Hope for Christmas

Hope for Christmas is 2 weeks ago. So far, we have over 2400 kids signed up an expect as many as 1000 more kids by the 19th.

What can you do?
****What if each member of your family brought in one new toy?
****What if your family filled a bag or two with canned goods?
****What if you looked for new gift items you have already at home that you are not going to use that can be donated to the Secret Santa Shop?

Would you rather donate money and let us doing the shopping for you? No problem, you can send a donation via Paypal at www.afreshhope.com or mail a check to A Fresh Hope.

This event is the ONLY Christmas most of these families will receive. Our small contributions can totally change a families Christmas forever. Maybe even plant a seed....

Let's be the hands and feet of Jesus.. Let's show the Light!

~Drop off at West Ridge Church~

Hope for Christmas

HOPE FOR CHRISTMAS

West Ridge, A Fresh Hope, CAYA, and Paulding County Toys4Tots are joining together to sponsor the Hope for Christmas Celebration on December 19th from 2pm to 7pm.
The party will include:
• A food bag for each family to enjoy a Christmas dinner
• Toys will be distributed to parents (birth - High school) for each child
• Kids can ‘shop' (for free) at Santa's Secret Shop for gifts they can give on Christmas morning.
• Fun activities for the kids.
• Santa is taking time off from toy making just for this special event.
How do I register?
Please take a moment to register your family by clicking here. You will be directed away from this web page.
When you register, please select a designated time to attend Hope for Christmas.
Your registration will provide you with a ticket. Please print your ticket and bring it with you to the event. One ticket per a family is required.
What qualifications do you need for the party?
No qualifications necessary, pre-registration is requested to help with planning but not required.
I pre-registered but I lost my ticket or I pre-registered but I do not have a printer or e-mail address:
Please e-mail waverly@afreshhope.com with your contact information and a ticket will be mailed to you. OR call 404-201-0319
I have additional questions?
Please call 770-222-2125 and ask for extension 350. Someone will be in touch with you within a couple of days to answer your questions.
Donations
We will be accepting toy and food donations at West Ridge Church beginning Sunday, November 29th.
Food donations may include:
Packs for instant gravy
Cranbery sauce
Cans each corn, green beans, and yams
Boxes of stuffing and macaroni & cheese
Toy and gift donations may include:
Toys for boys and girls (birth through high school)
Items for the free gift shop where kids shop for family members including gifts for parents and grandparents

For more information, visit www.afreshhope.blogspot.com or contact waverly@afreshhope.com
Volunteers

Volunteers are needed to help with decorating, food & toy distribution, family registration, parking, and children's activities. There are also opportunities for administration and organization in the weeks preceding the event.
For more information and to volunteer please go to the event web site by clicking here.
If you have further questions, contact Tony Roders at freshhopevolunteers@comcast.net or 770-714-3039.

Hope for Christmas

Hope for Christmas- FAQ

Hope for Christmas


When:
The Hope for Christmas Celebration is scheduled for Saturday, 12/19/09 from 2:00 – 7:00

Where:
West Ridge Church

How do I register?
Please pre-register at www.hopeforchristmas.eventbrite.com
One ticket per a family is requested. Bring this ticket with you to the event. Please select a time to come to the event at Hope For Christmas.

What qualifications do you need for the party?
No qualifications necessary, pre-registered is requested to help with planning but not required.

Do my kids need to be present?
We hope you bring your kids so they can enjoy the Secret Santa Shop and the family friendly activities. Kids do not need to be present for the toys.

What will the party include:
• Each family will receive a food bag
• Toys will be distributed to parents
• Kids can ‘shop’ at Santa’s Secret Shop
• We will have fun activities for the kids.
• Santa will be there.
• There will be a craft for the kids.

I pre-registered but I lost my ticket or I pre-registered but I do not have a printer or e-mail address:
Please e-mail waverly@afreshhope.com with your contact information and a ticket will be mailed to you. OR call 404-201-0319

I have additional questions?
Please leave a message at Extension 350 and someone will be in touch with you.

I want to make a donation to the celebration, what kind of donations do you need:

• New Toys
• New items for the Secret Santa Shop
• Non-perishable food items
• Monetary donations- checks can be made payable to A Fresh Hope.
Paypal accepted at www.afreshhope.com

I want to volunteer to help at the event:
Go to www.hopeforchristmasvolunteers.eventbrite.com to sign up.
A meeting will be held at WRC on 12/13 after the 2nd service for all volunteers.

Hope for Christmas registration

To Register for Hope for Christmas:

www.hopeforchristmas.eventbrite.com

Hope for Christmas registration

You are cordially invited to attend the Hope for Christmas Celebration. The Hope for Christmas will be on December 19, 2009 at West Ridge Church in Dallas, GA. This event is hosted by West Ridge Church, CAYA, Toys for Tots and A Fresh Hope.
Please complete one registration form per a family. Please provide information for each family member attending under the age 19 such as gender and age. This information will allow us to plan accordingly. Print your registration confirmation and bring this with you to the event.

The Hope for Christmas Celebration is a family party that includes a visit from Santa and even the Grinch. We will have a food bag for each family, a shopping store where the children can select a gift to give others and a toy for the parent to take home to give the child on Christmas morning. Other fun activities such as face painting, moon walks, and a craft will also be available.

We are asking that you and your family come enjoy this wonderful celebration at the time specified on your ticket. This will help ensure a pleasant experience for everyone involved by keeping lines shorter. You may be asked to return at your specified time if you arrive earlier than 15 minutes prior to your ticket time.


Usted está cordialmente invitado a asistir a la esperanza para la celebración de Navidad. La esperanza de Navidad será el 19 de diciembre de 2009 en el West Ridge Church en Dallas, GA. Este evento es organizado por West Ridge Church, Vizcaya, Toys for Tots, y una esperanza nueva.
Por favor, complete un formulario de inscripción por una familia. Sírvanse proporcionar información para cada miembro de la familia que asisten en virtud de la edad de 19 años como el género y la edad. Esta información nos permitirá planificar en consecuencia. Imprimir la confirmación de su registro y llevar con usted al evento.
La esperanza de una celebración de Navidad es una fiesta familiar que incluye una visita de Santa y hasta el Grinch. Tendremos una bolsa de comida para cada familia, una tienda comercial, donde los niños pueden elegir un regalo para dar a los demás y un juguete para los padres para llevar a casa para dar el niño en la mañana de Navidad. Otras actividades divertidas, tales como pintura de la cara, camina luna, y una embarcación también estará disponible.

Estamos pidiendo que usted y su familia venga a disfrutar esta maravillosa celebración a la hora indicada en su billete. Esto ayudará a asegurar una experiencia agradable para todos los involucrados por mantener las líneas más cortas. Se le puede pedir a regresar a la hora especificada, si llega antes de 15 minutos antes de la hora de entradas.

Sweet Angels

One of thing you can say about natural disasters is that they bring out a certain amount of teamwork, love, support and concern for others. Children also react in a more honest way that is admirable. Children do not know the boundaries that so many adults feel, therefore, children can accomplish what they set their mind to do.

Meet Emily Noah and Hannah Smith:



These amazing girls took action and held a lemonade stand in their neighborhood to raise money to help the flood victims of 2009. The girls raised two FULL SUV loads of donations such as food, drinks, toiletry items, clothes and money. They delivered the goods today. Over 30 family size care packages were created with the donations. These care packages will be delivered to families that were hit the hardest tomorrow. Clothes were taken to Compton Elementary for the Clothes closet. Adult clothes were taken to Samaritan's Purse at West Ridge Church for distribution.

These girls are amazing.. I have a feeling this is just a sample of great things to come from these girls!! It was a blessing meeting you!

Magazine

Cheap way to buy magazines AND... support A Fresh Hope....

Community Makeover 2009

Back to School Celebration 2009

2009 Community Makeover

A Fresh Hope participated in the 2009 Community Makeover project July 31, 2009 - August 2, 2009. This year's community makeover included over 35 churches with over 3500 who volunteered for the weekend to work on over 300 projects over northwest Atlanta. See www.engageatlanta.com

A Fresh Hope partnered with Engage Atlanta to sponsor the project at Compton Elementary School in Powder Springs, GA (Cobb County). The project included extensive landscaping, providing 4 picnic tables, a clothes closet was built and stocked with clothes/shoes for children in need, lobby furniture was covered, halls were painted, bathrooms painted, treasure boxes supplied for the teachers, art room stocked. It was amazing!

Give Kids a Chance Back to School Celebration

When: Saturday, August 8, 2009
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: Paulding Meadows Park, 724 Paulding Meadows Drive, Dallas, GA 30132
South Paulding schools will have a Back to School celebration at Hiram Elementary.

Come celebrate the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year with a Back to School celebration and back pack distribution. New back packs with school supplies will be given to all children grades Pre-K – 12th grade. There will be jumpies, hot dogs, face painting, and many other fun activities for the whole family. Pre-registration requested.

Come join the fun!!!

Pre-registration has ended. If you have not pre-registered, you can come to the location based on your school district after 12:00 this Saturday on a first come/first serve basis. .

Hiram Elementary Location: Allgood, Baggett, Dugan, Hal Hutchens, Hiram, Nebo, New Goergeia, Painter, PB Ritch, Ragsdale, Union, Austin, Scoggins, Dobbins, S Paulding, Hiram High, South Paulding High.

Paulding Meadows location: All other Paulding Meadows Schools, Cobb County, Douglas County, Bartow County, Fulton County


Sponsored by:
A Fresh Hope
C.A.Y.A.
Alpha Team Outreach
Engage Atlanta Churches
Family Alliance of Paulding

2008 Back to School Celebration

The Back to School Celebration in 2008 distributed over 1100 back packs/school supplies to underprivileged children in the area. The 2009 Give Kids a Chance Back to School Celebration will be held on 8-8-09 at Paulding Meadows Park. How can you help? Volunteer, donate back packs, donate school supplies, donate money, donate business coupons, and PRAY.

Back Pack School supplies list

There are 2 different groups of suggested school supplies for the back packs, High School/Middle School and Elementary School.

High School/Middle School:
3 two pocket folders
1 3 ring binder
2 spiral notebooks
12 #2 pencils
12 blue pens
12 black pens
2 Sharpies
2 packages of notebook paper
1 package of reinforcement labels
1 package of markers
1 package of colored pencils
1 package of 3x5 index cards
2 highlighters

Elementary:
1 Supply Box
2 spiral notebooks (wide rule)
2 packages of notebook paper (wide rule)
12 #2 pencils
1 package markers
1 package of 16 or 24 crayons
2 erasers
2 glue sticks
scissors
2 two pocket folders

Community Makeover- A Fresh Hope Style

Engage Atlanta is an organization made up of over 20 area churches of different dominations. Engage Atlanta organizes one of the most inspiring weekends ever each year called a Community Makeover. Last year, A Fresh Hope partly funded a makeover project on a family that lives nearby. This family lived in a mobile home in poor conditions. Over 40 people volunteered their time, energy and donations to help give this family a new start. To this day, the family still talks about the blessing they received last year.

Waverly really wanted to find a project for the Community Makeover that A Fresh Hope could do for children by children. In other words, she wants kids to help kids. The perfect opportunity came up. We have adopted Compton Elementary in Powder Springs. Compton Elementary has approximately 500 children with roughly 80% qualifying for the Free Lunch Program. They do not have extra funds or PTA money to spend on extra items for the school.

The Community Makeover is scheduled from July 31st – August 2nd (Friday – Sunday). We are looking for volunteers that want to participate in this project. We would love to have parents serving alongside the children to really bless this school.

So…. what will this project entail? Our goal is to decorate the staff bathrooms, put reading lofts in the 1st and 2nd grade classrooms, stock a clothes closet, stock the school with art supplies, give every classroom outdoor equipment (balls, hula hoops, etc.), spruce up the gardens, paint murals, clean rooms, etc. This project is in the planning stages and will continue to grow throughout the summer.

What can I do to help?

• Volunteer as a family to be part of this project the weekend of July 31st.
• Save elementary size clothes and shoes for the clothes closet
• Donate money – see www.afreshhope.com for donation instructions.
• Build a loft- we hope to build most of the lofts ahead of time to make installation day a breeze
• Donate books, school supplies, art supplies
• Donate outdoor equipment (balls, hula hoops)

• Offer to feed the volunteers a meal during the Community Makeover weekend
• Pray for this project

United Way

Waverly was nominated for United Way's Heart and Hand volunteer award for 2009. She was awarded the Youth Heart and Hand volunteer of the year for Cobb County. She was nominated by Mt. Paran Christian School. Dr. Tilley (headmaster), Mr. Stephen Burton (student Pastor) and Ms. Jennifer New also attended the luncheon. It was a great moment for all volunteer individuals and groups nominated.

Back to School Celebration 2009

THE DATE IS SET- 8-8-09!!!!!

The Back to School Celebration will be August 8, 2009. We are still working out the details so more information to come.

We anticipate we will distribute over 2000 back packs to children in the area. We are talking donations for back packs and school supplies.

We are looking for people that are willing to store 100 back packs until the Back to School Celebration. If you are interested, please e-mail waverly@afreshhope.com

We hope to serve lunch to 3500 people, have a carnival atmosphere with jumpies, face painting, music, etc.

We are putting together gift bags for the 1500 families. The gift bags will have information about West Ridge Church and A Fresh Hope. We are also going to put coupons in the gift bags. If you are local merchant and interested in donating your coupons to the gift bags, please let us know.

Easter Outreach Carnival

On Saturday, 8-11-09, A Fresh Hope helped Cedarcrest Church host an Easter Celebration. The Celebration was held at Allatoona High School. Invitations were mailed to Paulding and Cobb surrounding area codes as well as the recipients at the Back to School Drive from August 2008.

The weather was unseasonably cold and very cloudy... BUT... people still came. There were over 3000 people at the Carnival. The carnival provided included a velcro wall, lots of jumpies, barbeque, face painting, tattoos.. great fellowship and an egg hunt with over 30000 eggs.

A Fresh Hope would like to thank the following folks for helping with this event:
Cheryle and Terry Austin, Julie, Thom, Cassidy and Hannah Ray, Jennifer Higgins, Kellee, Lawrence and McKenzie Strickland.

Waverly and the bunny...


Let the games begin:


Warm smiles... happy kids....

Great way to get discounts on magazines AND help A Fresh Hope

A Fresh Hope is starting a fundraising event to raise money for upcoming outreach events. Money is pretty tight now so we wanted to find a fundraiser that includes things people normally buy. We found a fundraising magazine group. If you are going to renew a subscription to a magazine or purchase a subscription.. this is the place to do it. The prices are incredible:

People: 45% off
Newsweek: 93% off
Sports Illustrated kids: 64% off (great gift idea for birthdays- my son loves this one)
It has Elle, Good Housekeeping, Town and Country, W, Vogue, Family Fun, Seventeen, National Geograhpic, etc.

Over 650 magazines...
So.. if you are in the market for a magazine.. please look here first..
http://www.magfundraising.com/GroupPage.aspx

Spread the word.. If you refer 12 people via e-mail to this site.. you get a free movie ticket:
http://www.magfundraising.com/PrizesForPZRegistration.aspx

Thank you!!!

Help Wanted......

Hello.. we are looking for a wondeful volunteer that will do a make-over on the website and blog for A Fresh Hope. Waverly's aunt graciously volunteered her time in the beginning for the website but she is now working full time and being a mom so we would like to see if someone else is available. A Fresh Hope has grown and has news to share but needs a new website and blog to get this portrayed effectively. If you are interested, please contact Waverly at waverly@afreshhope.com

Thank you