Saturday, October 17, 2009
Church readies for day of service
More than 400 volunteers will be giving away quarters at a public laundromat, collecting potatoes and cleaning up yards on Oct. 24.
The Roanoke Times | File March
Ralph Kopera pumps gas for last spring's Operation Reach Out service day with Vinton Baptist Church. Though the church's gas giveaway has been discontinued, other efforts are planned.
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When Mark Sink, a sewer inspector, says he's looking to collect a ton of potatoes, he means it. He wants to get all 2,204 pounds of the starchy, edible plant that it will take to equal a metric ton.
"I have no idea what 1 ton of potatoes looks like, but I guess I'm about to find out," he said with conviction this week.
The project is called Operation Reach Out, and it's Vinton Baptist Church's ambitious and nontraditional form of faith-based community outreach. The church plans to have more than 400 volunteers engaging in Bible studies, backyard cleanups and visits to senior citizens' homes the morning of Oct. 24.
This will be the church's fourth edition of the effort, though some of the projects are new, and some didn't return (such as a gas giveaway at certain service stations in March.)
But many assignments for good Samaritans are still on the list: giving away quarters at a public laundromat, laying down enough pennies to equal the length of a mile and the activity Sink will lead -- collecting countless potatoes.
"We're stepping out of the box to do some things that aren't as traditional so that anyone in the community can participate," said Denise Salvi, an organizer and the church's director of children's ministry.
For volunteers, reaching out to people in their town but outside of their church represents their sense of community and energy about their faith and shows one of the most basic tenants of Christianity -- caring about others.
Bob Wintz, 40, said he, his wife, and their 4-year-old daughter joined the church when they moved from the Philadelphia suburbs in 2008 and a cousin invited them to Sunday services. He said that after being born and raised Catholic, he got excited again about church because of his new congregation's contemporary worship and efforts in the community.
"To me, we do things that have an impact on the community," he said. He will be leading a group of people in collecting enough pennies to equal a mile; in other words, 84,480 pennies or about $845. He said they will lay them in the parking lot in front of the Kroger on Hardy Road and then donate the money to the Vinton Fire Department.
Meanwhile, Sink, who will lead a group collecting the potatoes at a church parking lot, says that people in need -- whether they meet them during a mission trip to a small town in Brazil or at a local food pantry -- appreciate the help. They will donate the potatoes to Manna House, the Baptist Community Center and the church's own food pantry.
Does he expect to collect a ton in donations?
"Of course! We've got to."
For more information on Operation Reach Out, call 343-7685, or go to www.vinton baptistchurch.org.
