Latest news with #FirstLightMission
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Goshen awards $250K to service organizations
GOSHEN — The city has awarded more than $250,000 to nine community service organizations that meet local needs. The Goshen Board of Works on Thursday approved a series of small grants to local organizations. They include $50,000 each to the Goshen Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Goshen Inc. First Fridays program as well as $35,000 to the Warsaw Housing Authority and $30,000 to First Light Mission. Grants of $25,000 were given to the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County and $20,000 to the DGI facade program, as well as $5,000 to DGI's administrative needs. The city awarded $15,000 to the Goshen Historical Society, $10,000 to the Elkhart Symphony Association and the First In Chaplain Crisis Response Team, and $2,750 to the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership. Mayor Gina Leichty said the organizations made presentations to the Community Relations Commission before their requests were considered for full or partial funding. She said the city has supported these organizations in the past and that Goshen City Council included the money in the budget it approved. Councilman Matt Schrock questioned the spending in the face of revenue cuts that state lawmakers imposed on local governments this year. 'We're supposed to be tightening up our belts because of the new property tax laws and all that sort of thing, and the loss of revenue that we're going to have,' he said. 'Are these bare minimums for these amounts? I guess long story short, this seems like a lot of money to spend when we're supposed to be saving money.' Leichty said the amounts awarded to the organizations have not been increased for several years. She said they consider the services that they provide the city worth the investment, and highlighted the small business counseling that the chamber offers as an example. 'One of the services that the Goshen Chamber provides is business counseling services to anybody, it's not just to chamber members,' Leichty said. 'So they're providing education and support to assist small businesses, and it's one of the only ways that the city provides support to small businesses.' She cited the chaplain team as another organization that meets important needs. Those include providing food and drink to firefighters and police officers during crisis situations and accompanying police when they have to deliver a death notification. 'We try to be as judicious as we can with our community partners while still accomplishing the items that we've set forth to do and priorities the city has established,' Leichty said. 'There are many needs in our community that we cannot meet with staff alone, and so we feel like one of the ways that we can stretch those dollars is by partnering with other organizations... What we're trying to do is provide the support or provide meaningful arts and recreation activities or support to homeless folks in our community by spreading that around a number of organizations.'
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A bowl full of community to support the homeless
GOSHEN — Fun clay bowls, a variety of tasty soups, and loyalty to First Light Mission, all took place at the Empty Bowl Project Soup Supper Saturday evening at Goshen First Church, 214 S. Fifth St., a fundraising event in collaboration with Goshen Clay Artists Guild. By 4:55 p.m. the space between the entrance doors and the lobby of the church was filled with community members. They patiently waited as the First Light Mission director, Mindy Morehead and her team of staff and volunteers prepared for the doors to unlock. Two minutes before it was go-time, Morehead had everyone meet in the gymnasium where the bowls would be filled with soup, with tables and chairs set up for the community to sit and chat. They all bowed their heads as a team member prayed over the event and what was to come in the following hours of the fundraiser. The line then continued to grow into the parking lot across the City Hall building. The hallway leading to the gymnasium was filled with all the guild-donated bowls and people searched for the bowl of their liking then waited in line to be served. Soup being an important factor of the event, the bowls too have their story as does the event as a whole. Goshen Clay Artists Guild formed in 1998 and according to the director of the program, Fred Driver, the initiative to serve soup to the community in handmade clay bowls, had been done for over 20 years. 'There was a guild member whose husband was a Methodist pastor and there was a nationwide program called Interfaith Hospitality Network. It was specifically for the homeless so at that point we decided it's real close to home, let's do it,' he said. 'So we've been doing this for over 20 years. The name morphed, but the mission basically is the same.' Since the transition of responsibility for the event as well as the craft to pull it together, Driver said that the First Light Mission was a great pick to hand the initiative off to. 'Initially, the hosts for homeless people were churches,' Driver said. 'They would rotate within a dozen churches like once a month. It would live in a different church until the first light mission took over and then they got a building.' 'It was a great move because now these people don't have to be moving around anymore,' he added. Driver said he is not sure what Faith Mission's economic situation is, but they could always use the help and even shared with the Guild that they are a significant part of their fundraising. There were a total of 400 bowls donated, which Driver said a little over 20 members made two dozen bowls each. They were all given the clay, tools, and glaze to complete it in time for the event. Glenda Jenney was one of the individuals who donated soup for the Empty Bowl. She had never done so before and attended the event when the guild first started it at the farmer's market in Goshen. This was her first time to attend with First Light mission being in charge. Jenney has been a volunteer at First Light Mission and helped in the clothing pantry at the shelter and said that it is a needed resource for anyone who needs it. 'I think it's a great organization for those who are facing potential homelessness or just needing a helping hand in the community for moms and their children, especially,' she said. 'I have a heart for that.' Although it was her first time attending, Jenney expressed her gratitude for First Light Mission but also the potters from the guild who made the event possible as well as the community for taking the time to support causes like the Empty Bowl. 'I'm proud that it's part of the community. I just can't say enough good about it and we're a town of community'
