Gleanings From
In Christian Fellowship

By Shirley Lindahl
Edited by Jerry Rutherford

Pancake Breakfast and Auction Started

The Finance Committee started sponsoring pancake breakfasts, first as a fund raising event and later as a thank you to the congregation. A near catastrophe was averted one time when Merle Zigler came to the rescue with an electric fry pan. It seems that the grill which had for many years functioned well blew a fuse and no one could locate it. But it took quite a while to create a supply of 100 Congregationalists with four pancakes at a time!!

Mike Small was hired to run a summer youth program for junior and senior high students. An effort was made to sell the church bus to fund this position. The bus had not been used for over two years, and a buyer could not be found for it. A year later a purchaser was found. The church was able to come up with enough funds to hire Mike.

Organist, Bob Brinkley, resigned after serving the church for 15 years. Harriet Jasper, church treasurer, reported that after several years of the church running on a deficit budget the church completed the year with a cash balance of $478.06.

Vacation Church School became Summer Adventure with outings and events planned over a two week period, often shared with children from Seattle's Central area or from other churches in the area.

To highlight an evening discussing the history of the church, a visit was made to the historic Newberry house which was across the street. It had been the home of the longtime minister of the church. The current owners Peyton and Kris Whitely graciously open their home which made for pleasant recollections for some of the church members. When the Newberrys left it became the home of the Ona family. (They were the parents of Gen --who later married one of their boarders, a young school teacher named Everly Cox.)

The Finance Committee produced a fun-filled evening which was called a "Time and Talent Auction." Members offered their services for yard work, teaching a skill, making an item or offered the use of something they owned. Some of the bids included: "six apple pies," "wall papering a room," "weeding your flower bed." The list was long and varied. Everyone had a great time trying to outbid other members. Profits from the auction resulted in raising $1000!! (Currently a group of women in the church are planning a big "spaghetti feed" --see related article--to help defray our deficit budget---How about a group of men planning an auction?)

By 1978 the need once again was felt for supplemental food for some in the community, so the Emergency Feeding Program began. All churches were asked to donate specific items which were collected and packed for distribution. At this time the Social Action Committee was in charge of this monthly collection.

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