Mission & Service

Our Mission & Service program is devoted to a wide range of local, national, and international projects. These projects include on-going, hands-on participation in the Norwalk Manna House of Hospitality (where homeless and others can obtain a free meal). Our members prepare and serve Sunday dinner eight times a year. We are also active in building homes in the Bridgeport area with Habitat for Humanity.

Spring Food Drive

Our mission partners will be very grateful for donations made as the local food pantries run dangerously low on supplies. Our next food drive will take place starting Monday, May 5th. Collections will continue through Sunday, May 18th. Food will be delivered to Norwalk’s Christian Community Action and the Norwalk Emergency Shelter on Monday morning, May 19th. Please bring to the church any of the foods listed below to:

Our next volunteer days at the Manna House of Hospitality (Norwalk Soup Kitchen) are Sundays, April 27 & May 4, 2008. Click HERE for a printable sign-up form.

For Adults and Teens - Here's the latest update from Jim Lyle on -

Habitat for Humanity

Dear Fellow Habitaters-

Spring's first green shoots are popping up, the tree buds are forming, and the final Spring appearance of the Wilton Swarm - our much vaunted combination of Wilton Congregational members working side by side with the Wilton High Habitat Club - is fast approaching.

Saturday, March 29 will be the last day this school year we take Wilton's combo team to Bridgeport. So look at your calendars and let's hear if you will be joining us. You don't want those construction skills to get too rusty after a few winter months off.

Finally, this message would not be complete without acknowledging the enormous contribution our outgoing Associate Pastor Diane Stevenson made to our Habitat efforts over the past four years.

I like to think Diane's Habitat experience contributed to her confidence to travel to Honduras with our Adult Missions group. She and husband Barney and their children all pitched in on various Blitz Build and Saturday workdays.

More importantly Diane officiated at many Habitat Groundbreakings on Wilton Congregational's behalf. She followed up by participating at the Habitat Homeowner Dedication ceremonies at many of those same homes.

One dedication provided a classic memory. After a particularly spirited reading at the dedication of our second Agreste Terrace duplex, Diane mingled with the volunteers and guests from the various Sound Coalition churches who were enjoying the post-dedication food and camaraderie.

Turning to one of the attendees, our always reliable volunteer, Mike Rieser, a man famous for spending more Saturdays at Habitat than Sundays at church, she asked, "And what congregation do you belong to?”

In a sheepish voice Mike replied, "Yours."

Diane's enthusiastic support of Habitat on all levels including the Missions Board will be deeply missed.

Let's hear from you regarding March 29. Thanks as always for your continuing support of Habitat.

All the best,

Jim

Contact Jim at vprman@aol.com to ask questions or let him know you'll join the crew.

The crew meets at the church parking lot at 8:00 a.m. to carpool. (Note: During our church's expansion project, the carpool location is subject to change.)

Do you believe we change lives with the homes we gift to our Habitat families? Here's further proof.

Below is the email I received from Habitat's wonderful family coordinator, Iris Taylor. At my request she called Annie (Antonia) Lopez to find out how the family enjoyed Christmas in their new home.

You can't make up wonderful outcomes like this: Every hour we spend in the scorching sun or the bitter cold is such a small sacrifice when measured by how much good we accomplish and how contagious our efforts become.

Our next Habitat workday is Saturday, February 9 when we'll join the WHS Habitat Club in a workday in Bridgeport. Mark your calendars and let me know if you can join us. Contact Jim Lyle at vprman@aol.com for more information or to sign up.

On Saturday, December 2, our latest Habitat home at 1235 Kossuth Street in Bridgeport was officially dedicated.

Thanks to the days so many of you worked during this summer's hot "Blitz Build" and the several Saturdays this Fall, Annie Lopez and her two children will awaken Christmas morning in their new home, starting their new lives as homeowners.

At the end of the dedication Annie surprised the Sound Coalition members with the gift of a plaque commemorating our work on her home. We'll have it on display at Wilton Congregational for the next few weeks.

Now one of the great joys of Habitat is working side-by-side with our "Wilton Swarm" partners, the Wilton High Habitat Club members led by our own Steve Bell.

As many of you are conversant in numbers and know a good growth story when you see one, look at the information below Steve sent me. Passionate math instructor that he is, Steve keeps careful records of the workdays the Club members accumulate during the year.

Just look at the increase in participation this past Fall. Now in its third year, the Habitat Club is clearly gathering momentum. In fact Steve has had to institute a cut-off date so the attendees don't overwhelm the transportation and workload capacities at Habitat.

This is another example of the way Habitat changes lives: our local high school students, our homeowners, and our own.

This coming Saturday, December 15, is our final workday of the year. Many of you have holiday obligations and that's understandable, but if you can join us, please do. A few of you have already indicated you'll be there.

Finally all the hard work many of you contributed to our Kossuth project is deeply appreciated.

Thanks as always for your continuing support of Habitat. May you and your families have wonderful holidays.

For more information about Habitat for Humanity or to join this week’s crew, please contact Jim Lyle at vprman@aol.com

Saturday's final workday at 1235 Kossuth -- and 575 Gregory -- proved beyond a doubt that the Wilton Swarm has no equals among the volunteer groups at Bridgeport Habitat. A crew of 14 Wilton Congregational members and "friends" along with 34 Wilton High Habitat club members knocked off a week's assignments in a mere six hours.

The day's most challenging problem was the logistics of getting so many WHS Habitat Club members up to Bridgeport for the day. Now THAT's what you call a quality problem.

At 1235 Kossuth, with the dedication of Annie Lopez' dream home just 14 days away, our crews tackled the front porch overhang, installed foam board under the first floor joists, spackled all the joints and nail holes in the house, removed rocks, debris and brush from the yard, added some much needed fill dirt in spots and looked on as our Monroe Congregational Coalition partners constructed a storage shed for Annie and her family.

At 575 Gregory, where a dedication took place that day, the teams cleaned up the yard and got the house totally cleaned up and prepped in time for the afternoon ceremony.

Thanks go to our beloved Captain of Carpentry Ian Tesar, Gil Bray, Ernie Krehbiel, Kevin Murray, Mike "The Manhattanite Who Enjoys the Drive to Bridgeport To Do Habitat" Rieser, Greg and Liza Rodiger, Jim Meinhold, Jim Lyle and great friends Evan Crane and Paul Snayd.

Mid-morning we were joined by Wilton Selectman Hal Clark, who showed up with donuts and coffee. Talk about your terrific political instincts!

Over at 575 Gregory our intrepid Habitat Club leader, Steve Bell, was joined by Nancy Toll and those wonderful Habitat Club members.

Mark your calendar for the dedication of 1235 Kossuth on Saturday, December 1 at 1:00 p.m. All of you are invited to attend this most joyous occasion and feel free to bring a friend of family member.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Take pride in the fact that due to your volunteer efforts, Annie Lopez and her two children will celebrate this coming Christmas in their own home -- three lives changed forever. Thanks as always for your continuing support of Habitat.

While it's hard to believe this Saturday's Habitat workday will be our last one at Annie Lopez' dream home, that's what the Habitat staff is telling us.

The dedication is set for Saturday, December 1 at 1:00 p.m. and of course all of you are invited. Less than three weeks later, Annie and her children will move in, plenty of time for Christmas.

So this Saturday, November 17, will be the final stretch for the Wilton Swarm---interior painting, door and floor moldings, completion of the front porch and lots of yard work. There will be plenty of work to go around, with a task for every skill set. And of course we'll have Steve Bell and the Wilton High Habitat Club working alongside us.

Let's hear from you. We already have a good crew lining up. What could be better than to sit down at Thanksgiving dinner, knowing you'd help put the final touches on a home that will change a family's life forever?

The postman has nothing on the Wilton Swarm when it comes to braving wind and rain!

Our teams of WCC volunteers and Wilton High Habitat Club members gave as good as any at TWO Habitat homes on a very windy and rainy Saturday, October 27.

WCC's Steve Bell led his WHS Club as they primed the entire interior at our Kossuth Street project house. Despite the wind-driven rain, five club members sloshed around in the yard and spread soil and moved rocks.

Meanwhile, a second WCC group ventured over to 575 Gregory Street for a three story attack on new home in a community west of the river and south of I-95 adjacent to the University of Bridgeport. There, a team led by our Other Captain of Carpentry, Dexter Below, installed luan flooring on the second floor. Giving him much needed help were Ernie Krehbiel, WCC friend Paul Snayd, Gil Bray and Jim Meinhold. (The latter two won their respective offices in Tuesday's election, proving once again there's something to the Habitat mystique!)

Downstairs Lance Liljeqvist led another team installing luan in the kitchen. Below them, in the crawl space, Keith Shoemaker, Ross Tartell, and Mike Tartell braved standing water and tight spaces to install insulation under the first floor joists. And out in the front yard a group of WHS students worked with me to clean up the front landscaping and remove debris.

Our Habitat Construction VP, Keith Cook, sent a congratulatory email the following Monday, saying "the Wilton Swarm did a great job...in unbearable weather."

Now we're just 10 days from heading back to Bridgeport for one of our last workdays on Annie Lopez' dream home on Kossuth.

Check your calendars and see if you can join us on Saturday, November 17. There will be lots of painting, woodwork, and more to get the home ready for a December move-in.

Let's hear from you before all the good jobs are taken. And thanks as always for your continuing support of Habitat.

Opportunities for Youth...

Our high school and middle school groups are also active participants in our church's mission activites. Each summer, our group of high schoolers travels to a needy community to lend a helping hand. In the summer of 2006, our group of 120 traveled to the Taos Pueblo Indian Reservation in New Mexico to build a traditional adobe house.. Other previous trips include Woodfin, North Carolina; Gulfport, Mississippi; Pinder's Point in the Bahamas; the Navajo Native American Reservation in Arizona; and Asheville, North Carolina. In June of 2007, our team will return to Pinder's Point in the Bahamas to repair hurricane-damaged homes.

The group also does several local projects each year, including work for Habitat for Humanity in Bridgeport and the George Washington Carver Community Center in Norwalk. Click here to see more info on our youth program and current mission opportunities.

Cereal (hot and cold)	Powdered milk
Juice (bottles)	Peanut butter
Jelly	Baby food
Canned fruit	Canned soup
Rice (large bags)	Dried pasta
Instant mashed potatoes	Macaroni and cheese kits
Canned tuna	Canned salmon
Canned vegetables (corn, peas, black & red beans, baked beans)	Canned dinners (beef ravioli, spaghetti & meatballs, stew, etc.)
Snacks (pudding, jello, applesauce, microwaveable popcorn, crackers)	Please, no chips or bagged snacks that use large shelf space

Dear Jim, Thanks for complimenting the kids so nicely. Below is WHS Habitat Club attendance info that you asked for:
2005-2006 Work Date & Number of Kids	2006-2007 Work Date & Number of Kids	2007-2008 Work Date & Number of Kids
09/24 - 18 10/29 - 19 11/19 - 15 01/21 - 23 02/25 - 21 03/25 -0 9 04/22 - 15	09/23 - 21 10/28 - 11 11/18 - 17 12/09 - 20 03/24 - 27 04/28 - 13	09/29 - 34 10/27 - 24 11/17 - 31 12/15 - 02/09 - 03/29 -
2005-06 TOTAL - 120 student-days 49 different kids attending = avg of 2.44 workdays/kid	2006-07 TOTAL - 109 student-days 48 different kids attending = avg of 2.27 workdays/kid
(note: numbers do not include chaperones which I estimate to be about 7 adults per workday). Steve

Mission & Service

Opportunities for Adults...

Spring Food Drive

Our next volunteer days at the Manna House of Hospitality (Norwalk Soup Kitchen) are Sundays, April 27 & May 4, 2008. Click HERE for a printable sign-up form.

For Adults and Teens - Here's the latest update from Jim Lyle on -

Habitat for Humanity

Opportunities for Youth...