Here are some more ways EHCC, and you!, help those in need:

• Called to Care: An in-house ministry in which church members and friends are paired with EHCC shut-ins to provide emotional support and companionship.  Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel coordinates this program. 
  
  
• Special Offerings:  Approximately quarterly, we encourage your financial contribution to special offerings designated by the United Church of Christ.    To find out more about UCCofferings, click here: www.ucc.org. 
  
  
• Youth Group Mission Trip: for a week each summer, our Sr. Youth Group attends a mission trip during which they work in needy communities.  You may volunteer as a chaperone for a mission trip, and you may financially support the trips. Outright donations are certainly appreciated, and the youth group sponsors several fund-raising events throughout the year.
  
  
• Helpline House: Our church makes a substantial financial contribution to Helpline House each year. This contribution is targeted to a specific family in need as identified by one of Helpline’s social service workers.
  
  And, one afternoon every few months, we encourage shoppers at Town and Country Market to donate food to Helpline; you may man (or woman) a shift at T&C! 

• Project Backpack

  Throughout the month of August EHCC will join the BI community in collecting backpacks and school supplies for Project Backpack, an annual program of Helpline House.  This program has helped nearly 1,200 students over the past seven years.  drop your donations in the yellow box in the narthax before August 25th.   Also welcomed are cash donations and gift cards for back to school clothing.  Thanks for your help.

  The essential school supplies most needed are:

  3 ring binders

  Calculators

  Colored pencils

  Colored markers

  Notebook dividers

  Eriasers

  Glue sticks

  Highlighters

  colleg ruled notebooks and paper

  Pencil sharpeners

  Pencil boxes and pouches

  Rulers

  Sharp "Fiskar" type scissors

  Also welcome are gift cards to stores such as Target or Old Navy to help with back to school clothing costs.

  If you know of any Island Family who could benefit from this program, please have them contact Helpline House at 842-7621.  Sign-ups are required.  Requests for assistance are kept confidential.

   

• EHCC is home to Helpline's Super Supper dinners four out of the five last working days of the month (we do not host on Wednesdays because of Youth Group activities).  Contact Pat Johnson for more information.
  
  
• Ometepe Scholarship Program: The financial contribution our church makes helps send an Ometepe student to college. You can donate directly to this fund!
  
  
• Caring Coins: Each month we designate the change dropped into our Sunday offering plates to a specific non-profit program or agency.   (See below for January's collection.)
  
  

  August Caring Coins collected will be used to provide lunch to 40-50 construction volunteers at the Bremerton, New Hope site.  Our August 16th lunch date is a good opportunity to be part of the extraordinary community-building experience that is Habitat for Humanity.  Please remember to add your loose change to the offering plate.

• Saturday, August 16th: Habitat for Humanity Lunch - Several Volunteers are needed to prepare dessert and/or pasta salad for 20 workers of the Bremerton Project, New Hope.  Also, looking for two more servers to join the vanpool to the site leaving church at 10:30am and returning about 1:30pm.  Please contact Madelyn Fox at madelyn.fox@gmail.com or Barbara Linsert at blinser@comcast.net to sign up. 

   

• Our Church's Wider Mission: UCC congregations are involved with mission in many ways. In the United Church of Christ, we affirm that, although the congregation is the fundamental unit of mission, mission is not just local. We are connected to one another, across boundaries of neighborhood, class, race, and national border. Our Church’s Wider Mission is the name we use to describe the work we do as the United Church of Christ beyond the local church–through our Conferences, national ministries, and UCC-related institutions. Our Church’s Wider Mission is also the name we give to the financial support given by UCC members and congregations that makes this broader mission possible.  EHCC makes a substantial contribution to OCWM annually.  To find out more, www.ucc.org
  
  

For more information on any of the above, please call the church office.

To contact us:

EHCC

105 Winslow Way West

Bainbridge Island, WA  98110

Phone: 206-842-4657