DOERS-in-Action Summer 2020 list

• Pack and Deliver Food for UGK!

We hope you have heard the news! St. James’s has become a partner in the UGK Community First, a non-profit organization that provides healthy, wholesome meals to those in need, particularly in food-insecure areas. 

Beginning this week, the church kitchen will be open several days each week to UGK chefs. DOER volunteers are invited to participate offsite, assisting at the Roslyn Conference Center with packaging or distribution (Monday-Friday, morning, and afternoon) or at the Manchester studio for distributions to residences (mid-morning to afternoon Wednesdays and Saturdays). All kitchen and packaging locations are set up according to safety guidelines. If you would like to sign up to assist with this important and far-reaching ministry, please contact UGK coordinator Michelle Lewis at [email protected].

• Help us finish decorating the St. James’s two-bedroom CARITAS apartment!

St. James’s is honored to be part of such an important and exciting event and we look forward to the upcoming opening of the CARITAS Center this summer.

Church member Jennifer Pollard has been hosing a shower and would love to have you join in the fun of selecting the few remaining (and inexpensive) items that are needed.  Each apartment has a unique list of needed items that can be ordered online and delivered to a designated location.  Jennifer will provide all the details! You can contact her at [email protected] or 540-645- 9611.   

• Contribute Men’s Underwear and T-shirts to The Healing Place

Please drop off donations at THP, 700 Dinwiddie Avenue. A security guard is at the front desk 24/7.  Just wave to him and let him know you are leaving a donation and he will come outside to collect it.

If ever a time that our outreach should be strong and vital it is now!  Our community agencies who continue to serve on the front line for vulnerable people need our support!  Like all of our ministries during this crisis time, outreach ministry has taken on a new look and can be seen in the many and varied ways that you the DOERS are reaching out to our community people and partner agencies in need. Listed below are many ways you can be a DOER-in-Action on behalf of St. James’s: 

DOERS Can Support Real Life!

• Individuals and families can provide supplies, non-perishable food, and meals to residents of REAL Life! Non-perishable food items, personal hygiene products, and de-sanitizers can be dropped off on the front porch of the women’s house, 2111 Harwood Street, Richmond, 23224.

If you have questions, contact Yvonne Gibney, [email protected] or
Judy Philpott, [email protected]

• Especially for children, families can do some baking together, and prepare a meal for residents of one of the homes. Each of the two men’s houses has 10 residents and the women’s home has 7 residents.  If you can prepare a meal (or even some cookies or brownies) for one of the homes, please contact Director, Sarah Scarborough ([email protected]/ 804-837-7779) to set up a delivery time and so she can let residents know in advance when to expect a meal. 

Real Life, one of our partner agencies provides transitional recovery housing and support to individuals who have been impacted by incarceration, homelessness, or substance abuse disorder and who are in recovery, striving towards a self-sufficient and thriving life. Since its beginning in 2017, Real Life has opened a community center, two transitional recovery homes for men, and one for women. A special service for women, the “Motherhood Program” offers expectant and recent mothers support and nurture that help them stay healthy and move towards a thriving life.       

DOERS can support CARITAS! 

• Donate grocery cards (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Food Lion) and fast food gift cards (McDonald’s, Chick-Fil-A, Subway, and Panera).  Please mail your cards to CARITAS P.O. Box 25790 Richmond, VA 23260-5790.
• Also, The Healing Place is in need of men’s t-shirts and underwear (underwear should be new!).

Delivered to The Healing Place – 700 Dinwiddie Avenue – Security works 24/7 – just wave to a security officer at door to let him know the donation is being left at door – no need to go in.

• Donate fabric masks and hand sanitizers.  Hundreds of fabric masks that can be washed and reused are needed!  Please make no-contact drop to the collection box (near the mailbox) in the parking lot of The Healing Place, 700 Dinwiddie Street Avenue, Richmond VA 23224. 
• Along with our community partners, CARITAS has created opportunities to help serve meals to people sheltered in hotels during this time. Go to CARITAS/Response to Covid-19 to learn more, or for questions email [email protected].
• Support CARITAS Furniture Bank

Perhaps you are using some of your stay at home time to clean out and de-clutter your home.  Please know that the CARITAS Furniture Bank is up and running, serving our most vulnerable neighbors who are trying to secure adequate household items and furniture for their homes. Each gently-used item helps bring dignity to a household, allowing families to eat together around a dining room table, a child to sleep in a bed and not on the floor, a mother to cook, and serve meals with adequate kitchen supplies. 

Please go online (https://www.caritasva.org) to see an extensive list of acceptable items and call ahead (804-358-0964 ext. 401) to make an appointment for a drop-off.

*Temporary donation hours: 8 – 11 a.m., Monday through Friday at 1108 Gordon Avenue. Donation pick-up service is suspended.”  

• Be part of a housewarming shower!  The long-awaited opening of the CARITAS Center is scheduled for this summer!  St. James’s adopted a 2 bedroom apartment and now it is time to help get all 47 sober living apartments ready to receive new residents. Church member Jennifer Pollard is hosting a shower and would love to have you join in the fun of selecting items for one apartment. Each apartment has a unique list of needed items that can be ordered online and delivered to a designated location.  Jennifer will provide all the details! You can contact her at [email protected] or 540-645- 9611.  
• Having a long stay at home, perhaps you have decided your wall colors are a bit boring!   If so, Flourish Spaces can help you and you can help CARITAS by participating in its program called “Design for Shelter.” All proceeds will go to CARITAS in support of their heroic efforts to address the acute needs of the homeless population which have been exasperated by COVID-19. You can sign up for a 45-minute slot for a virtual consult for your home at half the usual hourly rate. Four sessions will be offered per week. You can schedule yours by going to https://www.flourishspaces.com/design-for-shelter.  Your participation means that as your shelter becomes more functional and joyful, you have helped someone get the shelter they need!  For questions, please contact Stevie McFadden ([email protected].

DOERS can support McGuire’s Veterans Hospital!

While our hospital ministry team is unable to be present with patients and staff at this time,

DOERS can help provide greatly needed masks for hospital staff who do not work directly with patients.  The hospital is in need of 100% cotton masks.  We are looking for volunteers to sew masks as well as donations of the following materials: 1/4” or 1/8” flat elastic and 100% cotton fabric (cotton sheets can work well for lining). If you do not sew or have elastic and fabric, it is still possible for you to help by ordering the needed supplies. Please contact church member Margaret Bloor for further information about ordering supplies online:  [email protected]  or 804-339-9980 (cell).  

DOERS can support The Virginia Home!

The Virginia Home is a private, nonprofit home that provides nursing, therapeutic, residential, and compassionate care to adult Virginians with irreversible physical disabilities.  

• Donate cloth masks as well as materials to make cloth masks (including: elastic, fabric, pipe cleaners, and thread); disposable hospital gowns, gloves, and goggles.  Please bring your collections to the blue bin located on the 1205 W. Franklin Street front porch of the church.  Frances McDermott will regularly collect and distribute to the Virginia Home.
• Mail cards of hope and inspiration to church members who are residents at TVH and/or children can send artwork to:  Miss Christine Newbold and Mr. Thomas McDermott:  1101 Hampton Street, Richmond VA 23220.

DOERS can support Community Shelters

• Especially for children: donate artwork, prayer cards, and friendly “hello cards” with hope, and love, and inspiration, and maybe butterflies to the children and parents of our community shelters. Your message can read to: Residents of (shelter name) and from: Friends of St. James’s Episcopal Church. Contact information: Home Again, Inc. P.O. Box 5222, Richmond VA 23220 and Housing Families First, 3900 Nine Mile Road, Henrico VA 23233.
• Masks are needed at our local shelters:  Salvation Army (drop off:  2 West Grace Street front entrance); Housing Families First (mail to Terry Iguina, 3900 Nine Mile Road, Richmond, 23223), and Home Again (11 W. Grace Street). Please contact Jane Hatcher ([email protected]) with any questions and to receive a tracking form.

• DOERS can support GRTC

 GRTC needs masks for bus operators and passengers that require assistance boarding. Please consider making a handful of masks and sending them to GRTC’s headquarters (301 E. Belt Boulevard). Alternatively, you can join in this mutual aid effort headed up by Studio Two Three and 1708 Gallery to make masks for all sorts of essential workers—bus operators included. 

Possible safe distancing in-person volunteer opportunities please contact:

• Salvation Army (804-225-7470 ext. 3)
• FeedMore (804-521-2500) 
• American Red Cross Donation Centers (formerly Virginia Blood Service). VBS (804-342-4030) or American Red Cross (1-800-733-2767).

 If you have been sending food cards, making masks, providing meals, grocery shopping for others, sending pictures and cards to agencies or nursing homes, or providing other types of outreach, please send me an e-mail so we can share outreach offerings, big and small!    

If you have questions about any of these ministry opportunities or have other ideas about how to serve, please contact  Nancy Warman, Director of Servant Ministry at [email protected] or 804-873-4083.