Charlotte

ENVY, a youth violence prevention program here within the City of Hagerstown that works to facilitate collaboration of resources and efforts of various community partners who provide services to or engage with youth in the community, has started a very unique youth basketball league and is looking for our assistance.  You may recall Chief Kifer and Danielle Staley speaking about this program at our recent HARC meeting.  ENVY stands for Ending Needless Violence with our Youth, and this basketball league is really ENVY’s way to initially engage at risk youth.  This league is called Crossroads Basketball League, because many of these youth are at a crossroads in their life and ENVY strives to guide them down a better, safe, and healthier path along their journey.

What makes this league different?  It is an invitation-only league, with names of youth provided to ENVY through the school system.  The focus is on those youth who, due to financial, academic, or other social barriers, cannot play in other leagues or for the school.  This league will have a one hour mandatory team homework time prior to their regular practice to help with academics, transportation assistance provided through Community Action Council, it is completely free for the youth to play in this league, uniforms will be provided at no cost, we will have some assistant coaches and coaches with lived experience to act as violence interrupters and engage with the youth on a more one on one level should circumstances necessitate such.  We will be having community resource providers involved with the program as well, with staff embedded in the stands cheering on youth and having organic conversations with families to establish trust that will allow families to feel more comfortable asking for assistance when they need it.  It is expected that this league will serve as a launch pad for other programming that can be offered to youth in the community.

ENVY is requesting that the HARC/faith community “adopt” teams so that when your congregation’s team is playing a game then your congregation is there to do activities with younger siblings, provide hall monitoring services so kids are not running through the halls, and potentially assist with cooking and/or serving food to the youth that evening.

There are currently 5 teams established, with high likelihood of a 6^th forming.  So, we are looking for 5-6 congregations to volunteer to adopt teams.  There would be typically one game per week for each team with a 2 week break during the holidays in December, with the season continuing then through March.

For more info or to help, contact Danielle Staley, Hagerstown Police Department, at 301-791-2638 or dstaley@hagerstownpd.org.

Reach has 4 unfilled weeks for the upcoming shelter season. Please contact Liz at Reach (Liz@reachofwc.org or 301-733-2371 X-114) if you are interested in hosting a week, a partial week, one evening and/or preparing a meal with your house of worship, work, friends, and family. Please visit their website www.reachofwc.org/volunteer for more information about the various volunteer positions that help run the shelter every night.
These are the vacant weeks:
26 November-3 December
17-26 December
31 December- 7 January
31 March-7 April
Thank you

Please contact Joel with any questions at 301-733-2440 extension 6

Parade Seats for the 96th Annual Alsatia Mummers Parade – October 28
Don’t forget to reserve your spot in front of John Wesley United Methodist Church for some of the best seats in town!  Call the church office at 301-733-0391 to reserve chairs for you and your family.  Seats are only $6 each.  Concessions and restroom will be available.  And ask about our new VIP seating!
John Wesley United Methodist Church,  129 North Potomac Street, Hagerstown, MD

Rabbi Mark Perman
Congregation B’Nai Abraham

Dear Friends in Faith,

We are all horrified by what is taking place in Israel at this time. As we all know, early October 7 in the southern part of Israel, Hamas terrorists attacked without warning causing at least 900 Israeli deaths, thousands of injuries, and also took civilian hostages and other prisoners of war.

After a day in Israel that is being referred to by experts in the region as Israel’s Pearl Harbor, referencing the deadly surprise attack by Japan on the American naval base in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941, we at Congregation B’nai Abraham stand by the words of Andrew Rehfeld, the president of Hebrew Union College- JIR, the seminary that trains men and women for the Reform rabbinate and cantorate who wrote today that: “As we conclude the fall festivals, our sukkot remind us of our fragility, a message tragically reinforced by the appalling events unfolding in Israel. With gratitude to the brave Israeli soldiers and the dedicated first responders who are steadfast in their work, we pray for a quick resolution of the conflict, speedy return of hostages, and full recovery of the wounded.” I would add that we also need to pray for the families of the dead, wounded, and those taken captive, who are enduring unimaginable suffering at this hour.

May God bless the people of the state of Israel, its military, and its government as it prepares to tackle one of its greatest challenges since the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

For an additional perspective, consider attending the October 15 presentation by Minister Hacker the Minister of Economic Affairs at Congregation B’nai Abraham

The Salvation Army is looking for a cook for their soup kitchen. The Christmas season is approaching and they want to continue to be able to run their soup kitchen as well. Please use this link to apply for the position. Please contact Nichole with any questions at 301-733-2440 extension 2.

After a month and a half of collecting books for the Community Book Drive, the effort culminated with the Day of Caring book sorting.  A group of 40+ volunteers sorted, counted, and boxed 13,036 books! Around 3,000 in the birth-5 age range received stickers with reading tips. These books will be distributed to children ages birth-5 at the Community Book Warehouse, and all the other books went to the United Way’s Books United program to distribute throughout the community as needed, with a focus on vulnerable youths and adults.

This is the 10th year of the book drive with more than 126,000 books collected over the years. Most have gone to vulnerable children to help with literacy and school readiness.

The Community Book Drive is a partnership of HARC, the United Way of Washington County, the Judy Center and the Early Childhood Advisory Council. Special thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for hosting the Day of Caring book sorting with awesome volunteers and a great gym.
Thanks to all the houses of worship (21 in total), businesses, organizations and individuals who collected books! (See the full list of collection sites here.)  Thanks to our pick up volunteers who drove around and picked them up, hauling them to the LDS church, and to Weiss Brothers for hauling 5 pallets of books to the United Way’s warehouse after the sorting.

Thank you also to all of the volunteers who helped with the mass sorting project in record time! Groups from the Judy Center, Reach, the Library, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Hagerstown Rotary Club, Hagerstown Healthcare, and individuals from churches and the United Way made this huge project fast and FUN.

Finally, a shout out to our amazing planning team: Terri Gwizdala (co-leader), Kelli Tencer (United Way), Kim Halsey, Kathy Kerns, Elaine Rose, Jocelyn Hauer, Kendal Neel, and Kathy Powderly (co-leader).

The Community Book Drive is truly a community effort and example of Living United in Washington County, and the power of faith communities (and community members) working together.