I Was Hungry & You Gave Me Food... Naked & You Clothed Me. (Matthew 25:35-36)
There has always been a need in the congregation for a little help. For many years food has been gathered at Thanksgiving and Christmas so baskets could be given to those in need.
In 1964 our welfare committee helped 10 Calvary families who had serious illness or loss of employment. In 1971 over 17 baskets of food and also money were given to unemployed members, the largest number of local people to need help in our history.
Our food pantry was organized by Otto Jensen more than 10 years ago. Members of Calvary have kept it supplied with ongoing donations of non-perishable and dry food items. We are indebted to the many Calvaryites who gather, sort, and deliver donated goods. A few like Ray Forys are particularly helpful in this project. He regularly brings food from our pantry to a number of our widows, provides transportation, and befriends them in other ways. In recent years Calvary has contributed food to INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network).
A number of our members regularly bring goods from our Food Pantry to the Lutheran Family and Community Services located at Epiphany Lutheran Church in Hempstead. They also have taken quilts and afghans made by our sewing committee plus items like soap, paper towels, and toothpaste to this agency. Many of the people receiving these necessities are elderly; some are working poor, and almost all have children or grandchildren in their care.
For a few decades Morton Lemkau used his truck to transport clothing, food, and household goods -- as well as blankets, etc. made by our sewing committee -- to St. Luke's, Manhattan, St. John's, Bronx, and St. Mark's, Brooklyn and clothing to the Lutheran World Relief Center in Maryland. In one year, 1976, a total of 1700 lbs. of clothing and 800 lbs. of canned food were given to St. Mark's, where 85% were on welfare.
In 1956, working with the Lutheran Refugee Service, we sponsored Mr. and Mrs. Werner Fischer and their three children, who had fled from East Germany. We provided a temporary home for them, furnishings, and the necessities of life and helped Werner to find employment.
In 1971 Walter Seymour and John Horning drove a school bus 1400 miles to the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where Lutheran Pastor Bob Witthoeft conducted a home for boys. The people of Calvary and others had filled the bus -- bought and refurbished by Walter -- with seven tons of food, clothing, and school and medical supplies. The bus was given to the Indians. For more than twenty years George Martinez of Calvary regularly shipped clothing and other goods to Sioux Indians in St. Francis, SD -free of charge through the courtesy of United Parcel Service. After that, George paid some of the mailing charges. In recent years Calvary and others have assumed the cost.
Year after year we have contributed a variety of gifts to be distributed at Christmas to Wartburg Lutheran Home for the Aging in Brooklyn and Smithtown. Calvary for a while supported at least one child annually through the Christian Children's Fund and two families in the Appalachia Project. Food parcels were sent to Hungary, Poland, and East Germany in 1971. Food was gathered for Lutherans in flood-damaged areas of PA, VA, and NY in 1972 and again in 1998. Operation Rainbow gathered small items for our troops stationed in Saudi Arabia.
Project Angel Tree gathered Christmas gifts for children of prisoners. Clothing and money were given to the Salt and Sea Mission in Brooklyn in 1991. At Nassau County Medical Center we provided tapes for the pediatric ward as well as baby clothes for newborns and equipment for needy children. In 1998 we were told that a Seaford couple planned to take clothing to Latvia. The people of Calvary gathered a ton of clothing for the cause. One of our members paid the shipping costs. The shipment was sent to a cathedral in Riga. From there it was distributed to smaller parishes.
Calvary has not only given material things to people here and in many parts of the world. Many of us have given our own blood to save lives. In the '60s and through the early part of the '80s an InterCounty Bloodmobile came to Calvary. In the mid-'70s there were at times two blood drives each year. 92 pints were donated in May 1975. In June '78 we were told "Calvary gives twice as much blood per member as the average congregation." 50 pints of blood had to be pledged for the Bloodmobile to come here. Because we gave only 23 pints for the blood drive in 1987, those willing to give blood have since had to donate it at other locations.
Because we love Jesus, we have shown love to others in tangible ways. God has richly blessed us. We have sought to be a blessing to others.