By Michael Wacht

WEBSTER — Webster United Methodist Church has raised $3,000 in the past six months and donated all of it to a local elementary and middle school to help teachers and guidance counselors meet the needs of some of the area’s poorest children.

This ministry is the first time the church, which averages 35 in worship during the summer and 80 in the winter, has provided direct ministry to its community, according to JoAnne Morgan, a church member. “The teachers said they never had a fund they could draw on to buy things like this,” Morgan said. “One teacher said she used to hit all the area yard sales to pick up things for her students.”

The ministry started out as a Bible study and dinner for church members “with hopes that it would attract people from the outside,” said Haig Medzarentz, the church’s supply pastor. “We had also been searching for an outreach ministry.”

Morgan said a group of church women wanted to do a soup kitchen for homeless people. The idea “just kind of fizzled” because the church’s kitchen wasn’t suited for that and the rural area around the church does not have a large homeless population.

Morgan’s son Preston and several of her daughters-in-law are teachers. They shared with her some of the needs they see among school children. “I was hearing these horror stories that you didn’t think happen in our area,” she said. “We decided, ‘Hey, here’s a ministry.’ ”

Earlier this year, the church began holding monthly spaghetti suppers and donating the proceeds to the two schools. “The church and community have really supported it,” Morgan said. “The church really likes it because they can see their money working.”

The teachers also support the fund raiser, according to Christina McKinney, assistant principal at South Sumter Middle School. Many of them order spaghetti lunches from the church on the day of the supper.

The money is given to the schools’ guidance counselors who approve requests from teachers, according to Morgan. The money is not given to the children, but someone from the school goes to a local store to buy what is needed.

The needs, according to McKinney, are usually personal items. “We have a lot of kids who have situations at home,” she said. “Some have needed a special outfit for funerals or family situations. We’ve donated to a child who was hurt and had medical bills to pay. When a student’s house burnt down, we got school clothes for them. We bought eyeglasses for a student whose family couldn’t afford them.”

One student who “wasn’t successful academically” was referred to and accepted by an alternative school that would provide him with the attention and instruction he needed, according to McKinney. “The alternative school required a uniform, and he couldn’t go because he couldn’t get the special outfit,” she said.

Through the money donated by the church, the school was able to buy the clothes for the student, according to Medzarentz. “When presented with the clothes, the student went into the boys room and put them on. When he came out into the hall, tears were running down his face.”