www.hope4agape.com

Agape provides critical housing and life skills that empower women and their children to transform from crisis and poverty to self-sustaining, fulfilling lives. Custer Road holds an annual collection of personal and household items and provides monetary donations and volunteers.

The Alternative Gift Market is typically held in November or early December. This gives you an opportunity to do a different kind of Christmas shopping. Shoppers have the opportunity to donate to charities and give a gift to someone really in need. This Christmas, consider giving a different kind of gift, a gift that gives twice. Give to your loved one, a handmade beaded cross or nativity set, or a certificate for a week’s worth of clean water. When you do, your gift helps someone in need – a hungry family, a struggling child, a Third World artisan. Your giving can transform the world!

www.bedstart.org

Bed Start helps households in poverty, crisis and/or need by providing household furnishing at NO COST!

If you need assistance, please complete the REQUEST FORM on Bed Start's website at www.bedstart.org.

You can help by donating your time, your talents, financial support as well as gently used furniture. Did you know that Bed Start needs help from people serving every week? And did you know that they need more help than just delivering beds on Saturday mornings? Regardless of your activity level, Bed Start could use your help.

Every Wednesday Evening: Meet in the parking lot directly across the street from the church at 5pm. All Wednesday night deliveries occur near the church. Every Saturday Morning: 7:45m-Noon (meet in the parking lot at 7:45am, depart CRUMC at 8am) Provide Pick-up and Delivery help on Saturday mornings. Deliveries are made around Dallas and Collin County. A pick-up truck/trailer are helpful, but not required. Having a servant’s heart and helping with Bed Start has no age limit. Youth are welcome to join us! If you can love on families and have a strong heart for showing kindness to someone we are serving than we want your help. You don’t need a strong back to be able to help.

There are lots of ways to serve with Bed Start! For a list, just click here. You'd be surprised at all the ways you can be a part.

To serve with Bed Start, complete a VOLUNTEER APPLICATION at www.bedstart.org.

Monetary donations are also welcome to purchase beds and bedding. Donate at www.bedstart.org.

Items we are greatly in need of:

An easy way to donate! Make a purchase off of the Amazon Wish List.

Dressers/Chest of Drawers, Beds-Twin and Full Sized, Kitchen Dinette Sets, Utensils/Pots & Pans

To arrange a large furniture pick-up please complete the PICK-UP REQUEST FORM on the Bed Start website.

Pillow Project: 25 pillow are needed every week.  Read about the Pillow Project here and sign-up to provide pillows.

www.familypromiseofcollincounty.org
The Family Promise Network provides a way for our church to work together with other churches to help homeless families. We provide overnight lodging and meals for one to five families (up to 14 people) for one week every quarter on a rotating basis. Our guests stay at our church from 6 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. daily. Each morning, guests leave for the Family Promise Day Center, where they meet with the Case Manager, care for preschool children, look for housing and employment, or go out to school or work. Volunteers (individuals or groups) can help in several ways. They can help with setup/clean up, join our guests for dinner, be an evening hosts, provide breakfast, lunch or dinner items, help with laundry after the rotation, or stay overnight with guests.  

www.pised.edu/headstart

Head Start is a federally funded child development program designed to provide comprehensive services to preschool children from low-income families. Children and families in Head Start receive comprehensive services that include health, dental, nutrition, family wellness, education, disabilities, and family services.

Imagine being a child who knows there will not be a gift under the Christmas tree. Imagine being a parent who is presently unable to provide warm clothing and food for the family. Last year Head Start families were sponsored by Sunday school classes, UMW groups, choirs, and Bible study groups as well as individual families. Head Start teachers have shared with us what an enormous difference the sponsors made in the lives of the families. Information about family members, a picture of the Head Start student, and sponsorship guidelines are provided to sponsors of the 146 children. The goal of Head Start is to bring about a greater degree of social competence in children.

Custer Road United Methodist Church has committed to intentionally building trusted relationships in CRUMC’s neighborhood through partnership with local schools. We are collaborating with Christie and Thomas Elementary Schools. Our goal is to have 100 CRUMC Mentors at these schools. The school administration has identified Student Mentoring as one of the key areas to promote the growth of student achievement for the students at these schools. As Title 1 schools (focused on improving the achievement of the disadvantaged), they are in need of individuals that can spend time with children reading and working on assignments.

No special training is needed, only a desire to intentionally build a relationship with a student. Typically, it is a 30 minute to 1 hour commitment during the lunch/recess time, but arrangements may be able to be made for after school mentoring as well.

We will also provide volunteers for Book Fairs, teacher meals and other volunteer opportunities requested by the schools. A Back to School Teacher Appreciation Breakfast will occur in August and we collect board games, Kleenex and hand sanitizer to replenish the classrooms. We also sponsor families at Christie & Thomas Elementary for Christmas.

www.mowcc.com

Meals on Wheels provides hot noon meals to seniors who live alone, who are physically or cognitively unable to go to a grocery store or prepare a meal, or who are homebound. Custer Road UMC provides donations during the year and Harvest Boxes in the fall. Find out how to be a driver by clicking here.

People Who Love People was started by a few Custer Road UMC members, and now includes several Plano churches and service groups who come together outside the Plano Day Labor center on Monday and Thursday mornings. In that quick 45 minute gathering, we supply food, snacks, clothing, bibles and friendship and fellowship to the homeless and food insecure.

To stay connected with PWLP, visit their Facebook here!

Head Start is a federally funded child development program designed to provide comprehensive services to preschool children from low-income families. Children and families in Head Start receive comprehensive services that include health, dental, nutrition, family wellness, education, disabilities, and family services. This program provides support to young parents in the PISD school system. Custer Road sponsors the annual Christmas and graduation dinners, has as ongoing collection of diapers and new/gently-used baby items like clothes, formula, strollers, swings, car seats, high chairs and maternity clothes.

Seniors helping seniors handyman program. Volunteers provide minor home maintenance and repair services with a key focus on safety issues in the home. They target seniors, age 60 and older and others with special needs within the Plano community. There is no charge for the help provided. Donations are welcome to offset the cost of materials and help others who are less fortunate. Work is done on Fridays. To request their services or volunteer, Contact them at 469-366-4286 or go to their website at www.plain-o-helpers.org

The purpose of POWS is to provide a safe, warm, and secure place for the homeless to stay overnight when the temperature drops below 40 degrees or there are dangerous conditions which could cause injury or death from exposure. The site for POWS is The Salvation Army location in east Plano at 3528 14th street. The POWS season runs annually November 1 through March 31.

POWS is staffed by volunteers. Custer Road has formed a team and is looking to expand our volunteer list. In order to become a team member, volunteers must attend a training session and pass a background check. For more information please contact CRUMC Coordinator Mark Orland at m_orland@yahoo.com.

You can learn more here.

www.projecttrasformation.org

Project Transformation is a seven-week summer day camp for inner-city children that is facilitated by PT Corps Members and partner churches. About 100 corps members and many volunteers work with the children to teach Bible lessons, make crafts, play games, sing songs, write plays and read one-on-one. Custer Road UMC is a partner church and sponsors corps members, provides reading volunteers, and 2 dinners for the corps members. We also provide day camp supplies for one week.

This ministry serves the community of Spring Creek Village mobile home park in Plano and is part of our Local School Ministry (elementary aged students attend Thomas Elementary) and Community Engagement Ministry. This is a community with great needs. We support them with food, monetary donations and relational support.

Summer Lunch Program

Custer Road’s Summer Lunch Program serves children and adults in our community. The goal is to provide a free, nutritious lunch, fellowship, sports activities and support to love on our neighbors. The program runs Monday-Friday throughout the summer. Volunteers are needed to help each day. For ways you can serve and help, visit the website above.

The Alternative Gift Market is typically held in November or early December. This gives you an opportunity to do a different kind of Christmas shopping. Shoppers have the opportunity to donate to charities and give a gift to someone really in need. This Christmas, consider giving a different kind of gift, a gift that gives twice. Give to your loved one, a handmade beaded cross or nativity set, or a certificate for a week’s worth of clean water. When you do, your gift helps someone in need – a hungry family, a struggling child, a Third World artisan. Your giving can transform the world!

In conjunction with Buckner International shoes are delivered by a mission team to orphanages in Peru. The mission trip in July will engage and build relationships with children and families while providing shoes and humanitarian aid in several different communities and orphanages. This includes a work project (home cleaning or remodel, bathroom completion etc.)in the communities where Buckner works through Family Hope Centers.

Put shoes on children and smiles on their faces. What child doesn’t love getting a new pair of shoes? New shoes are fun, clean, bright, and colorful! New shoes help a child run faster, jump higher, go further!

Not only are new shoes fun, they provide important benefits. Shoes protect against disease and infection. They allow children to attend school. They provide hope by demonstrating worth and God’s love to orphans and vulnerable children. And they help connect families to ministries that can transform their lives.

For more information on how you can help, contact Lanie Williams at laniew1983@gmail.com.

www.juntosservimos.org

Juntos Servimos, which means “Together We Serve” in Spanish, is a non-profit organization that Custer Road has partnered with for 20 years. JS currently assists those seeking asylum in the US at Casa de Paz in Matamoros, Mexico, where they have safe shelter, food, some psychological care and they have re-started the schooling for the children. 

Juntos Servimos continues to do what they always do by providing a compassionate response to those in need. These guests receive a bed and blankets, three meals a day, facilities for bathing and laundry and a classroom for the children. Most are women and children who have fled abusive circumstances and are looking for a better life for their family. Casa de Paz allows them an indoor space to protect them. 

UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)

UMCOR’s work of alleviating human suffering around the world includes disaster relief and supplies, disaster risk reduction, and humanitarian development. It also relates to the Global Ministries’ unit on health. UMCOR operates in the United States in collaboration with relief teams organized by annual (regional) conferences. On the international level, it works through partner organizations and, at times, its own country offices, depending on need. Custer Road UMC regularly works with UMCOR for relief efforts during catastrophes. Offerings are used to purchase supplies and health and school kits, or cleaning buckets are assembled. UMCOR supply kits help to care for the most vulnerable people during times of crisis and help sustain everyday life by providing basic necessities to people who lack ready access.

If you’d like to contribute, you can do so directly to UMCOR online at www.givetomission.org, or through the CRUMC Website and designate the gift for UMCOR and a Specific Advance if needed.

www.water.cc

Living Water International is a Christian organization dedicated to helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water and to experience "living water"- the gospel of Jesus Christ - which alone satisfies the deepest thirst. Imagine a well - that WE PAY FOR AND BUILD WITH THE HANDS OF OUR OWN CHURCH MEMBERS - that will gush with clean, life-giving water and sustain generations for years to come.

Living Water International helps communities in developing countries create sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene programs.

Imagine having nothing but dirty, bacteria-infested water to quench your thirst. To wash your clothes in. To cook with. To bathe in. And to give to your children to drink. No one should live this way. But more than 884 million people around the world do. Enough is enough. Because no human being should live this way.

Custer Road Mission Teams have traveled to Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador since 2016 to dig a water well and provide hygiene lessons.

To get more information about trips, contact Tony and Elizabeth Hairston via email here.

Dresses are sent through "Send Hope" to Honduras, as well as with mission team going to Haiti and Guatemala. The group is open anyone who is interested in sewing or helping in other ways. Ready-made easy to sew dress kits are available throughout the year along with sewing instructions. Workshops are held twice a year.

www.CarterBloodCare.org

Custer Road UMC host blood drives several times throughout the year with Carter BloodCare. There is always a need for blood! Sign-up is online and a specific portal will be published several weeks before the drive. Walk-ups are welcome, but those with an appointment will be given priority. You can also donate at any Carter BloodCare site at any time. Just be sure to tell them you are from Custer Road UMC. We have a credit account, and should any of our family members have the need for blood, they can use credits from this account to assist in the payment for their blood use.

God’s Pantry

www.godspantryplano.org

Plano Food Pantry

http://www.holynativity.org/food-pantry

Food Drive donations benefit the Plano Food Pantry. Monetary donations benefit the Plano Food Pantry and God’s Pantry.

Headstart

Head Start is a federally funded child development program designed to provide comprehensive services to preschool children from low-income families. Children and families in Head Start receive comprehensive services that include health, dental, nutrition, family wellness, education, disabilities, and family services.

A fall mission, this collection of NEW children’s sweat suits, jeans, socks & underwear provides warm clothing for the Head Start children in time for cooler weather.

Custer Road UMC collects school supplies in July and August that benefit: Summer Lunch Program backpacks, teachers and students at Carpenter MS and Christie & Thomas Elementary Schools with needed supplies, and Teacher Appreciation gifts.