Help from Many Places

Over the past 6 months, our church has received help from many places to help with fire recovery:

• Santa Cruz Convergence
• Trinity Church
• Hope Church
• Twin Lakes
• Los Gatos Presbyterian
• Christian Drama School of New Jersey
• Kentucky Quilters
• Hope Lutheran Church quilters from  San Mateo, California
• CLC - Christian Life Center on Mission Street
• San Jose Presbyterian
• World Hope International
• Santa Cruz Foundation
• Arizona truck of household items from past church member 

Direct funds provided by San Jose Presbyterian have been distributed to members of our church.  World Hope provided fans to help with smoke mitigation. Meals provided by Santa Cruz Convergence Church were distributed to our community members when we were repopulating.  They also provided hand sewn Christmas stockings with $100 "downtown dollars" which we delivered to 100 people in our community who lost their homes, a value of over $10,000.   We also distributed $100 gift cards from our church to people who had immediate needs over Christmas. Money from the Higher Grounds donation jar funded Christmas trees and wreaths for people.  Twin Lakes gift card purchased clothing and food for members of our church who lost their home.  

Hope Church purchased the canopy at church and tools for people who lost their home.  We distributed emergency radios that were purchased with funds donated to the Santa Cruz Foundation.  We purchased the backup Yeti batteries to power our wifi when power is out using the Los Gatos Presbyterian funds.  

Moving forward, we have a few choices of how to spend the remaining funds we have received for disaster recovery and relief.  We have about $8000 in funding, 50% of it was specifically targeted to support capital expenses associated with the out reach, 25% is to be spent where most needed.   

It is our choice to use about 50% of the funds to give directly to fire survivors or to invest it on improving the services we offer at the church for our community who is facing challenges of limited power, water and communication resources.    When investing in improving services, we have two proposals:  

1) to invest in backup solar power estimated to cost about $20,000 which requires us to raise another $12,000 

2) to invest enabling us to utilize the coffee cart we received this Fall.  

The session has approved moving forward to keep the coffee cart; they haven't had a chance to discuss the possibility of having solar backup power.  There is confusion about whether we share a shed or there is a dedicated shed for Higher Grounds.

Currently, we are planning to purchase a shed with a roll-up door to house the coffee cart that we have been given to use by Sebastian of Great Infusion to use over the next two years or more.  That shed will require a level foundation and electrical power.  We estimate it will cost approximately $6,000.  Our plans are to reach out to Hope Church with a proposal to complete this work as well as to use the remaining funds we have received from Los Gatos Presbyterian, Trinity Church and New Jersey Theatre Group to fund this investment.  We have received approximately $8,000 in funds between these three organizations.