Newsletter
The SEED, September 2006
Hunger Hike 2006
Presented by Bison Financial Group
An annual event to help feed the hungry
Sunday, September 17
Benefiting Lafayette Urban Ministry’s food programs, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Haiti Project, and Food Finders Food Bank, the annual Hunger Hike presented by Bison Financial Group gives participants the opportunity to directly impact hunger issues. Last year, over 500 walkers enthusiastically walked and ran the Wabash Heritage Trail route and raised over $50,000.
You have a chance to help the hungry. You can:
Hike— collect donations in advance.
Sponsor— walkers from your church or business.
Recruit— your own team of walkers; encourage each to raise $50 or more
Donate— online at www.hungerhike.org
Create— your own fund-raising page for Hunger Hike (it’s FREE, FUN and EASY). Learn more at www.hungerhike.org.
Join us on Sunday, September 17
12:30-1:30 pm Registration at Riehle Plaza. Come early for
great door prizes!
2:00 pm 2-mile hike begins on the Wabash Heritage Trail.
Also—extended 4.5-mile route for joggers!
3:00 pm Party time! Live music by Hot Club of Colfax,
clowns, balloons, popcorn, watermelon, hot dogs,
and FREE MASSAGES. All these are provided by
generous donations.
Hunger Hike BENEFIT BONANZA
Visit these businesses on the designated day between 4-8PM. Tell them you are there for Hunger Hike and 10% of your purchase will be donated to Hunger Hike. Ask store for details.
Monday 9/11
CiCi’s Pizza
Igloo Frozen Custard (South & East)
Tuesday 9/12
Nature’s Pharm
Pepe’s
Culver’s
Wednesday 9/13
Dairy Queen (231 South & Meier Dr.)
Applebee’s
Thursday 9/14
Chick-fil-A
Country Candle Factory
All Week 9/11-9/16
Carpenter’s Son
Monday 9/18
Texas Roadhouse
THANK YOU to these and all our business sponsors!
Touching the lives of children and families today
by Mary Anderson, Executive Director
The Journal & Courier called me around 3:30. The Indianapolis Star called Patti O’Callaghan the same afternoon. New census data had just been released. The numbers showed a dramatic increase in poverty in Tippecanoe County, especially the number of children living in poverty. Both Patti and I spent time explaining the poverty threshold guidelines, how they are formulated and what LUM’s experience has been. But actually, it wasn’t anything particularly new for us, or anything too surprising.
The statistics that come across my desk can be mind-numbing. New research, new surveys, and new studies are mailed to us, picked up at conferences, or shared among agencies. They are valuable in that they help us see where we are and where we might be going, and help us plan ahead for what might be coming. There are statistics about childhood poverty, health insurance coverage, hunger, housing, education and employment.
The numbers can be frightening:
- Indiana ranks highest in the
nation in the percentage of teens
who are high school drop outs
38% of Indiana children live
below 200% of the federal
poverty level
- The Annie E. Casey Foundation
ranks Indiana 32nd in the nation
in the well-being of our children
- In Tippecanoe County, it takes
nearly four full-time minimum
wage jobs to support a family of four
with two working parents. A single
parent of three children would likewise need to work over 160 hours
per week to support the family
- In 2005, a year of health care
coverage for a family cost more
than a yearly, full-time minimum
wage job paid
- A 39% increase in the number of
children living in poverty in
Tippecanoe County in 2005
compared to 2000
I could go on and on. But statistics aren’t what is most important to me in my work at LUM. Yes, they are valuable tools. But I have learned that the people behind the numbers are more important. I often tell potential volunteers that one of the most valuable things they will take away from a LUM experience will be that they will have names and faces to put on the statistics they read.
Lay-offs at local factories become the client we help with rent and utilities. Changes in health care coverage become the senior who can no longer afford her prescriptions. Cuts in housing programs become our shelter guests. Rising food prices are the people standing in line at the LUM/St. John’s Food Pantry. Cuts in child care, nutrition programs and education are our campers and our after school children.
In this issue, and next month, you will see some of what LUM is doing for children. Take time to look at the faces in our camp pictures. These are not statistics. These are the faces of children who have encountered much in their few years, and who have many struggles and hurdles yet to overcome. But they are smiling faces. Excited faces. Next month you will see our afterschool program children. They too will be smiling faces. Learning faces. The faces of our future that need to be nurtured and cherished.
Patti O’Callaghan said it well in the Indianapolis Star: “Poverty is the most important issue facing the state and country today because it is the underlying reason for so many of the other problems we must deal with, from health to education to crime.”
You can touch the lives of the real people behind the statistics right here and right now. You can volunteer with the after school program, you can be an advocate, you can write a letter to a legislator, you can hike against hunger. In the coming months you can help with Thanksgiving dinner for 750 people, donate toys so that 1,700 children (and their parents) can smile on Christmas morning, and serve meals to our shelter guests.
The community’s “One Great Read” for the summer of 2006 was Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America. Now that we have read the book and discussed it, it’s time to act on it. Now that we have seen the new poverty statistics, it’s time to become personally connected. Please be involved. You will be blessed.
LUM Camp 2006: CAMP ENERGY
Eighty-two children spent the week of August 8-11 at LUM Camp 2006 at Hanging Rock Christian Camp.
Along with 35 counselors and 20 program presenters, the campers enjoyed the usual camp experiences of hiking, splashing in the creek, games, chapel and crafts.
But in keeping with the “Camp Energy” theme, they also learned about energy resources, alternative fuels and energy conservation.
YOU made LUM camp possible. From each and every child and the entire staff— Thank you!
Briefly Noted
- Training for shelter volunteers will be held Mon. 9/18,
Thurs. 10/5, Mon. 10/16, and Thurs. 11/ 2. Sessions are
held from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at the shelter. No pre-registration is required.
- The Afterschool Program is in need of simple,
nutritious snacks for 25 children each day. Juice,
crackers, granola bars etc. can be dropped off at the
LUM office M-F from 8:30-4:30. The children say “thank you.”
- Check out the LUM website for the latest in volunteer
and giving opportunities. From Hunger Hike to
Thanksgiving to shelter training, you will find the latest
information at www.lafayetteurbanministry.org
- Many thanks to Amy Borland for serving as the
Interim Afterschool Program Director for several weeks
as LUM searched for a permanent director. Also thanks
to Pam Grenard for serving temporarily as the
Afterschool Assistant. Look in the next issue of The
Seed for news about the new Afterschool Program staff!
LUM and Bach Chorale partner on Christmas performance
The Bach Chorale will perform Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia of Christmas Carols” and John Rutter’s “Gloria” on Saturday, December 16 at 8:00pm at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Lafayette. Half of the proceeds ordered through LUM will benefit LUM programs.
Advance tickets
Main Floor: $21 General, $19 Seniors, $10 Students/Children
Balcony: $16 General, $13 Seniors, $7 Students/Children
Upper Balcony: $11 General, $9 Seniors, $5 Students/Children
Order forms for tickets are available at LUM or call 423-2691. Tickets will be mailed directly to your home. Only tickets purchased through the special order form will benefit LUM.
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