Projects

Service is core to our church - we are a mission-minded church and strive to serve others in our community and around the world. Serve Day is an opportunity for you to join that focus. We'll concentrate on "Serving our neighbor"? through acts of kindness and by meeting practical needs. There are many ways to get involved: through organized projects, team participation, or individual service.

Visit our table in the Narthex Sunday, October 5 and Sunday, October 12 to get more information and to sign up to be a servant of God. Or, please contact the Project Manager directly for more information.

Project List

Creek Clean-up

As part of our Church's mission to serve others and our community, the Green Team is now recruiting for our Serve Day project. We have chosen to work with the City of Plano to clean up a creek (or two) in Plano. Our waterways are an important asset not only to the neighborhoods, but to the creatures, great and small, that inhabit the creek. The plan of action will be to clean the creek we are assigned. The city will provide all the tools necessary, you'll only need to bring a pair of tough work gloves and possibly some boots for getting in the water. Families with children are welcome to help, but keep in mind we will be working around water and there is always a chance that we could come in contact with Poison Ivy or Poison oak.

Date: Saturday, October 18

Duration: Approximately 9am - 12:00pm

Volunteers needed: Approxmiately 30

Location: Plano

Age/special considerations: Families with children are welcome - but the inherent risks of working around water and poison ivy should be considered.

Small group: Green Team

To volunteer or for more information, contact Project Manager: cscarol@sbcglobal.net or cell # 469-667-4445 or home # 972-396-5856

Hunger Programs:

The need for food in our local pantries is overwhelming! You can help eliminate hunger right here in our neighborhood by bringing in one bag of groceries. If everybody in our congregation did that, we could make a huge difference! The economy, natural disasters and other factors are putting a lot of stress on all of our community resources and this is a great, easy way for you to help. Other necessary items are toiletries and diapers!

You can help fight hunger in our community in three ways.

1) Food Drive

Get every person at CUMC to bring a bag of food to the church and help "stuff the bus"?

When/Where you can donate items:
Sunday Morning October 12, 19 and 26 during all worship services inside double doors of the main building.
Saturday Morning, October 18 (ServeDay) - 9 a.m - 12 p.m in the CUMC parking lot
Sunday afternoon, October 19 (Picnic +) - 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m near the doors of the CLC

Volunteers needed: Everybody at CUMC.

Age: Everyone can help!

Items needed: Canned meats, fruits, and vegetables, rice, dried beans, peanut butter, cereal, jelly, pasta and pasta sauce, ramen noodles, mac and cheese, jello, coffee/tea, sugar, flour, masa, cornbread/biscuit mix, fruit juice and canned evaporated milk. Also, baby diapers, baby formula/food, toiletries and monetary donations are always welcome. We are also collecting canned cranberries, yams, and pumpkin for our Thanksgiving Basket Program.

2) Help sort and/or deliver the food we collect

Help sort, organize, and/or deliver all the donated items to local pantries.

Duration: Saturday and Sunday morning (October 18 and October 19) Saturday from 9am - 12pm (serve day)
Sunday from 8:30 - 12pm (during services)

Location: Saturday, October 18 - CUMC parking lot, Sunday, October 19 - inside the double doors to the main building

Volunteers Needed: Approximately 12 (hour shifts at 9, 10, 11)

Age: 8 or older with parental supervision

Special considerations: Must be willing and able to lift bags and sometimes heavy boxes and sort and lift items from one area to another.

To volunteer: contact Project Manager: Deborah Covin at Home 972-964-2882, Cell 214-402-9952, dscovin@verizon.net

3) Help at local pantry

Go to a local pantry and help them load shelves and organize items.

Duration: Saturday morning, October 18 from 9am - 12pm (serve day)

Location: Meet in CUMC parking lot at "the bus"?

Volunteers Needed: Approximately 8

Age: 13 or older

Special considerations: Must be willing and able to lift heavy boxes and items.

For information on any or all of our hunger programs and to volunteer, please contact Project Manager: Deborah Covin at Home 972-964-2882 or Cell 214-402-9952, dscovin@verizon.net

Disaster Response Team (DRT)
Helping local residents in need -CANCELLED/POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Similar to last year, we will be working with the City of Frisco, where we helped an elderly, disabled homeowner by demolishing and cleaning-up two dilapidated sheds that were out of code that the homeowner did not have the means to repair or remove. We are currently working with Frisco to arrange for similar work this year.

NOTE: Two DRT teams are actively involved in Hurricane Ike clean-up. Currently, the trip dates do not effect our planned ServeDay work. If the DRT teams gets called on another trip our Serve Day project may have to be canceled or rescheduled to another Saturday. We will do our best to keep everyone informed of our status.

Volunteers Needed: Approximately 20 -25. Depending on the nature of the work offered by Frisco, we might be able to accommodate more (i.e., work 2 jobs sites concurrently).

Date: Saturday, October 18 (serve day)

Location: Frisco, exact location to be determined

Duration: We anticipate starting between 8:30 and 9:00 AM and finishing just before lunch time.

Special Criteria: Demolition and clean-up of this nature involves some hard physical work (using hand tools, heavy lifting) and can be dirty and hazardous. Sorry, no children below 9th grade. Gloves and work boots are strongly recommended.

Small group: Disaster Response Team

To volunteer or for more information, contact Project Manager: Larry Rex - larry.rex@dal.frb.org / C 972-672-5338 / H 972-596-1513

Recycling Projects

Clean out your closets and attics. Declutter your house. Simplify your life. Help a family in need. Reduce waste. Recycle. Think Green. Donate to others.

Household items, small pieces of furniture and more: Interfaith Housing Coalition- benefiting homeless families who are building a new life through a Christian based program. Families are allowed to live in housing on campus for 18 months and get training and support. At the end of their stay, they are allowed to take the household items to their new home. They accept items that would fit into a small apartment.
Items include: furniture (no large sectionals or glass top tables), decorations, pots & pans, glasses, towels, gently used mattresses & sheets (no king size please), utensils, dishes, etc. interfaithhousingcoalition.org

Clothing, toys and other small household items: The Thrift Store- benefiting the Collin County Children's Advocacy Center (serving abused and neglected children)
They accept: clothing, books, decorative items, dishes, pots & pans, small working appliances, etc. (No large appliances, large furniture, or fixtures please).
cacplano.org

Computers: Project Hope Recycled Computers Project - Computers to be refurbished and donated to Project Hope participants (participants are working to improve their lives thru training and education - computers are a key component to their success!) We will accept computers with the following specs:
purchased after 2002, operating system 2000 or XP, or CPU speed of 850 MHZ (min)

Soccer Uniforms new or used, Soccer balls, shorts, athletic shoes/cleats, warm-ups, nets, goals, trophies etc: Honduras Youth Soccer Project

Furniture (new or gently used): House on the Corner needs these items to help this house become a home. Contact Leah Young at leahyoung@verizon.net or call 972-378-9140

Date: Saturday, October 18, 2008

Duration: 3-hours, Saturday morning from 9-12:30

Volunteers needed: approximately 10 people on October 18 to help sort donations but ANYONE can donate

Location: CUMC Parking Lot - look for the big trucks in our parking lot!

Age: Children 13 and older with adult supervision the day of but again ANYONE can donate

Special consideration: Need to be able to lift some heavy objects and furniture

Small group: Connections

To volunteer or for more information, contact Project Manager: Jana Grimone at 972-596-4303 or jana@cumc.com

ORGANIZE A NEIGHBORHOOD DRIVE: Ask your friends and neighbors if they have any of the items above and you will be helping a neighbor out and serving the community at one time! Then, just bring the items to our church on Saturday morning, October 18!

Flood Buckets

Assemble flood buckets with items that have been purchased. Items include materials that will be used in cleaning up a flood, this is a great project for a family. A lot goes on behind the scenes with this project and we are especially looking for individuals and groups to purchase items and deliver them to the designated storage area.

Date: November 2 at 11:00 a.m

Duration: Approximately 1-2 hours

Volunteers needed: Approximately 20

Location: Room N157

Age/special considerations: Children 4 and older with adult supervision

Small group sponsor: Passages Sunday School Class

To volunteer or for more information, contact Project Manager: Marcia Dahl - marcia_dahl@sbcglobal.net at 972-618-7646

Kick-off Serve Day Morning breakfast

Help welcome serve day volunteers and provide a light breakfast and coffee to get their day started right.

Date: October 18, 2008

Duration: 8 - 9:30 am, Saturday, October 18

Volunteers needed: Approximately 5 to help welcome and serve. Also, donations of continental breakfast items are welcome.

Location: Outside the Christian Life Center under the eves on the side of bldg

Age/special considerations: Children 8 and older with adult supervision

Small group sponsor: Footloose

To volunteer or for more information, contact Project Manager: Tarrall Arnold at tarnold@interconfinancial.com

Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward a Cure

There are 3 million children in the United States with food allergies, including many in our congregation. The Food Allergy and Anaphylactic Network (FAAN) will be holding its annual fundraising walk at Bob Woodruff park on Saturday, November 8th. Registration starts at 9, the walk begins at 10 with bounce houses, face painting, live music and more to follow! It costs nothing to register to walk, so sign up to walk as an individual or join the CUMC team! If you won't be able to walk that day, you can still donate or even be a virtual walker and raise money for the cause.

Volunteers needed: unlimited

Age/special considerations: none

Additional information: To join the team, donate money, or simply find out more, visit the team website at foodallergywalk.org/goto/team_cumc.

To volunteer or for more information contact Project Manager: Mindy Trujillo at mindytrich@hotmail.com or 972) 517-4524.

Walk for Hutington's Disease

Huntington's disease is a hereditary degenerative brain disorder. Huntington's disease Society of America (HDSA) is the only national voluntary health agency that provides support and services to persons with Huntington's disease (HD) and their families through a national/regional structure.

Volunteers needed: unlimited

Age/special considerations: Anyone can volunteer to walk with CUMC families and need not feel obligated to donate to HDSA.

Additional information: Registration for the walk is 8:00 a.m. and the walk will begin at 9:00 am finishing by 11:00 a.m. or so. The walk will be held at River Legacy Park In Arlington - Elm Grove Pavilion.

To volunteer or for more information contact Project Manager: Encounters Sunday School class has adopted this HD Walk for Hope as our mission project for ServeDay. Contact Ronnie Thomson vthomson@tx.rr.com or 214-793-1988.
For Ronnie’s personal website, go to: http://www.firstgiving.com/vthomson

Baking cookies

Project Description: We are baking cookies for voters who will come to our church for early voting and the primary election that will take place in the CLC. We will offer this hospitality and invite them to visit us again on an upcoming Sunday.

Date: Saturday, October 18

Duration: 1:30 - 4pm - please be on time.

Volunteers needed: Approximately 50 children and 10 adults

Location: CLC Kitchen and room S126

Age/special considerations: This is for 4th and 5th graders only. We asking for $5.00 donation to cover the cost of ingredients. We also need mixers, cookie sheets and other baking utensils.

Small group: Kid's Rock

To volunteer or for more information contact Project Manager: Anne Deegan at 972-839-5555 or anne@cumc.com