This Christmas, 145 Riverside residents are moving beyond charity to friendship. Monday, December 13th will mark the 4th annual “Parents Night Out at Christmastime” where volunteers from local churches partner with four of Riverside’s transitional living and homeless shelters to take parents out to local stores for the evening, providing them an opportunity to pick out Christmas gifts for their children.
Members from local churches raise money to buy over 300 gift cards, each in the amount of $25. Parents at the shelter receive one gift card for each of their children, plus one additional as the head of household to spend. On the night of the event, volunteers from the local churches come out and are matched up with parents from the shelters. They spend the evening together, go to the store to pick out gifts with the gift cards and many stop to get a cup of coffee together. When the volunteers and parents get back to the shelters, the churches have a wrapping paper station set up where shelter moms and dads wrap up their newly purchased presents. Meanwhile, the children stay back at the shelter and participate in parties organized by the churches.
“We love doing Christmas this way because the parents get to pick out the gifts for their own children – they get to be the heros!” Libby Collier said, TURN’s founder. “At the same time, it provides an opportunity for members from our local churches to spend several hours with some of our local homeless neighbors, they get to network and even begin friendships!”
At one of the shelters, Amelia’s Light, a 2-year transitional housing program for mothers and their children, 10 congregations have collaborated to put together the children’s Christmas party including, crafts, outdoor games, facepainting, balloons animals, and Christmas carols for the younger children and an urban art workshop for the teens (see photo) led by local artist, Mike Cortes of www.ModernArt4Kids.com.
“Our community may not realize that the face of homelessness is not the individual, but the family, as more than 55% of the people served at Path of Life’s Family Shelter and Transitional Housing Programs are children,” said Joan Thirkettle, Director of Path of Life Ministries’ Family Shelter.
Monday’s Parent’s Night Out at Christmastime will involve 145 Riverside volunteers from 21 local churches, organizing Christmas Parties at four Riverside shelters and bringing 85 shelter parents our shopping to purchase gifts for over 200 local children. The churches participating include: All Saint’s Episcopal, Bridges Christian Fellowship, Cross Word Christian, Faith Community, Grace Community, Hope Community, Hope Lutheran, Immanuel Lutheran, Lifespring! Assembly of God, Magnolia Center Church of Christ, Magnolia Presbyterian, No Walls Outreach, Pathway Christian, Relational Tithe, Riverside Community, Sandals Church, St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic, The Promise, Wesley United Methodist, Wind of the Spirit Worship Center, Word of Life Ministries International as well as two local groups, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Habitat for Humanity.
The event is organized by Today’s Urban Renewal Network, a community-based nonprofit organization, founded in 2004 and based in Riverside. Its mission is “connecting churches in loving the city.” TURN connects, empowers and supports like-minded ministries so they may serve local residents in need efficiently, collaboratively, and effectively. TURN’s network is made up of more than 50 local churches, representing more than 30,000 Christians in Riverside.
For information on how to get involved it this event or other similar collaborative efforts, see www.TURNnetwork.org .