Amazing People! Live Music! Great Raffles! What more could you want from an event! The Bag Party was a success!
I would like to extend HUGE thanks to John Coleman, of Love Overwhelming, for connecting us with Vernie’s Pizza so our bands and volunteers had food. Dale Chamberlain, of Living Ministries and Love Overwhelming, led the security team which included Tom Stebbins, Ted Grammount (both are also affiliated with LM and LO) and Ron Redfield, from Hearts For Homeless. With their help we had a peaceful event with no issues ( we were mildly concerned since we were located directly in front of The Malteze). Debra Lawson-Bean, of LM and Angel Wings Rescue, not only cared for our extensive raffle items and made them attractive for people to look at, she also was a great advocate for us when people had questions. Jessenia & Luis Perez & Lynn & KC Brown of Hearts for Homeless were invaluable to us. They watched the door, handled raffle tickets, helped clean and were great ministers! Without everyone’s help, this event would have been a flop, but since we all rallied Karen Gidderon, VP of Living Ministries/Co-Owner of Exclaim Media, LLC, and I were able to run production and still be able to engage with everyone while enjoying the wonderful performers and still see so many people cared for!
Special thanks to our sponsors: Copies Today SpeedyLitho, Exclaim Media, LLC, Knotty Wares, Vernie’s Pizza
We were glad to see many of Love Overwhelming’s crew at the event!
The energy was amazing!
We were entertained by Claire Beck, Mending Hope, Julian & Jeff Hamilton. Their passion & talent was inspiring! All the artists told me how blessed they felt to be at the event & thanked us for inviting them. The acoustics were great at The Victory Center in Kelso, the venue was beautiful & yet again, I was so blessed to look around and see our team interacting with people, praying for & with them. There were smiles all over the room! As seems to be our biggest gift to our community, we ministered off the cuff and straight into people’s hearts.
At the end of the evening we were able to give a sleeping bag and backpack to one man and a tent to another and filled both the vehicles for Hearts For Homeless. In all the planning, Karen and I had not made arrangements to transport donations. Dale made the decision that since their storeroom is filled to the brim, that Love Overwhelming would be glad to allow Hearts For Homeless to take all the sleeping bags, backpacks, food and water home with them.
At this time we have extended the opportunity for people to “buy tickets online” for $10.50 each on our website at LivingMinistries.org until January 12th. All money, including what we collected at the event, until Saturday will be divided amongst the organizations. If you would like to contribute to help homeless people in our area, make checks payable to Living Ministries and send them to PO Box 416, Kelso, WA 98626 or through Paypal to donate@livingministries.org…
Please share this article with your friends and people that have a heart for homeless people.
Living Ministries is truly blessed to have put together such a positive event to unify our community and administer hope. We look forward to doing this event again next year!
Thank you for being my inspiration!
Summer Clemenson
Executive Director of Living Ministries
