Habitat for Humanity 

Coordinator: Wayne McCune email

Calgary Presbytery has formed a partnership with Habitat for Humanity Calgary to help address the need for affordable housing in Calgary and Area. Habitat for Humanity Calgary builds modest homes for low income families with children in partnership with families, volunteers and donors. Since 1988, Habitat Calgary has built close to 100 homes in Calgary.

A great christian outreach is realized with the Habitat model:

• Families are lifted out of sub-standard rental housing, allowing them to break the cycle of poverty.
• This provides another rental unit for those in need of shelter.
• Habitat does not give houses to families. The families contribute 500 hours of sweat-equity to build their home and then pay a no interest mortgage on their home.

The congregations of the United Church of Calgary Presbytery are called to support this urgent community need. Habitat requires volunteers for their construction projects and in the Restore.  If you can volunteer a day, two days or weekly, submit an application which is available at www.habitatcalgary.ca. or from the church. No previous experience is necessary. You must be at least 16 years of age. For more information about Habitat's activities in the Calgary area and the wide range of ways to support Habitat, go to www.habitatcalgary.ca.

Inn From the Cold

Coordinator: John Hudspeth email

On the last Saturday of each month, the church hosts Inn from the Cold, to provide overnight shelter, a hot meal and next day lunch for 15-20 homeless guests. Volunteers are needed to provide food donations, meal preparation, bed set-up, overnight supervision and church clean-up activities.

The IFTC Coordinator Team is John Hudspeth. They are assisted by event coordinators Jodi Flodstedt, Graham Harmar and Corinne Willerth. Coordinators plan a dinner and lunch menu for each event. If you are interested becoming an event coordinator, please contact John.

There are many volunteer opportunities to help our guests. Whole families are encouraged to volunteer as many of our guest are families with young children. The event begins at 5:00pm on the Saturday where the bed set-up crew and kitchen/dining area crew start their evening. The guests arrive between 6:45 and 7:00pm and get settled in to their bunks. Dinner is served shortly after their arrival. Volunteers are welcome to stay and break bread with the guests. You will meet some fascinating people with many interesting stories. Once supper is completed, the kitchen clean-up crew takes over. After supper, the guests and volunteers can chat, play cards, or watch a video. Guests begin to retire for the evening at 8am. Evening and overnight chaperones are needed for the overnight hours, which is broken down into three shifts (7pm-10pm, 10pm-2am, 2am-6am). The overnight chaperone teams must be at least one male and one female member of the church. The breakfast crew arrives at 5:30am on Sunday morning to prepare breakfast. The guests depart with a bag lunch at around 7am. The final kitchen clean-up and bed take-down crews start at 7am and finish by 8:30am.

The whole venture takes at least 60 man-hours and about $400 in food. The event relies on the donation of food items and volunteer time. Everyone is invited to participate. Sign up sheets for both food and volunteering are ready for filling in on the two Sundays before each event. Take a look at the volunteer table during Coffee Time.

For more information about Inn From the Cold and its activities in the Calgary area, go to www.innfromthecold.org.

Sandwich Bee

Coordinator: Gerry Clark email

For many years, Midlands has supported the Calgary Drop-In Centre. This ministry is called the Sandwich Bee. It involves providing 40 loaves of sandwiches for the Centre on the last Monday of each month (September - June). Several folks from Red Deer Lake volunteered to help at the last Sandwich Bee held at Midlands United Church and felt it was a very good venture and should be continued. If you are interested in helping to make all these sandwiches, you can either come and help put them together (9am on the last Monday each month) or provide sandwich fillings such as peanut butter, jam, margarine, condiments, lunch meets, tuna, salmon, etc. Food donations are accepted the Friday and Sunday before the Bee. Mark all items with “Sandwich Bee” and place all perishable items in one of the refrigerators in the Church kitchen.