The Social Outreach ministry’s aim is to improve the quality of life in our community through a series of activities that serve local needs.  It involves working with local churches and social workers from the area schools and Region #10 to assist, for example, in collecting food bank contributions and to help with coat drives for needy students. Special projects promote service to two area senior facilities and to local hospitals. We participate in area wide organizations such as PACEM (for the homeless), the Thrive Pregnancy Center, and the St. Vincent DePaul Society.

Activities may be ongoing, such as the weekly food bank contributions and the periodic fellowship visits to the senior facilities.  Other projects are time dependent, such as the March PACEM Dinner, the July Backpack project, the October Coat Drive, the November Share the Blessing Thanksgiving, and the December Angel Tree Project to provide Christmas gifts to needy families. 

Projects may be deleted or added based on circumstances facing our community, as is the case with the current health crisis.

The OLR Social Outreach Ministry Team wishes to thank you for your exceptional generosity in allowing us to provide Christmas gift cards to Region Ten mental health adults who live in our community. Combining the surplus financial donations remaining from OLR’s children’s coat drive with a generous contribution from the Church of the Holy Cross Anglican mission, our two parishes partnered to fund this special Angel Tree initiative.

This has been an incredibly challenging year for everyone with COVID-19 impacting our lives in every way. However, throughout these times, we have persevered in helping others through prayer and extraordinary contributions of time, talent, and treasure.

As a parish community, we have served our neighbors by sending Easter cards to English Meadow elderly residents; contributing school supplies (headphones, mice, markers) and winter clothing (coats, hats, scarves) to Crozet Elementary School students and their older siblings in need; providing baby shower gifts to ThriVE Women’s Healthcare of Central Virginia patients;  and supporting collaborative Crozet outreach projects including the annual Crozet Baptist Church (CBC) Share the Blessing Thanksgiving meal ministry, CBC’s ongoing food drive, the Toy Lift Charities holiday giving project, and the Henley Middle School PaTSO Giving Tree Campaign. 

May God bless you abundantly for your caring for his most needy!

~ The OLR Social Outreach Ministry Team