Article in Jacksonville Journal Courier (7/22)
The article talks about the increasing need for food as food prices keep going up.
Back to School Bash - 12th Annual
Back to School Bash - 11th Annual
Outreach Community Center
31 S. Main Street
PO Box 23
Winchester, IL 62694
217-883-0359
“Open Ears, Open Hearts, Open Doors”
Greetings to you all,
We hope this letter finds everyone well. With all of the difficulties we have faced over the past year we still consider ourselves blessed in so many ways. We thank God that he brought us through every challenge that presented itself and provided for every need that we faced. While we saw many changes this past year, the one thing that stood constant was the mission of the Outreach Community Center. That would have never been possible if not for the support of our communities. You have stood beside us and enabled us to continue the work of serving those in need.
With everything that has happened, we could not be more excited to begin the preparations for our 11th annual “Back to School Bash”. In past years, we have reached out to those in our communities and have been overwhelmed by the support of monetary donations and school supplies that have been collected in support of this event. We have always been so blessed and amazed by the number of those in our communities who want to be a part of this great event.
This year on Friday, August 6th at 5:00pm, the Outreach Community Center will be holding this annual event. It will be held at the Scott County Fairgrounds to accommodate the number of children we serve. Each year this event has grown in numbers, with last year’s numbers reaching over 367 children.
During the month of July, we are asking local businesses, churches and individuals in our communities to help with this effort. By doing so, together we hope to be able to meet this year’s needs. All items collected or any monetary donations given need to be at the Outreach Community Center by Friday, July 23rd. If you have any questions regarding what type of school supplies are needed, please call 217-883-0359.
As always thank you so much for joining us in this mission.
Sincerely,
Kenny and Marsha Mayner
And the Board Members of the Outreach Community Center
Outreach Community Scholarships
Outreach Community Center is proud to announce the winners of our 7th annual $500 scholarships. Outreach Community Center awarded the scholarships based on community service to a Winchester High School Senior and to a Bluffs High School Senior.
The 2021 recipients of the scholarships were Sydney Elliot from Winchester and Morgan Hoots from Bluffs. These individuals wrote an essay on what volunteering means to them and showed exceptional volunteer hours in the community as well as excelled in the classroom. We are excited to see what the future holds for both of them.
Sydney plans on going to Quincy University in the fall majoring in Nursing.
Morgan plans on going to Northwest Missouri State University this fall for Elementary Education.
Best of luck to Sydney and Morgan and to the Class of 2021.
Young Boy donates his change for Fruit Snacks - We are Blessed!
These are the post that touch our hearts so deeply. A huge thank you to a little boy who saved his coins so that the children we serve would be sure to get some fruit snacks. It just shows how even a small child can make a difference.
WHS FFA Donates Food
A huge shout out and thank you to the Winchester High School FFA for organizing a wonderful food drive. Donations were collected at both the Winchester Grade School and High School the week of March 22nd - 26th. These kids did an outstanding job in helping to provide food to those in need. We are blessed to be a part of such a wonderful community.
2020 - Outreach Community Center's Year in Review Letter
Greetings:
First of all we want to thank each and everyone one of you for standing beside us and supporting us through one of the most difficult years most of us have ever lived through. New guidelines, restrictions and challenges were placed before us, but with your continued support and prayers we overcame each obstacle we faced. While it may have been difficult at times we never gave up on the true mission of the Outreach Community Center, which is serving those in need.
While the events and services we provided may have looked different this past year, we are extremely thankful that we were still able to provide for so many in a variety of ways.
In January we received a matching grant from DOT Foods that enabled us to purchase a 2013 GMC Box Truck that would provide the transportation so desperately needed to allow us to be able to transport the food and other items for the families we serve. At the time, we never anticipated how much we were going to need it.
The truck enabled us to provide food to our families not only through our monthly Bags of Blessings food giveaways, but also through a variety of pop up food giveaways that were held when we were blessed with an abundance of donated food items. Through these food giveaways we were able to serve over 3,500 individuals.
Our shut-in delivery meals continued this past year with the exception of the months during the stricter guidelines. Even so, we were still able to provide 320 meals to our shut-ins who so appreciated the hot meals during this difficult year.
We were honored this past year to be the winners of the Green Toyota Charity Contest and the recipients of a $500 check. We had the privilege of being interviewed by News Channel 20 and getting to share about the mission of the center. None of this could have been possible without all of you voting for our organization and standing beside us.
Even though we were not able to hold our Annual Trivia Night fundraiser for our scholarship fund, we were still able to provide two $500 scholarships to Winchester High School graduates and one $500 scholarship to a Bluffs High School graduate from previous years funds.
The blessings continued when we were the recipients of bacon from the Pork Producers and ground pork from Prairieland FS. These donations came at a very important time since being able to provide meat to our families was a challenge this past year.
Through creative means we were still able to hold our Annual Back to School Bash in August of this past year. While this was our 10th year of doing this event and we had envisioned it looking a lot different, we are still so very thankful we were able to do it. Holding this event off site and providing a drive through service to those families in need, we were able to provide school supplies to over 300 children.
As the holidays approached and the need continued to grow we prepared for our 10th Annual Christmas Giveaway. Knowing that this event would also need to be accomplished by different means we began our preparations early. Through pre-registration and a lot of Amazon deliveries we were so excited to be able to provide Christmas gifts to 310 children.
As we look back at the past year and prepare for the year that lies ahead, we cannot thank you all enough for your part in this mission. We were blessed by so many donations, whether it be grants we received through organizations, businesses or business owners that contributed, churches and church families who donated, and all of the individuals who so unselfishly gave in some very trying times. Without all of you the accomplishments we have shared would not have been possible. Thank you all for praying for us, donating your time and money and for always standing beside us to accomplish this mission.
May you all be blessed in this New Year,
Kenny and Marsha Mayner
And The Outreach Community Center’s Board of Directors
Prairie Power, Inc. - Donation
Thank you so much to Prairie Power, Inc. for their donation to the Outreach Community Center. Their donation will help so many families.
AGRINEWS Magazine Articles
Special thanks to AGRINEWS Magazine and Jeannine Otto for the double feature article in the November issue of their magazine. Check out these articles at the following links
2020 Outreach Community Center Scholarship Winners
Our 2020 Scholarship Recipients were chosen for their outstanding community service. They each received $500. - Congratulations to them and the Class of 2020.
Bluffs: - Ashley Fearneyhough
Winchester: - Rian Neff and Whitney Kunz
Prairieland United Way Grant Recipient
Prairieland United Way has distributed $35,000 in corona virus-related grants to non-profit organizations.
United Way received $25,000 from the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund and another $10,000 from a donor to provide the grants.
Recipients were Jacksonville Area Community Food Center, Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen, Christian Love in Action, Our Redeemer Day Care, The Salvation Army, Educational Day Care, Midwest Youth Services, Prairie Council on Aging, Outreach Community Center, Presbyterian Day Care and the West Central Illinois Health Corp.
Prairieland United Way Executive Director Karen Walker said 15 organizations requested funding. Recipients were chosen by a committee of United Way board members.
“There has never been a more important time to come together to address the critical needs of this community and the charitable organizations working on the front lines of this pandemic,” Walker said. “We’re glad to provide some financial relief through this COVID-19 Response Fund.”
Taken from the Jacksonville Journal Courier Article Thursday, April 16, 2020.
Prairieland United Way Resource Hotline
Information Regarding the New Prairieland United Way Resource Hotline.
Prairieland United Way has launched a resource hotline that can provide social service information and referral services daily.
To access help and services, call 217-479-1818. The line will be monitored from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, but is available at any time. It is provided for those in Morgan, Scott, Cass and northern Greene counties looking for help with food, shelter or homelessness-related services, mental health, substance abuse treatment, financial assistance and many other health and social services.
Information taken from Jacksonville Journal Courier News Article Saturday, April 11th.
April 25, 2020 - Bags of Blessings
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: The Outreach Community Center will be holding it’s monthly “Bags of Blessings Food Giveaway” on Saturday, April 25th at 10:00 am. With all of the changes that are being implemented during this very difficult time, we will also be implementing some changes as to how our monthly food giveaway will be held this month. All food items will be pre-bagged and distributed through the back entrance of our building. Beginning at 10:00 am a select few of our Board Members will begin to distribute the pre-bagged items. We ask that you remain in your vehicles and the food will be distributed to you as you pull up to the back of our building. This may take some time, but we ask that you be patient as we work to keep everyone safe and abide by the rules that have been given to us. We will be distributing the bags from 10:00 am to 11:30 am., and thank you for your cooperation
NEWS - Update to events etc...
First of all we hope this post finds everyone healthy and safe. Our Board of Directors met yesterday (3/18/20) in a small group and was mindful of social distancing to discuss the upcoming events and programs that are scheduled for the Outreach Community Center. Even though it is very difficult to make these decisions, we are going to have to make adjustments and some postponements to our programs and events for the time being. Currently the shut-in meals that are being prepared and delivered on the 3rd Saturday of each month will be cancelled for the month of March (we will access April’s meals as that date gets closer). Our Spring/Summer clothing giveaway that was scheduled for April 3rd will be postponed and rescheduled for a later date. Our Annual Trivia Night that is currently scheduled for April 18th will be postponed until a later date. Our monthly Bags of Blessings Food Giveaways (this month’s will be March 28th at 10:00 am ) will continue, but with a very different set of rules. Those guidelines will be discussed in a future post concerning only the food giveaway. Any emergency needs will still be taken care of as those requests are received. Please remember even though things are changing in our world moment by moment, our mission of being here to serve others will continue. Our prayer is that we all stay healthy, safe and are able to continue serving those in need.
New Box Truck
Today (1/21/20) the Outreach Community Center had the privilege of picking up our new box truck from Marshall Chevrolet. The Outreach Community Center was awarded a grant from DOT Foods toward the purchase of the truck. Special thanks to Jay Rueter and Marshall Chevrolet for working so hard to get us exactly what we needed, to our DOT Food representatives for supporting us today and always and to all of our board members who could make it today (Andie Fundel; Mysti Dahman; Debbie Rhoades and Kenny Mayner). We are so excited to be able to bring even more food back to the center.
Kenny and Marsha Mayner
Green Toyota Charity Winner in December
THANK YOU to all who voted for us and to Green Toyota for the donation.
5th Annual Trivia Night
A huge thank you to all who helped and attended the Annual Outreach Community Center’s Trivia Night. In supporting our trivia night, you make it possible for us to continue our work in this community and to be able to present scholarships each year to those graduating seniors who been an example of community service in our communities. Thank you all so much.
And the winners were…
Sadie Fundel - Won for the Best Dress - in true Red Carpet Fashion she even changed dresses.
Prom Moms - Won for the Best Dress Team
Farmers State Bank - 1st Place Trivia
Kevin Evan’s Team - 2nd Place Trivia
Linda McCleery’s Team - 3rd Place Trivia
Katie Gregory - Lashmett “Summer Time” Meat Bundle
Jenna Salefski - 50” TV
Tyler Andrews - 4 St. Louis Cardinal Tickets and a night stay at the Drury Inn
Thank you - Springfield Clinic
The overwhelming emotions from the SC Gives surprise at the Outreach Community Center in Winchester will melt your heart.
2018 Year in Review
A huge thank you goes out to all of you for blessing us this past year with your time, monetary donations, clothing, food, your talents and most importantly your prayers. As in past years, 2018 graced us with opening of doors that enabled us to bless so many more individuals. Through those opened doors we were able to serve in so many ways:
© Over 2,000 individuals were blessed through our Monthly Bags of Blessing Food Giveaway
© 500 meals were prepared and delivered to area Seniors
© 2,167 non-perishable items were collected during the PAT’s “Pack the Bus” food drive
© An abundance of non-perishable items was collected during the Winchester Grade School’s annual Spring Food Drive
© Completion of the installation of the 10 X 10 walk-in cooler that was purchased through a grant presented by DOT Charitable Grant
© Our 4th Annual Trivia Night raised $1,680 in support of our annual scholarships
© Three $500 scholarships were presented to 2 Winchester High School graduates and 1 Bluffs High School graduate in recognition of their outstanding community service
© Multiple families were blessed during our annual Spring and Fall clothing giveaways
© Through the heartfelt effects of a local youth 45 fans were collected and distributed to those in need
© The 8th annual “Back to School Bash” provided school supplies, shoes and hygiene items to 335 area children of 17 different communities
© Several families enjoyed our annual “Breakfast with Santa” complete with biscuits and gravy and a visit with Santa.
© Our Annual Christmas Toy Giveaway brightened the faces 367 children and blessed 120 families from 20 area communities
© We were blessed to be able to purchase new round tables and shelving for the walk-in cooler through memorials presented to the center
It is difficult to even begin to thank all of the individuals, organizations, churches and businesses that have been a part of our mission this past year. We look forward to what God is going to do in 2019 and hope that you continue to be a part of this great mission.
With sincere gratitude,
Kenny and Marsha Mayner
and the Outreach Community Center Board of Directors
5th Annual Trivia Night
LIGHTS! CAMERA! TRIVIA!
Join us for a night of HOLLYWOOD glamour as we roll out the RED CARPET for our 5th Annual Trivia Night.
WHEN: May 4, 2019
WHERE: First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall Winchester, IL
TIME: Doors open at 5:30pm
Trivia starts at 6:30pm
THEME: Awards Night Trivia
“Celebrating the award winners of the ages.”
$10 per person / Teams 8-10 people
To enter your team please call (217) 883-0359.
Raffle Items
Raffle tickets will also be sold in advance.
Don’t forget about our legendary costume contest! Dress in your best evening wear, dust off your diamonds and we’ll see you on the red carpet.
