St. Mary's

Middlesboro Adult Learning Center: We donate books and volunteer our time at book sales to raise funds for GED fees. In a county with a 56% high school/GED completion rate and 50% functional adult literacy, this is an important ministry.

Cooperative Christian Ministry (CCM): We give a monthly contribution to CCM, which is a non-profit service agency run by a coalition of churches. CCM gives food, clothing, household items, help with utilities, and medicine to persons in need, who live in the 40965 zip code. Parishioners also pick up bread products weekly from a local grocery store and food once a year from God’s Pantry, a Lexington, Kentucky based food bank.

Safe Place for Little Saints: Neighborhood children were playing on refuse piles within sight of St. Mary’s. Through grants and donations, we were able to raise $15,000 for a community playground on the West side of the church. Children from the Health Department located across the parking lot of the church also use the playground, which gives them something to look forward to after they get their shots (ouch!)

Regional (Surrounding Tri-State Counties) Our community of faith is regional in its composition. We raised $5,000 for cancer research in the Bell County, Kentucky, Relay for Life. We contribute to a badly needed long term drug and alcohol addiction center in Lee County, Virginia, called New Beginnings. We are looking into a Claiborne County, Tennessee, based ministry to support.

Diocesan We support the Diocese of Lexington Reading Camp program at Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan, a camp for delayed readers, who have completed 3^rd or 4^th grade, by recruiting eligible campers from the local school system, raising money to cover camp costs through special collections and donations, transporting campers to the camp and volunteering at camp. For more information about Reading Camp, go to http://www.diolex.org/readingcamp.htm.

National We raise money for projects throughout the Episcopal Church by means of the United Thank Offering, a special collection taken up once or twice a year. For more information, go to http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/uto.htm.

We also raise money to help with national disasters and crises in conjunction with Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD). We have sent two members on a mission trip to the Gulf Coast to help with rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. For more information about ERD, go to www.er-d.org.

International Our children and youth Sunday School classes take up collections for Heifer Project, a program that gives people animals and training so that they can get themselves out of poverty. For more information on Heifer Project, go to www.heifer.org.