Creek Community Church is teaming up with City Kidz to help children living at or below the poverty line.
The local church is among 60 churches in Hamilton taking part in City Kidz’ Miracle Sunday campaign.
The annual campaign, which kicked off last Sunday, includes various activities, such as guest speakers, display set-ups, special offerings and more. It offers churches a chance to learn more about City Kidz and the opportunity to raise money, sponsor a child or volunteer for the non-profit Christian organization, whose mission is to increase resiliency and inspire big dreams for Canadian children living in low-income communities by providing inspirational experiences and nurturing personal relationships, one child at a time.
“We had a special City Kidz Miracle Sunday service on Feb. 10 at the church, where we invited one of the organization’s staff members to come and speak to give us an update on the ministry and let people know how they can continue to support City Kidz,” said Creek Community Church representative Tom Busch, adding the church became involved with the organization and its campaign several years ago. “We love the ministry and many of our members are involved on a regular basis. We are always looking for ways to support local ministries and to us, this campaign is a great way to support City Kidz and promote the great work they are doing.”
City Kidz has been actively reaching children living in Hamilton’s low-income communities for 20 years.
The organization offers thousands of kids free door-to-door bus transportation to its Saturday program that runs from September to December and March to June at the Playhouse Theatre, where they hear life-changing lessons filled with hope and receive food and prizes.
City Kidz volunteers also visit more than 2,300 children ages three to 12 each week, building relationships with them and their families.
In addition, the organization ministers to many local youth through a special City Kidz leadership training program.
City Kidz representative Haley McCulloch said Stoney Creek’s Riverdale neighbourhood constitutes one of the fastest growing areas in terms of children attending the organization’s program.
“We started sending one of our City Kidz buses to the Riverdale community in April of 2011; a year and half later, we now send four buses. The growth has been incredible,” she said. “We started with approximately 40 kids and we now have 274 that are registered for our program. This means that 274 kids living in Riverdale are registered to attend our Saturday programming and receive a home visit each week that is done by a team of volunteers.”
Busch, who is one of the City Kidz bus drivers that helps shuttle children to and from the organization’s Saturday program, said there are a number of ways for community members to lend a hand to the Miracle Sunday campaign.
“The campaign is one way that we can connect with Stoney Creek and Hamilton,” he said. “Community members can help by praying for the kids that we are reaching out to, sponsoring a child for the cost of sending them to the program or considering visiting City Kidz and seeing how volunteering might be something that is of interest. City Kidz is a great organization that is truly helping to make a difference in the lives of children in need.”
City Kidz fundraising coordinator Olivia Bronson said the Miracle Sunday campaign is a great way to connect people in local churches to the cause of City Kidz.
“Miracle Sunday provides churches and ‘people in the pews’ with any number of local mission opportunities that develop and nurture servants’ hearts, stimulate discipleship and increase your sense of connectedness to our community,” she said, adding the campaign has helped raise $144,934.59 for the cause over the past four years. “Our goal for 2013 is to raise $55,000, secure 100 new child sponsorships and recruit mature Christian volunteers, so we can reach out and share God’s love with more kids.”
City Kidz will be holding different events throughout the year to help children in need, including its Big Dream Banquet on Nov. 14, Gift of Christmas campaign from Nov. 4 to Dec. 25 and Road2Hope Marathon Nov. 1 to Nov. 3.
For more information on City Kidz and its various fundraising efforts, contact Olivia Bronson at olivia@citykidz.ca or visit www.citykidz.ca.
