Our Confirmation candidates created a birthday bag event where they compiled 25 kits for birthday celebrations that would be distributed to area food pantries through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The kits included birthday cake mix, icing, candles, cupcake papers, and more.
The following thank you letter came from Conference President Linda M. Dix:
Dear Rev. Eric and the Members of the Confirmation Class,
Thank you so much for your most generous donation of 25 birthday bags for our younger guests! They were absolutely beautiful—so brightly colored and life-giving! Thank you also for all the beautiful items which the bags contained. I brought them to one of our guests who just had a new baby last week. The day I dropped them off was also the birthday of one of her younger children. The children’s eyes popped when they saw all the bags and were happy to receive them to celebrate the birth of their baby brother, and to celebrate the birthday of one of their siblings. For them, a box cake mix was a real treat and one they do not often get. I realized when I delivered the bags how much we really do take for granted in our lives. These children were just so happy to know someone cared enough about them to make a birthday bag for each of them.
Thank you for hearing the cry of the poor among us and for taking the time amid your busy high school academic and sports schedule to show such love and compassion for the vulnerable families in our community. You certainly made these children most happy!
It has been written, ‘The Christian cannot be satisfied with having hope; he or she must also radiate hope, be a sower of hope.’ As we celebrate the Year of Jubilee, we also celebrate all of you as being ‘sowers of hope’ among the poor. Thank you again.”