FaithWorks Ideas for Families
There are some fun things you can do with your kids while you’re stuck at home, that will help bring joy to the disabled, elderly and hungry in Waukesha and Milwaukee:
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Make decorations for the holiday meals at The Gathering. On Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, the four meal sites of The Gathering serve a special hot meal to the hungry and homeless in Milwaukee. They need lots of centerpieces, placemats and decorations, which the guests may take with them. So if you’d like to get creative and decorate some holiday placemats, all you need are 11 x 17” or 12 x 18”pieces of white paper, and a set of markers! Any cute holiday centerpieces would also be appreciated: small bunnies, ducks, paper flowers, made from craft materials and toilet paper rolls, cotton balls and pipe cleaners; Thanksgiving turkeys out of construction paper; Christmas wreaths and trees made from paper plates—whatever your imagination (and the internet) can come up with!
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ERAs Senior Network serves adults with disabilities and the elderly in Waukesha County, and they request several things throughout the year. If you’ve been to Pizza with a Purpose recently, you know about them. If not, they send out holiday gifts in letter-size envelopes, so they need thousands of envelopes decorated like Christmas presents, with wrapping paper, holiday wishes, even flat ribbon (see photo). They’d also love any flat crafts that could go in these envelopes—gifts for their clients, such as bookmarks, seasonal door hangers made out of cardstock or cardboard, flat Christmas ornaments for their tree (we made colored doves with a ribbon hanger this year). Be creative!
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Decorate large brown paper lunch bags that we can use once we start making and delivering bag lunches to the hungry again. We make 150 lunches each time, and if you have any of the jumbo size lunch bags and a set of markers, decorate them with a message of hope and love, and we’ll collect them when we’re back at Church.
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Get a head start on making Valentines for Seniors for 2021. If you have red, pink or white paper at home, some glue, stickers, markers or doilies, you can make as many valentines as you like. Collect them, and then you can bring them in to Church once we’re back in business. The more you make, the more residents of our local retirement communities you’ll bring joy to next February!