Dover Moravian Church Teens Have a Sole Purpose in Life
By Curtis Robert Tyree
July 17, 2011
303
Summary:
Two teens from Dover First Moravian Church hope to change the lives of area children by providing them free shoes, a necessity that can be costly for struggling families.
Article:
For many families that are struggling in this difficult economy making sure children have the necessary clothing is a concern, and one of the most expensive clothing items can be a pair shoes. Two teens from Dover First Moravian Church, Emily Mock and Layne Gerbig, hope to change that with their new church program, Sole Purpose.
Emily and Layne came to the churchs council asking if they could start this program, wanting to do something through the church that could help the community. And we agreed to do so, since taking care of others in our community is something we feel strongly about doing, said Dover First Moravian Church pastor John Wallace. Emily and Layne have been very proactive with Sole Purpose, and the church has responded in kind. Its a great opportunity for them and the other teens to not only help the community but also to learn about setting up something like this, and all the work that goes into it. They want to make sure that this lasts and isnt something that gets done once and is over with, they want to make sure that its a program that the other church teens continue.
On Saturday July 16 Sole Purpose held a Twister tournament at the church, as a fundraiser.
This is our first major fundraiser, we raised money through admission and donations. We had about 20 people come and we were excited about that, said Emily Mock, one of the founders of Sole Purpose. Many of the people are from church, which has been extremely supportive of our initiative. Our first fundraiser was handing out water at the Canal Days festival and taking donations for doing so. We also have planned an outdoor movie night on Thursday September 8, here in our parking lot.
For those who want to keep up to date with Sole Purpose, we want them to visit our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/dfsolepurpose.
It seems ironic to do a Twister fundraiser for a program hoping to distribute shoes to children who need them, seeing as how you have to take off your shoes to play, said Layne Gerbig, Sole Purposes other co-founder. We have a goal of purchasing and distributing around 100-150 pairs of shoes for area children who need them. Were going to send letters through the countys Dress-A-Child campaign along with letting the homeless shelter know about our program and getting the word out through various other programs.
Its obvious that Emily and Layne have been called to do something bigger than themselves with this project, said Pastor Wallace, and were thrilled with the churchs response and we hope that they are able to achieve their goal of helping children in need in our area. Its great to see youth do something like this, wanting to selflessly help others.
