Heart & Hand provides community assistance
PHILIPPI — At the January Heart & Hand House Board of Directors’ meeting, Rachel Caprio, Emergency Services Coordinator, delivered a report on the Christmas Basket Ministry and on December’s Emergency Services.
Caprio noted that the Christmas Basket Ministry has been in operation for 11 years.
This year’s holiday ministry provided families with a full Christmas dinner, hygiene and cleaning products, also socks, underwear, hats, gloves, new and /or gently used coats, and other miscellaneous items.
Recipients of the Christmas Baskets applied for these at the Garden Market in Philippi, at the Heart and Hand main office, as well as at the Belington Thrift Store, and Philippi’s Baughman Towers.
Two hundred applications were received this year, with 200 Christmas Baskets distributed for a total value of $35,000.
In the Emergency Services division, Caprio reported that various types of assistance were provided Barbour County’s needy including food, cleaning and/or hygiene supplies, store vouchers, utilities, housing, gasoline, baby items, prescriptions, an eye exam, and 1,440 school backpack food bags.
These services amounted to approximately $19,000 for the month of December.
Tracie Thompson, executive director of Heart & Hand House, expressed her deep appreciation to the many individuals, churches, and organizations that contributed to the success of the Christmas Baskets Ministry and to those who donated items or financial assistance that provided for the emergency services shared with the community. The total amounts of both these services is a sizable contribution to the local community.
The mission statement of Heart & Hand House, Inc. states clearly the purpose of the organization, “Heart and Hand House, Inc. is a non-profit project affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is located in north central West Virginia. It exists because of the clear Christian mandate to minister to the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional needs of in-crisis, low-income people of Barbour County, WV.”
For more information about this long-standing ministry, call Heart & Hand House at 304-457-1295, or find organization on Facebook at The Barbour County Community Garden Market at The Market Place.