Community and World Service Programs at First Congregational Church

The people of First Congregational Church of Anchorage are committed to providing opportunities for charitable giving and outreach to the community and the world.

The Community and World Service Board consists of 6 active members. We organize activities to benefit people in need and organizations that help them. We also apportion funds to these organizations and individuals, and we designate the recipients of the funds the church raises through special benevolence offerings--for example, at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

Projects the Community and World Service Board has sponsored include:

• Conducting brunches and other activities to benefit the Grandfamilies Network (grandparents raising their grandchildren)
• Preparing lunches for workers at Habitat for Humanity construction sites
• Making knitted caps and fleece scarves for cancer patients at Providence Cancer Center
• Organizing a potluck dinner and recipe bean bag sale to benefit Bean's Café, Anchorage's free café for the homeless
• Collecting socks for distribution to the homeless at Bean's Café
• Collecting large cans of food for Kids' Kitchen, an after school meal program for needy children in Anchorage run by Elgin Jones
• Sponsoring a student at the Pan American Institute, a school for low-income children in Tijuana, Mexico
• Participating in the Anchorage CROP Walk to raise money for the worldwide poverty-fighting work of Church World Service
• Collecting money for disaster relief in Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake

On March 28, 2010 CAWS held a bean-a-fit for Bean's Cafe. We raised over $450 in donations and bean soup bag sales to benefit the homeless of Anchorage. Here are a couple of photos of the event.

Community and World Service Board Members
Carolyn Rinehart (chair)
Bob Rinehart
Tom Wood
Ann Hutchings
Kathy Means
Kathy Broome