South Side Church Donates 'Essentials' To Families
(CBS) – Making a difference in their community one dollar at a time.
A South Side congregation pooled their money -- totaling $5,000 -- with one goal: to give brand new things to those in need in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports.
Members of Faith-Walk Church International carry box, after box, of items into the sanctuary.
"We take for granted that we have laundry detergent, we have the bleach. When you talk to some of the mothers in the community who have two, three, four kids, they don't have these basic items," associate pastor Richard Wooten says.
In just a little less than a year, the 60-member congregation collected $5,000 for their first annual Church & Community Essential Supplies Giveaway Day.
New shorts, shirts, shoes, toiletries and household items were all bought by church members. Their mission? To give everything to the people in need, in the Auburn Gresham community.
"In the midst of gangs, guns, crime and violence a church needs to present a viable alternative to the youngest who live in our communities," Senior Pastor Dwayne Brown says.
With the young people in the community in mind, some of these bags, donated by Jewel Osco, will be given to school children at nearby Harvard School. Church members run an after-school mentoring and tutoring program for the children here.
Kimely Williams-Phillips heads the program.
"If they see that somebody cares about them, they'll show respect and for others," she says.
And the caring the church is showing for the community is going to continue. Every third Saturday of the month until November, the church will be having the essential item giveaway. They're expecting at least 100 hundred people to be lined up when the giveaway starts at noon at the church on Saturday.
