​Christmas Families in August
Campaign for Learning 2025
Haiti and Alexandria ​(disadvantaged and refugee families)

​Help children with school supplies - critical tools for learning!
It is hard to learn to write if you don't have a pencil. God means for every child to have a pencil so they can learn and develop to their full potential, and He asks for our help to get there. This is a larger issue of social justice. Education is supposed to be the great equalizer in society, but as of now it is not. Rich children have pencils, poor children do not. There are many factors that make educational opportunities unequal, so, rather than giving everyone an equal chance, education actually cements inequality in society.

To make real strides towards more equality requires systemic change, including high-quality preschool for all children and improving support for refugee / immigrant children in school. Immanuel has contributed to this goal, but larger impact requires more government action. As Christians in the world we can work on influencing government.

There are also small things we can do. In Christmas Families in August we work through the Dept. of Community and Human Services (DCHS) and the Refugee Ministry to provide school supplies to children in need.
 
There are two ways you can help:
(1) Sign up to provide a backpack filled with school supplies for the children in one family,
So far we have 80 families with 160 children referred by DCHS and we are expecting families from the Refugee Ministry administered by Christ Church for the Alexandria Episcopal churches.
Sign up after each service between Sunday, June 8 and Sunday, August 3 or in the Zabriskie Narthex during the week. Some children also need back-to-school clothing.  

We will give you a yellow instruction sheet with the children's names and all the information you need.

Or email Linda Serabian <[email protected]> to arrange for selecting a family.
Bring the backpacks to church (or the office) on or before Sunday, August 10 to be blessed at the altar. Unassigned school supplies, especially backpacks (new or lightly used) are also welcome.
 
(2) Donate money through the special collections held on Sunday, June 8 and Sunday, August 10.
Please make checks out to ICOH and mark them XFAM. The money will go to

• the Haiti Micah project (50%, last year $2,000)
• Community Lodgings (25%, last year $1,000)
• Buying school supplies for families not signed-up for (last year $1,200).

The Haiti Micah Project (HMP) is one of Immanuel's major international outreach ministries, one of the two charities supported by the Immanuel Easter Appeal. For the 150 children it serves, education offers the only path out of extreme poverty. In Haiti, there is no free public education.
The additional funding is specifically earmarked for school supplies
 
Former rector, The Rev. Dr. Bill Dols, said "Christmas Families is a ministry of things". It is that, but it is so much more: It is things, tools for learning, that empower and lift the spirit and send children off to a good start in the new school year.
 

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RESOURCES

CALENDAR
Sunday, June 8
First signup and special collection
Sunday, August 10
​Ingathering and special collection

CHRISTMAS FAMILIES 2024
CLICK HERE to see a report on last year's Christmas Families program.

​CONTACTS
Dagobert Soergel
[email protected]
Linda Serabian
[email protected]
Connie Kurz
[email protected]  
Dorothy Kellogg
[email protected]