JOIN HANDS DAY EVENTS
Join Hands Day events are volunteer events that aim to partner young and old people together to benefit the community. Our chapter goal is to sponsor two such events in Monroe County each year. In the Summer of 2007, our Chapter sponsored a painting and landscaping project to benefit the Girls Scouts of Tropical Florida. In the Winter of 2007, our Chapter sponsored a food assembly project to benefit the recipient families of Keys Area Interdenominational Resources. Most recently, we assembled and distributed 200 toiletry gift bags to the area's needy mothers for our Summer 2008 Join Hands Day. Please scroll down to see pictures and descriptions from our most recent Join Hands Day events.
If you would like more information on our local Join Hands Day event, please contact the Communications Director via the email address located on the Home Page on this website. Click the underlined red 'Home' below to return there at any time.
For more information on the fraternal organizations that participate in national
Join Hands Day events, please visit www.joinhandsday.org.
JOIN HANDS FOR THE MOTHERS: May 3rd, 2008
During the month of April, all of the Monroe County Lutheran Churches collected hundreds of unopened hotel-sized toiletries to assemble into 200 gift bags on May 3rd for the needy mothers in the Florida Keys. Recipient organizations include Samuel's House Domestic Abuse Shelter in Key West, the Marathon Domestic Abuse Shelter, the Key West Convalescent Center and the Plantation Key Convalescent Center. Excess products were divided between the food pantries at Keys Area Interdenominational Resources and Higher Love Homeless Shelter in Marathon.
On Saturday, May 3rd, volunteers ranging in age from 14 to 80 years and traveling from distances as far away as Key West and Key Largo, met at Martin Luther Chapel in Marathon, Florida to decorate and assemble 200 toiletry gift bags. Each bag was decorated with a hand-colored label depicting the Join Hands Day logo and a bibe verse on the face and each bag was tied with a pink ribbon. The volunteer filled each bag with a devotional booklet provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a bar of soap and one bottle each of shampoo, conditioner and lotion.
Once all 200 gift bags were decorated, filled and tied shut, the volunteers took a break to enjoy a fellowship meal provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. The meal included fruit and vegetable platters, pinwheel sandwiches and a variety of desserts. During the meal, the volunteers made plans for distributing the bags to their intended recipient organiztaions.
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JOIN HANDS FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Winter 2007
On December 15, 2007, twenty seven Thrivent volunteers ages 6 to 74 joined together at the Methodist Community Church in Marathon, Florida to assist volunteers of the KAIR (Keys Area Interdenominational Resources) organization in assembling 200 Christmas ham dinners for needy families in the Middle Keys.
Before the truck of food was delivered for the assembly of the meal packages, Thrivent volunteers and many others grabbed crayons to creatively decorate paper bags which were filled with candy to be included with each meal. Everyone had fun coloring the bags and each Christmas dinner package, that would otherwise be entirely generic, received a personal touch and a holiday message from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
All 200 bags were colored and stuffed with candy in time for the real excitement to begin. As soon as the food delivery truck arrived, all volunteers shifted into high gear to keep pace with the assembly line of hams, vegetables, breads and deserts. One candy bag was added to the dinner packages as they were handed to the line of recipient families. After the recipient families took home what they needed, all remaining meals were donated and distributed to the various shelters in the area.
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JOIN HANDS DAY: Summer 2007
Our Summer 2007 Monroe County Join Hands Day event was a total success! 43 volunteers between the ages of 7 and 70 worked together on May 5, 2007 to help paint and landscape Camp Wesumkee on West Summerland Key, Florida. Within six hours of working together, the volunteers were able to paint the bath houses, clear out the debris from the landscaping along the northern face of the camp, waterseal the lifeguard tower and paint a mural commemorating the event. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans sponsored the event by contributing $1,000 toward the purchase of supplies.
BEFORE AFTER
The camp offers several sleeping tikis, a recreation center and two concrete bath houses. While the sleeping tikis sustained moderate damage during the recent hurricanes, it was the bath houses that took the brunt of the storm trauma. Both suffered roof and structural damage which required necessary but unsightly patching and repairs over the last year. The highest priority for our Join Hands Day event was to give both bath houses a fresh coat of paint inside and out to cover the patches and brighten their color.
The next priority for our event was to clear away debris that had washed ashore and into the landscaping on the north face of the camp ground. Our hard working volunteers took up the challenge of clearing the area and even had some fun doing it. The kids made piles of shells, rocks and sticks while the adults bagged refuse and piled driftwood to be taken to the dump. The Girl Scouts have already made plans to plant new trees in the area that we cleared as part of an Earth Day celebration.
The hottest job of the day was watersealing the lifeguard tower on the beach. Despite there being no shade in sight, one Thrivent family offered to take on the challenge and they did a beautiful job.
A fun project we worked on at the end of the day was a mural on the south wall of the west bath house commemorating the event. The event name and logo were painted on the wall framed by two palm trees. Some of the volunteers left their handprint on the mural as a reminder of their participation.
Our Monroe County Join Hands Day event was a success on many levels. Not only did we help the Girl Scout Council of Tropical Florida by making much needed improvements to their camp ground, we also got Thrivent Financial for Lutheran's name out into the community and fulfilled the true purpose of the event: to bring young and old people together to work on a common goal that betters our community.