Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Disaster staff issue call for volunteers.

A variety of opportunities to contribute to the Brethren hurricane relief efforts are available, as staff of the church's disaster response programs have begun to call for volunteers:
  • Disaster Child Care is seeking more trained volunteers, and is offering to train new volunteers at three Level 1 Training Workshops in the next three months: Sept. 16-17 in Roanoke, Va.; Oct. 7-8 in Reno, Nev.; and Nov. 11-12 in Brook Park, Ohio. Cost is $45 or $55 when mailed less than three weeks before the training, and includes meals and one overnight. For more information see www.disasterchildcare.org. Additional emergency training events will be scheduled in the coming weeks. Special shortened workshops will be conducted to help meet the current need. More information will be forthcoming in Newsline and on the website.

  • Emergency Response/Service Ministries seeks volunteers to help answer telephones in the office and to process relief materials in the warehouses at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. Call 800-451-4407.

  • Brethren Disaster Response seeks volunteers to help with the Hurricane Katrina clean-up project in Alabama. Also sought are volunteers to continue rebuilding projects in Belmont County, Ohio, following severe flooding earlier this year, and in Pensacola, Fla., repairing homes damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Dennis in July 2005. Call 800-451-4407.

  • Brethren congregations may soon have the option of registering to host and sponsor families who have lost homes in the hurricane, through the well-established Church World Service (CWS) Immigration and Refugee program and CWS regional offices across the US. Preliminary estimates are that the program will serve 165 families or 500 people over an initial period of five months. Winter anticipates having application information available in the next few days.
For more information about the Brethren hurricane relief efforts or to give on-line to support this work, go to www.brethrendisasterresponse.org. Checks payable to the General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund support the work of Disaster Child Care, Brethren Disaster Response, Emergency Response/Service Ministries, and Church World Service; mail to 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120.

Source: 9/14/2005 Newsline
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