If one day of your life could:
-Provide low-income children with a better education
-Prevent teens from participating in gang and drug activity
-Send kids to college... first generation


What would you do?

Please join us in our Journey to Bethlehem on December 5th at 9 AM at Wesley United Methodist Church, a walk to fundraise for the educational programs of the Bethlehem Center. Registration fee is $15 before November 30th, free for Bethlehem Center and Head Start students and alumni. We ask that each walker set a fundraising goal of $50. Team packets and registration forms are now available through the Bethlehem Center development office by calling 704-371-7404 or e-mailing ahutchison@bethlehemcenter.org. For walk documents, visit Google Docs.

New this year, we have partnered with Firstgiving.com to allow walkers to raise funds online. For an example, go to www.firstgiving.org/abhutchison.

Help us Raise Money!

You'll notice on the right hand side there's a new Widget (a cute little thing with some functionality) to fundraise for my walk team.

We will once again be organizing a Journey to Bethlehem, and whether or not you can make it, come join us in our effort to raise money to support our missions department at Bethlehem Center!

How you can do it:
A-Click on "donate" which will send you to my page
B-Either donate or follow instructions as to how to create your own page
C-E-mail out to your friends and let them know how they can join us in helping strengthen families and educate children

If you have any questions about the walk or would like to participate, call 704-371-7404

Coming soon...

As many of you who follow us on Twitter already know, we are working on a brand new website. This website will have lots of capabilities, including a space for our alumni to reconnect and chat with each other and possibly a Spanish translation.

The question is, what would you like to see on our website? Is there anything that would keep you coming back? Is there any information you think we're missing?

If so, you may either post it as a comment, or e-mail it to ahutchison@bethlehemcenter.org.

Volunteer Staff makes the world go round...

I apologize for being behind in the posting of news around this area, but we have been very busy with all of the volunteers coming in and out of the Bethlehem Center.

2 weeks ago, we were visited by 3 groups in one week. Matthews United Methodist Church came out to help with trash pickup on campus, followed up with 3 days of washing our Head Start buses.

Christ Covenant Church in Matthews came out to tackle a very difficult project. After the chainsaw finally arrived, they were able to remove 7 or 8 VERY large bushes from in front of our Head Start building. The teamwork these youth displayed was amazing!

And finally, we have a group visiting on Mondays from Myers Park Presbyterian (pictures to come).

Campership Update

About a month and a half ago, we were still short 65 bags to send kids to the Christian camps, Camp Tekoa and Mount Shepherd. Needless to say, we were a little concerned.



We sent out e-mails, Tweets, facebook messages, and personal e-mails to all of our friends asking for help.



And the UMWs, UMCs, loyal Twitter followers, and faithful friends came through! We are very excited to report that as of yesterday, we had collected enough bags (counting the couple that we expected to come in today) to send all 80 children to camp!



Once again, though, we are asking for your help. We are still looking for financial support to send the kids to camp. It costs anywhere from $250-$400 (depending on the camp, age of kids, and transportation costs), and we have raised enough to send approximately 20 kids. We need your help sending 50-60 more. If you can help by making a financial donation, no matter how big or small, please send to Bethlehem Center c/o Amy Hutchison 2705 Baltimore Ave. Charlotte, NC 28203 with a memo for "Campership."

Once again, we thank you so much for all of your support!

What is Bethlehem Center doing during tough economic times?

We don't have to tell you that it's been tough on Americans through the past year. While the Charlotte Observer is reporting that the recession is over, Charlotte also is currently sitting at the highest unemployment rate in 25 years.

But what does that mean for Bethlehem Center?

In 2009, we have been extremely blessed by an increase in giving by some of our church supporters and the United Methodist Women. We cannot thank you enough for this. The Head Start arm of Bethlehem Center is expecting stimulus funds, due to a priority put on Head Start in the package. This will allow us to up our service levels from 858 children to an even 1000 in the 2009-2010 school year. According to Head Start research, society receives $9 in benefits for every $1 in support given to Head Start children. We expect these stimulus funds to not only impact the educational needs of the children, but to impact the Charlotte economy in a positive way.

That being said, we are seeing a greater need in the community that we serve through our Missions and Education department.  We are seeing an increased number of requests for emergency funding (assistance with medications provided through our Missions department), which will be served by an increased net from the Bridge Tournament in 2009 versus 2008.  We will once again be rewarding scholarships to students needing financial assistance to continue their education, and are already seeing an increased number of applications in 2009 versus 2008.

We are expecting cutbacks in funding from other government grants and our corporate partners, but our partnership with Arbor has allowed the addition of 5 staff at no cost to Bethlehem Center, 3 of which will be male role models to our children in our summer camp program, a much needed addition.

Bethlehem Center is not immune to these tough economic times, but we are committed to serving those in our community to help them through it. If you would like to help, our greatest needs currently are unrestricted funds, summer camp, and our emergency financial assistance program. Donations to any of these can be sent to: Bethlehem Center c/o Amy Hutchison 2705 Baltimore Ave. Charlotte, NC 28203

Saturday Worker-Bees at Bethlehem Center

This Saturday, Bethlehem Center welcomed the youth from Harrison United Methodist Church.  They were participating in a poverty simulation, which meant the youth (and adults!) weren't eating for 24 hours.  Somehow, though, they fought through the 90-degree weather and helped out at our Southside Head Start center and with cleaning around the BC Main Missions building.

Thank you for all of your hard work!  We look forward to welcoming you back this summer for summer camp!