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports System (PBIS). Students would have the opportunity to earn tokens to shop and take home a book of their choice! Taking home a book allows our students the ability to read with other members of their family. This experience will encourage our families to be an active part in developing a strong reader! Research shows us, an individual who can read has a much higher chance of graduating high school and being a productive member of society as an adult.
Thank you for being so supportive to Miller Elementary over the years. Our students consider all of the ECC volunteers part of our Miller family. We cherish our monthly dinners and events!
Thank you for your consideration,
Erin S. Phillips
Principal
Thomas Miller Elementary School
Lafayette School Corporation
Reading is such an important part of life. Wouldn’t it be incredible to be a small part of encouraging “our” Miller students in their reading journey? Our goal is to raise $7,000 towards this gift. Any monies above that will go towards stocking/restocking the vending machine with books when needed and/or purchasing a book for each child at the school to give as a gift for Christmas (from ECC). We ask that you make this donation above your regular giving to the church. All gifts are tax deductible and will be shown on your giving record. If writing a check, please put Christmas Outreach in the memo portion. There will also be a Christmas Outreach tab on our giving portal. 😊
Please pray about your part in helping us reach this goal. I have always appreciated the giving spirit of our congregation. You have always given with a spirit of generosity!
2 Corinthians 9:11 “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
I would be happy to talk with anyone that has questions about our outreach ministry and the thought process behind why we do what we do. Feel free to contact me at 474-4842 or rooms@ecclife.net. As always, thank you so much for your support of our outreach ministry.