Page 21 - Presbyterian Connection Newspaper

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NEWS
Style and Fashion Meet to Support an Innovative Initiative
By Rebecca Sherbino, Raw Carrot Co-Director
What do 100 ladies and gents in top hats, flapper dresses and feathers do on a chilly September day? Head out to support a great cause, of course!
On Sept. 9, 2018, a fashion event was held with the proceeds going to the Raw Carrot Soup Enterprise. The event was a Roaring 20s Tea & Fete (Garden Par ty), where people were encouraged to don vintage costumes and enjoy High Tea and an intimate vendor marketplace in suppor t of a local ministry at Paris Presbyterian Church in Paris, Ont.
The Raw Carrot Soup Enterprise is an initiative that was started in 2014 to provide employment oppor tunities for individuals with disAbilities and mental health illness through cook- ing gourmet soup. The co-founders of the Raw Carrot saw a need in their own church congregation to provide something more than just a donation or grocery card to individuals who were struggling to make ends meet on their monthly disability stipend. In- stead of coming to the church monthly to access the church benevolent fund, they wanted to create an oppor tunity where people didn’t need the benevo- lent fund.
Raw Carrot founders, Colleen Graham and Rebecca Sherbino, felt that people needed more than just a handout, they needed a Hand Up through employment! They are pas- sionate about advocating that people with disAbilities want to participate in community life, feel valued for their contribution to something meaningful and experience the dignity of honest work—there is just not a lot of op- portunity to fit their unique talents and skill set. That’s where the Raw
PRESBYTERIAN
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WINTER 2018
A Spirit of Joy and Gratitude in Unionville
Left to right: Rebecca Sherbino, Raw Carrot Co-Director; Milan Novakovic, Sr., representative for MPP Will Bouma; Susan Ritchie, Fundraising Organizer; Colleen Graham, Raw Carrot Co-Director; and MP Phil McColeman.
By Ruth Anne Robertson, Presbyterian Music Camp Committee Convenor
Presbyterian Music Camp is a camp for families and individuals who enjoy music and spending time growing in Christian community. It is a place to grow musically and spiritually, a place where people of all ages can learn new skills and share their gifts with one another. This year, our week-long camp ran from Sunday, Aug. 19 to 26. We had 127 campers (including visitors) attend PMC at Camp Tama- rack, in the beautiful Muskoka region of Ontario.
The 2018 theme, Seeing the Forest Through the Trees: It’s Time to See the Big Picture, enabled us, as a com- munity, to take time out of our own individual realities to examine different aspects of our lives. We used a daily theme of “Taking Time Out” to explore themes such as: Taking Time Out from Work, Taking Time Out for Fam- ily, Taking Time Out in Suffering, and Taking Time Out for Celebration. We encouraged one another to take time to step away from routines, search for purpose and make space for God in our lives. Our final Sunday worship
service encouraged us to take what we had reflected upon back to our day-to-day lives and work on seeing the bigger picture amid the daily de- tails of our busy lives.
We enjoyed a wonderful week using our theme, times of worship, work- shops and activities as tools to grow together in community. Our evening programs included Campfire, Live Band Karaoke, Variety Night, Coffee House, Movie Night and Dance Night. The workshops available included: camp choir, children’s choir, concert band, children’s games, cherubs, re- laxation, children’s crafts, adult crafts, singing for non-singers, several levels of guitar, several levels of ukulele, show choir, garage band, jazz band, Celtic group, banjo, bagpipes, beginner re- corder, contemporary Christian music, sound improvisation, sport of the day, drama improvisation, parent & tot mu- sic,advancedchoir,anddrumcircle.
Considering attending Presbyterian Music Camp? Please visit our website at musiccamp.ca for more informa- tion. We have been in existence for more than 40 years and run our week- long camp the last full week of August every year.
Carrot comes in. The social enter- prise employs people on the Ontario Disability Support Program to cook tasty handcrafted soup that is sold in the local community. Although the Raw Carrot is a ministry of the church (with the church providing the commercial kitchen facilities), it op- erates like a business or “social en- terprise” where the employees are all paid a minimum wage salary through sales of soup.
The initiative has grown beyond the walls of the church, and there are now three Raw Carrot locations (in part- nershipwithMennoniteCentralCom- mittee of Ontario and Mt. Forest United Church) in Kitchener and Mt. Forest, employing 16 individuals, with a vi- sion to continue to grow and provide more employment.
The Garden Tea & Fete was organ- ized primarily by two avid Raw Carrot supporters, who wanted to dig in and help promote the Raw Carrot locally and to raise some funds. This is the second High Tea event that they have held in suppor t of the enterprise.
The affair was a “roaring” success, with almost 100 people in attend- ance, including local dignitaries. MP Phil McColeman, himself the father of a child with physical and intellectual disAbilities, opened the event with a moving speech suppor ting the crea- tion of local job opportunities for in- dividuals with disAbilities and the en- suing dignity, pride and purpose that comes from having a job.
In all, over $4,000 was raised through ticket sales with all of the proceeds going to suppor t the Raw Carrot. Funds will be used to launch anonlinestorethatwillprovidehome delivery of gourmet soup to people in the Paris-area, with a vision to in- crease sales of soup, which will then be able to employ additional staff and give current staff more hours of work.
The Raw Carrot Soup Enterprise is a ministry of Paris Presbyterian Church and is supported, in part, through a Specialized Ministry grant from The Presbyterian Church in Canada.
The Rev. Marty Molengraaf and the Rev. Grace Chang.
Beach time.
Enjoying Celtic music.
Presbyterian Music Camp
parasource.com
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Serving Canada’s Christian Community
On Sept. 23, the Rev. Marty Mo- lengraaf and the Rev. Grace Chang shared the pulpit at Unionville Presby- terian Church celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Mandarin-speaking congregation and the 34th anniver- sary of the English-speaking congre- gation. We joined together in a spirit of joy and gratitude for our strong relationships, for the building of new relationships and for the presence of God’s love found in our connection with one another.
This past May, we had a time of cel- ebration and recognition of the incredi- ble work Grace is doing at UPC. As well as a worship service each Sunday and a bible study during the week, she is involved with a number of small group studies and supports our extensive ESL program. Grace also works with the Mandarin “Health and Happiness Seniors’ Choir,” which helps to further our endeavour at UPC to become a hub for the support of seniors in our imme- diate community of Unionville, Ont.