Winter 2010 | Volume 108 | Number 654
Getting Together
At Home, In Church, Abroad
Meet Thrivent Financial for Lutherans members who are helping people all over the country, and all over the world.
by Donna Mulder
Celebrating Volunteerism
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Seven Thrivent Financial for Lutherans members in the greater Atlanta area were honored with CRESP Awards. What's CRESP? It stands for charitable, religious, educational, social and patriotic. Why would anyone reward those things? Because those are areas in which Thrivent Financial carries out tax-exempt purposes as a fraternal benefit society, and they're the focus of much of what our members do together in their communities.
The awards were given by the Southeast Region of Thrivent Financial, which is working to help bring Lutheran awareness to metro Atlanta, whose Lutheran population is growing as Lutheran retirees and others move south.
"These awards are a great way of celebrating what Thrivent Financial is doing in the Atlanta area and
of recognizing those who exemplify what we're really about," says Don Larsen, part of the team in the Southeast Region. "These are ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things as they serve others on a daily basis."
The CRESP Award recipients are: Lorraine Dorough, Peter Dumpis, the Rev. Victor Belton, Marsha and Richard Goerss, Jan Levengood and the late Troudy Hough. The recipients were nominated by Atlanta-area Thrivent Financial representatives.
About 40 Thrivent chapter presidents from North and South Carolina and Georgia gathered with Lutheran church, community, educational and social ministry leaders, and Thrivent Financial representatives and employees to honor the CRESP Award recipients at the Emory University Conference Center and Hotel. The chapter presidents then attended the region's fifth annual President's Summit to share success stories and plan member events for the coming year.
1. Kindness Competition
KENTWOOD, MICHIGAN – If the words summer camp conjure up images of swimming, hiking and campfires for you, think again. For about 60 students and adults who moved into St. Mark Lutheran Church for a week, it was more than 2,000 hours of "holy sweat." The group planned and executed more than 60 projects around the community, including throwing a community party (they expected 200 people, and 600 came); feeding the homeless; distributing used clothing; making fleece no-sew blankets; cleaning up graffiti; making dinner and beds at local missions; and doing yard work and painting for the elderly. In one activity, teams of students and adults had two hours and no money to complete as many random acts of kindness as they could. The South Kent Thrivent Chapter contributed $1,000 for supplies.
2. After-Hours Fun
WATERTOWN, SOUTH DAKOTA – The Codington County
Thrivent Chapter partnered with other community organizations to host National Nite Out, an annual 
event held the first Tuesday of August. The evening brings neighborhoods together to help fight drug use and crime. The event included games, food booths and carriage rides. The chapter sponsored a doughnut-eating contest, with eight contestants from law enforcement and safety groups chowing down to see who could eat the most. Local financial representatives and chapter leaders served as judges, awarding the traveling trophy to the police department. More than 600 people attended the event.
3. Good Medicine
ROCK POINT, ARIZONA – Sheep and goats and horses, oh my! Twenty-four adults and youths from the American Lutheran Church of the Cross in Sacramento, California, helped vaccinate and deworm more than 450 sheep and goats along with 150 horses on a weeklong trip to the Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission. The group, which included many Thrivent Financial members, also advised the owners on further care of the animals. They also helped with work around the mission, including painting classrooms and preparing and serving food at a community dinner for about 150 tribal members. A grant from Thrivent Financial helped fund the work.
4. Recreational Recycling
PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA – They say that one person's trash is another person's treasure. That was never more true than at the 25th annual garage sale at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church. Thousands of people, some traveling 100 miles or more, attended the sale, which raised $16,700 for various church ministries and outreach opportunities. Members of the Scott County Thrivent Chapter and Shepherd of the Lake worked together to collect, price and sell the items donated by church members. And it was all done in two weeks' time. The Scott County Chapter added $1,300 to the funds raised.
5. Getting Schooled
BLUE ISLAND, ILLINOIS – Nearly 200 children received backpacks filled with pens, pencils, notebooks, folders and other school supplies at two neighborhood back-to-school fairs in this Chicago suburb. Thrivent Financial members from the South Cook County Chapter, along with Thrivent Financial representatives and employees in the Chicago area, donated supplies and funding to the effort, enabling all children's needs to be met when additional participants showed up at the fairs. Members of Holy Cross Lutheran in Alsip organized the school supply drive. Members of St. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church helped with publicity, while the Men's Club at Salem Lutheran Church helped with transporting supplies and setting up at a nearby church.
6. Safety First
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO – You might not think of tailgate parties going hand-in-hand with safety, but members of the Sandia Chapter of Thrivent Financial do. This year they added a twist to their annual party before the Albuquerque Isotopes minor league baseball game. In addition to the traditional food and games, the chapter hosted a summer safety fair. With assistance from the local American Red Cross Chapter, Thrivent Financial members provided information on topics ranging from water-, bike-, travel- and weather-related safety to tips on assembling emergency vacation kits. Nearly 600 people from the 27 churches the chapter serves came to the tailgate. The game also serves as a fundraiser, with the proceeds benefiting a Lutheran camp in New Mexico.
7. Bye-Bye Blues
NEW ERA, MICHIGAN – The youth group of Trinity Lutheran Church stuffed a lot of love into the denim teddy bears they made for children suffering trauma in their lives. Members of the West Central Michigan Thrivent Chapter and Trinity Lutheran joined the youths for a day of ripping up collected blue jeans, then cutting, sewing and stuffing bears. The first shipment of bears was delivered to Lakeshore Community Hospital. Others are being delivered to Lutheran Home Care Agency in Frankenmuth and will go to Camp Hope, a program designed to help children deal with the grief of losing a loved one.
8. Golfing for Dollars
OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND – It was a hole in one when members of the Eastern Shore Thrivent Chapter and the St. Peter's Lutheran Church Baby Boomer Group teamed up on the mini-golf course to raise funds for the church's Open Kettle Program, a free ministry offering soup and a sandwich to all lunchtime visitors on Wednesdays during the winter months. The owners of Old Pro Golf donated the cash admissions they received on one Saturday afternoon. A bake sale was held also. Including cash donations, the event raised $2,765. The Thrivent chapter added $1,400 to the total, which allowed Open Kettle to expand its services through the summer months in 2009.
Get Connected
What are chapters? They are local groups of members that plan and carry out charitable, social and educational activities. All Thrivent Financial for Lutherans members belong to a chapter. To find yours using the Chapter Locator.
Now It's Your Turn
Share a member event of your own with us! Send us a brief description and a photo, if you have one.