Florida United Methodists and the NCAA are targeting high school athletes in an effort to stop sports gambling before it starts.

Verna K. Echols, the conference’s representative to the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, said more than 300 delegates to the Dare to Share Jesus 2000 Florida Annual Conference Event agreed to deliver information packets to local high school athletic directors. Each packet contains a video, magazine and booklet produced by the NCAA that are designed to alert high-school athletes of the dangers of gambling.

The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling is a an alliance of anti-gambling organizations that serves as a support organization and clearinghouse of information for groups working to stop the expansion of gambling, according to the coalition’s Web site.

Dorothy Collins, a member of Pasadena Community Church and the Florida Conference’s representative for the General Board of Global Ministries’ (GBGM) Encounter With Christ in Latin America and the Caribbean, has been chosen as one of seven jurisdictional leaders for the initiative.

The new coordinators will undergird the work of Encounter With Christ by sharing with annual conferences the information and resources needed to more fully involve United Methodists in global mission and witness in this region of the world. Collins will work with conferences in the Southeastern Jurisdiction.

Encounter With Christ is a GBGM initiative to raise money for evangelism and outreach ministries in partnership with the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches (CIEMAL), which includes all Methodist churches in Latin America and the Caribbean.