Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Over 400 families served Thanksgiving meals thanks to Davidson UMC and other area churches

In the freezing cold, family members began to line up in front of the Bethlehem Center to collect Thanksgiving meal donations for their families. Bethlehem Center distributed over 400 meals to families living in the Brookhill, Southside, and Willmore neighborhoods so they could serve their families on Thanksgiving Day.
Special thanks goes out to Davidson United Methodist Church in Davidson, NC for continuing their tradition of donating 400 turkeys to the Bethlehem Center. Davidson holds a service the Sunday before Thanksgiving where attenders present grocery bags full of Thanksgiving "supplies" to the alter for the Bethlehem Center. Volunteers estimate anywhere from 500-750 of these bags are presented to the Bethlehem Center for the families the Center serves.
Thank you also to the other donors who supplied turkey breasts and sides for those involved in our seniors program.

The line formed at about 12:30 that day. Distribution began at 1. Temperatures were in the 40's, but people wanted to make sure they were there and ready for distribution.

A woman thanks our staff for her goodies. Faces like this make what we do well worth it!


A family decides to bring in a helpful tool in getting their meals home. Many families do not have cars, but live in the neighborhood, so some families have to find ways to carry their goodies home to get ready for Thanksgiving Day.



Families that are served also include 100 of our Head Start families.



Davidson United Methodist Church brings out volunteers to help take the donations off of the truck and distribute them to the Bethlehem Center.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Journey to Bethlehem

It's not too late to Register for the Journey to Bethlehem walk!

Three ways you can help:Walk (or participate as a ghost walker): Go to http://www.bethlehemcenter.org/Journeyreg.asp to register
Fill out the friends and family form and we will send out letters on your behalf: http://www.bethlehemcenter.org/letterwriting.asp
Donate: Go to www.bethlehemcenter.org to donate. You would be amazed how far small (or large!) donations can go towards helping the children of the Bethlehem Center. Call Amy with any questions at 704-371-7404 or e-mail ahutchison@bethlehemcenter.org


www.bethlehemcenter.org

Friday, November 21, 2008

Current Bethlehem Center Needs

We are having a Santa Brunch on Saturday, December 6th for the kids of the Bethlehem Center. We are in need of donations for this breakfast, which can be any of the following:
  • Pancake Mix
  • Eggs
  • Bagels
  • Muffins

If you are able to help out in this way, drop your donations by 2705 Baltimore Avenue and ask for Karie or Amy.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Looking for a way to give to Bethlehem Center that won't cost you a dime?

iGive is a program where a percentage of your online shopping gets donated back to the charity of your choice. It's simple. Shop through iGive.com or download the application that will automatically donate any time you shop online, and Bethlehem Center will receive a check from your iGive contributions.

Go to www.iGive.com/bethlehemcenter for more information and to sign up.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Guys with Ties raises $10,000 in support of the Bethlehem Center through 3rd Annual Monster Mash

Photo: Jared Keaton, Assistant Executive Director of the Bethlehem Center, accepts a check from Jason Snead, President of Guys with Ties along with Guys with Ties members (l to r: Chris Malach, Jordan Raniszeski, Tim Ferguson, Jim Heckman, and Peter Allen)








Guys with Ties raised $10,000 in support of the Bethlehem Center of Charlotte at their 3rd Annual Monster Mash party on October 31, 2008, sponsored by 96.1 the Beat. Over 1800 people were in attendance at this year’s event, with a line that stretched around the block by 10:00 PM. A $1000 cash prize, partially sponsored by the PR Store, was awarded to the costume contest winner.

Guys with Ties Charlotte is a non-profit organization founded in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2006 by 5 men seeking to enrich the Charlotte community through social events targeted at the young professional community that raise money and awareness for deserving charities in the Charlotte area. The goal of Guys with Ties is to connect Charlotte’s growing population of young professionals to organizations in our community that make Charlotte a better place.

“To put it in perspective, the amount of money raised off one night, one party is enough to send 25 of our kids to summer camp for a week,” says Amy Hutchison, Development Specialist at Bethlehem Center.

Bethlehem Center of Charlotte, located within the Charlotte Housing Authority’s Southside neighborhood off of Remount Road, is a nonprofit that provides educational opportunities for low-income children and families to improve the quality of their lives. Programs include an afterschool enrichment program, emergency financial assistance, scholarship awards, and seniors programs. Bethlehem Center is also the administrator for the national pre-school program, Head Start.

For more information about Guys with Ties, visit http://www.guyswithtiescharlotte.com/. For more information about the Bethlehem Center, visit http://www.bethlehemcenter.org/.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Stephanie Jennings

The Bethlehem Center has lost a valuable, respected and loved volunteer, Stephanie Jennings. The sudden and unexpected death of Stephanie at age 42 has created a huge void at Bethlehem Center and in the Community of Mecklenburg County. She served on the Board of Directors at Bethlehem Center for 5 years, where she also served as Chair of the Personnel Committee, and has given hundreds of hours of volunteer service to BC in addition to her work as a Community Relations Manager for Mecklenburg County. Stephanie also worked with the UNC-Charlotte Mediation Program.

Stephanie leaves behind her husband Steve and two young daughters. Please keep the Jennings family in your prayers.

Services will be held Friday, November, 14 at 11:00 at Myers Park Baptist Church. In lieu of flowers, the family request memorials to Bethlehem Center or to UNC-Charlotte Mediation Program.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Good Shepherd United Methodist Church

On Saturday, November 1st, volunteers from Good Shepherd United Methodist Church came out to finish painting the hallways of the Bethlehem Center. The Center has not been painted in several years, so the teachers and students enjoyed coming back to a freshly painted Bethlehem Center.

Here at the Bethlehem Center, we take stewardship very seriously. This means that if we don't have to spend your dollars as donors and United Methodists, we don't. When Bob Young of Hands on Charlotte was here a few weeks ago, he said this, "Be wary of a nonprofit who's facilities are too pristine. This means that they're spending money on the building that they aren't on programming." So, bringing in groups of volunteers to paint the walls with donated paint and donated hours means more of your money is spent on things like sending kids to camp, helping out families in need with emergency assistance, and honoring deserving students with scholarships to pay for college. We love what we do, but we love what you do even more. Thank you Good Shepherd!














































Thursday, November 6, 2008

Halloween Hall-A-Ball-Oo

Students at the Bethlehem Center got the opportunity to have a BALL at the Halloween Hall-A-Ball-Oo. Bethlehem Center partnered with A Better World and other volunteers to present a day full of games and fun for the kids on Thursday, October 30th.


















After taking part in the carnival games, the kids went outside to have fun with our Executive Director, William McDonald. The class with the winning pumpkin was able to throw a pie in the face of our fearless leader. Thank you William for being such a great sport!





Thursday, October 30, 2008

Phillip Morris USA Gives the Center a facelift!





The first post of the blog is about our most recent volunteers who came to help out the Center. Anyone who has walked through the Center knows that it is in dire need of serious attention. The walls are crumbling, there are leakage problems, and the paint is (was) peeling.
Thanks to Hands on Charlotte, volunteers from Phillip Morris USA came out to help give the Bethlehem Center a fresh coat of paint. With 25+ volunteers in tow, the volunteers were able to paint the first floor hallways and the auditorium. At the end of the day, they presented us with a check for $5400 to go towards putting down a safer and more economically efficient rubberized playground surface for one of our Head Start sites.
Phillip Morris has a long-standing tradition of giving back to the community specifically through youth organizations. You can read more about their stance here.

Thank you again to Phillip Morris for all that you do in your communities!










Friday, October 24, 2008

About the Bethlehem Center

When I am asked about the Bethlehem Center, I find it hard to put what we do into a neat box. It usually starts somewhere along the lines of, "We serve the families in the Brookhill, Southside, and Wilmore neighborhoods..." and ends with a list of services. Of which, are always changing and I inevitably leave something off.

This blog is a way for us to keep you all updated on what happens at Bethlehem Center on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis. This isn't to say we will be removing data from the website, rather we want to add more information into your lives. We want you to know everything from what big group came in to volunteer, how our Halloween party went, and what new volunteer opportunities become available, but we do not want it to be lost in the shuffle, buried under another barrage of announcements made available through our main site. We are hoping that all of the work that all of our wonderful volunteers and supporters do will be recognized by many more people this way. We could not function without you, and because of this we want you to be recognized frequently and grandly.

Thank you for your continued support.