We have a dream. We dream of children enjoying lessons and enriching their lives with crayons from Christ United Methodist Church. We dream of teenagers and young adults in the Chicago and Rockford metropolitan areas overcoming substance abuse issues and recovering so they can live full lives.
We have two Methodist missions in Illinois who work daily to make these dreams become realities. The Midwest Mission, located in Chatham, IL, a suburb of Springfield, has teams of volunteers who fill school bags, school kits, and teacher kits with school supplies. The Midwest Mission also delivers flood buckets. This year the Northern IL Conference is supplying the contents for school kits and other conferences are filling flood buckets. Our Elgin district has been asked to supply crayons. Your boxes of crayons (must be 24 count) will travel from the the Northern Illinois Annual Conference to the Midwest Mission. Volunteers will put the crayons you give in a school kit. The kit will be placed on a container and shipped to a disaster site in the United States or to a school in the Caribbean.
Rosecrance, with headquarters in Rockford, IL, is building a counseling center in Chicago at the corner of Waveland and Ashland Avenues. Rosecrance has a comprehensive approach and addresses the emotional, developmental, physical, psychological, familial, social and cultural factors involved with addiction. This Chicago facility is not complete, and needs more money to finish construction. Bishop Sally Dyck of the Northern IL Conference has asked all churches to be part of the Launch for Life campaign. The funds we collect in May will be given to the Launch for Life campaign and will be used for the new facility, Rosecrance Lakeview, in Chicago. Rosecrance presently has three facilities in McHenry County. Although your gift will directly benefit Chicago residents, it will also benefit the facilities in other counties. Currently Chicago residents use over one-third of the bed space at facilities outside of Chicago. When Chicago has this facility, there will be more space at other facilities.
We need all crayons by Sunday, May 29th. We would like each individual or family to purchase one or two boxes, 24 count. We recommend Crayola brand since it doesn’t readily melt. The crayons will be traveling on trucks and shipping containers—and it’s hot in the containers.
We need all checks or cash donations for Rosecrance submitted by Sunday, May 29th to make sure your gift is credited to your giving statement and to make sure the check is written in time. Checks should be made payable to Christ U.M.C. with “Rosecrance” written in the Memo line.