Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Can Cars Comfort Kidz?

CBS 11 News and The Toledo Blade believes they can. Staff writer Meghan Gilbert joined 217 people and 42 cars at Cars 4 Kidz 2007 to document the day concluding our Summer of Service [S.O.S] 2007. Click here to read the entire article from the Blade. Click any of the pictures for a link to all the others archived on our church website.
Volunteers to Labor on the Day [including my father-in-law Frank and mother-in-law Laure in this pic below] began arriving at 8am placing signs up and down both sides of Sylvania Avenue from Corey to Tallmadge.

Next came the stage set up [always a major pain in the....neck!!!] followed by our manly Fresh Squeezed Lemonade Stand and a couple of grills to cook ye hot dogs.

Trailers started pulling in after 9am with cars rolling down the ramps and Pastor Nathan had Barry’s Bagels waiting for them to eat.

Chordoroy Jacket played 3 hours of oldies including some of my fave Beach Boys songs!!! We raised $1000 in donations throughout the day giving away an iPod shuffle to one lucky 13 year old girl and a Best Buy gift card to another one.

Adding what we raised that day to the $1000 St.Vincent’s Mercy Children’s Hospital already gave us to the $1000 from our church [if you want to help, send a check to Toledo First and mark “Webkinz” on the memo line] triples their original donation providing us with enough funds to purchase enough Webkinz to comfort over 150 kids in crisis battling cancer throughout the winter weeks ahead!!!

From the folks who brought their cars to the folks who came with the band to the three winners of this year’s People Choice Awards, everyone I talked to thoroughly enjoyed themselves, especially enjoyed our shady parking lot, and all checked the box on our response card “Do this again next year” and “Invite me to your next event.” A few guests even managed to track me down over the din of “California Girls” to share with me that they wanted more info about our church which I was more than willing to provide!!!

A special thank you to Chuck Heath and Denny Kajfasz and Greg LaPoint for helping a couple car show newbies like Pastor Nathan and me in the planning of this event. Their insight and expertise made this an extra ordinary outreach. Thank them when you see them!!!

2 comments:

Monte said...

This is a hugh success! I am proud of the Toledo First Church and your ministry, Mike, as well as your team!!!

Life is Good said...

Way to turn out the troops, Denny, Chuck and Greg. I'm sure most cars parked because of you. What bunch of cool cars. Thanks for all you did to make this a success.

And way to throw a real party in a church parking lot...

Pastors Nathan and Mike....just when we think you're closing in on tops...your ministry stuff just gets better and better.

Oh yeah......thanks for making the kids smile.