Annual School Supply Drive

With summer activities in full swing, school may be the furthest thing from your mind but now is the time for the annual school-supply drive coordinated by our Homelessness Task Force. We are partnering with West Seattle Rotary's Pencil Me In for Kids campaign and the West Seattle/Fauntleroy Y to equip elementary and Head Start programs in this area with supplies their students will need come fall. Find the list of high-priority items HERE. Look for donation boxes in the narthex and lobby OR make a cash donation HERE. The drive will run through Aug. 4.

For Our Neighbors at The Welcome Table

Guests come to the free Saturday Welcome Table in White Center for nourishing food, socializing, and whatever is out on giveaway tables. Our Homelessness Task Force enthusiastically supports this weekly community service by enabling members and friends of this congregation to contribute food, volunteer during the meal, and donate these much-needed items that are clean and in good condition:

• camping gear

• linens (blankets, sheets, towels)

• pants

• jackets

• t-shirts (L, XL)

• sweatshirts/hoodies (L, XL, XXL)

• socks

• gloves

• stocking caps

• baby wipes

• laundry pods

• paper towels

• toilet paper

• first-aid supplies

• full-sized hygiene & menstrual products

• cough drops & other cold products

We Are An Immigrant Welcoming Church

Fauntleroy Church has been named an Immigrant Welcoming Church by the national United Church of Christ.  Alki UCC, which has been working with us, is working towards this designation also.  Together, we will be celebrating that honor beginning with a film “Which Way Home” Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Alki.  What does it take to become an Immigrant Welcoming Church? Here is how Fauntleroy Church became an Immigrant Welcoming Church.  It likely involved you.

It begins with our church services.  How many times has a prayer, a song, a mission moment, or a sermon raised the issue of immigration?  It may have been about the three asylum seeking families we have been aiding, the recent mission trip to Guatemala or the wider challenges of immigration. Michael Ramos of the Church Council of Greater Seattle gave the sermon one Sunday in a program organized by the Worship Ministry that was dedicated to immigration.

The news of our immigration work continues in both newsletters and after church service programs.

Perhaps you attended the trivia night last January or the burgers and bingo event in the spring.  Both were fundraisers to aid our immigrant programs.  We have two funds to assist our asylees with housing and legal expenses and many of you have contributed.

The Second Time Sale has offered donations to the asylee families.  The Advent Giving Tree program has made donations annually.  Many church members bought Peruvian food Sundays through the Rico Peru program established by one of our asylees.  The Christmas Tree Festival last year featured a Peruvian Christmas Tree.

Church governance has been significantly involved including Church Council, Finance Ministry. Parish Life, Worship, Facilities and Christian Education.  So has the Homelessness Task Force.

Eighteen months ago the Outreach Mission was closed by church members with the goal of incorporating missional threads into the entire fabric of Fauntleroy Church.  Immigration is one of those designated threads.

In the next six months the Immigration Task Force, working at times with Alki Church, hopes to sponsor programs that celebrate our role as an Immigrant Welcoming Church.  One of our goals is to celebrate that all our families at one time were immigrants, that this is a nation of refugees, and we proudly are continuing that tradition.  Ultimately both Fauntleroy and Alki plan to develop covenants expressing our commitments to immigration issues.

The Immigration Task Force is always open to anyone interested in helping.  Please contact Bob Wyss or Dianne Sprague.

An Abundance of School Supplies

Thanks to your generosity, our annual school-supply drive was another winner for area low-income students. Scores of students will have the supplies they’ll need to start the new term, including 62 boxes of colored pencils, 202 glue sticks, and 420 pencils. We were able to pass along $200 in cash donations to West Seattle Rotary for bulk purchase of supplies and to earmark $1,200 for special supplies that Highland Park, Roxhill, Sanislo, and West Seattle elementaries would otherwise not be able afford. Finally, we joined West Seattle Rotary in giving this area's Head Start coordinator 92 backpacks to equip students for this coming term and the next.