Cover Stories: In The Spotlight:
Faith & Practice: A Fresh Look East Richland: Summer Celebration 2000
 
 
 
 


 
How does a church of 100 serve 3,000 cyclists and their families? With a lot of prayer, organization, and enthusiastic work !

Fulton Creek Friends Church in Radnor, Ohio agreed to serve the cyclists participating in Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA) as a fund-raiser for their building campaign. Tammy Mannasmith, Dr. Pam Kaprapy and Larry Parish volunteered to serve as coordinators and began planning the fund-raiser months in advance. It was a success.

Working out of the local grocery store's produce department a few days before the event, 20-25 church volunteers cleaned, cut and bagged fresh vegetables, and made ham and cheese sandwiches for the 500 sack lunches included as a food option. On Monday, approximately the same number of workers cut and bagged over 500 slices of donated homemade pies and over 500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were made ahead of time.

Hungry cyclists selected from a varied menu including chicken sandwiches, sloppy joes, baked beans, peanut butter or ham/cheese sandwiches, applesauce cups, carrots/celery, grapes/bananas, chips, pies, and homemade cookies. Almost 2,000 hot sandwiches were sold.

Church members expected the GOBA participants, but were surprised at the number of family members who arrived in mini vans, campers, etc. to eat lunch with their bicycling relatives.

Virtually everything sold out, except a small amount of fruit and some cookies. "We couldn't have pulled this off without the commitment from our congregation," said Mannasmith.

submitted by Pastor Chuck Fye