On Sunday afternoon, August 3, Cornerstone UMC hosted a flood bucket-filling party and filled more than 100 5-gallon buckets containing an assortment of basic cleaning supplies for flood vicitms. According to Marvin Smith, the bucket collections coordinator for First UMC, Howe, he can only recall one other time he has picked up more than 100 buckets at any one church.
As host of the event, Cornerstone partially financed the effort and had 35 member volunteers on hand; Christ UMC, Plano offered financial support and two dozen volunteers from their Disaster Relief Team; and additional financial support was provided by First UMC Garland
The Missions Committee wishes to express its deep gratitude to all who contributed their time, their money and their labor to making this event so meaningful for all of us!
Diane Mobilia, a member of the Cornerstone Missions Committee, offers a personal account about how it all came about...
The inspiration for this effort came to me during a heavy downpour in June. I accidentally dropped my cell phone in the rushing waters created by the storm and saw it float down into the sewer. Being angry, I slammed my car door, turned to go in the house and then stopped in my tracks! God showed me homes floating down the river that I had seen on the news the night before.
Here I was, angry that I had lost a small piece of electronics that could be replaced in an hour, while hundreds of people had lost possessions that could never be replaced. I walked into the house and decided it was time to put together some flood buckets.
I thought if I could get a few people involved, we could prayerfully fill 10 buckets. Hoping to save money, I went to a nearby Sam's Warehouse Club and approached the bakery department to see if I could have their 5 gallon frosting buckets and lids to recycle and use. After three trips we had our ten buckets, and a few more.
Since we had the extra buckets, I thought we might be able to expand our efforts. I ran this idea past our missions committee and then called Rev. Marji Bishir at the North Texas Conference office. She in turn sent out an email to all other local UM churches inviting them to join our efforts. I then called the UMCOR Warehouse and found out their supply was extremely low.
Debbie Bowles from Christ UMC in Plano, responded to our appeal and our plans came together as we decided we could do 25 buckets, no 50, no 75! "Oh, lets do 100!!" we said.
The buckets kept coming along (and we collected smaller ones too). Did I mention that all these buckets had to be washed and dried and some had to be scraped before rinsing in the yard? With the help of my husband, Rick, we cleaned between five and 20 buckets after each trip. (I now have the sweetest yard in Plano!)
In the process of collecting our 5-gallon buckets, we also collected more than 100 6-quart buckets. These have been given to "Project Transformation" as a resource for their childrens arts and crafts.
When all costs were tallied, we estimated each flood bucket to cost $23 thanks in part to the collection of the free buckets, but also thanks to some ingenious bargaining for bulk items. You can save a great deal of money by buying in bulk. The key to collecting bulk items is to have enough people on hand to help sort them all. No matter what size church you have, you can make an even greater difference when you pool your resources with others in the connection. That's what we United Methodists are all about, isnt it?
Throughout this effort, we have been reminding one another of my favorite phrase, "Life is hard, but God is good."
Love, Diane Mobilia
