There is an elementary school down the street from the church.  You know the name?  It’s Governor George Clinton Elementary School and about 460 students attend.  According to figures from the state approximately 87% of the children who attend this school are also eligible for the free/reduced lunch program, http://www.localschooldirectory.com/public-school/60783/NY.  So, do you think that the parents of these kids are able to buy them good quality school supplies?

We keep hearing and we keep talking about about how we are supposed to be good neighbors to the people who live in Poughkeepsie. How about we shut up and actually do something.   How about we start with the community right next to us.  You see, the kids that go to Clinton Elementary live right around the church.

I think if you were working outside of the church during the week you’d see lots of them walking by looking at our nice pile of rubble.  We have raised so much money for getting ourselves back into our building.  How about we raise some money so that these kids have GOOD school supplies.

What I’m asking you to do on Sunday, September 13 is to be generous to these kids.  There is a big jar at the foot of the stairs with a sign that says ELEMENTALS.  I’m asking you to donate money so that we can go out next week and purchase quality pens, pencils, crayons, notebooks, paper, etc…  We’re not going to buy crap.  We want these kids to know that we care about them and they we want them to have the good stuff.  What if having a nice pencil and paper is enough for a child to want to know more about the people, the church that gave it to them.

This is a grassroots movement.  This means we are not announcing this during church on Sunday.  We are only telling people about this via ‘word of mouth.’  Why?  Because we are “not supposed to do things the same way that we were doing them…”