Community Outreach

It doesn’t  take an extraordinary person to make a difference to others. It takes the ordinary person’s willingness to extend God’s loving arms that can bring joy, comfort, and hope that make a difference in another’s life.

Snack bags for kids

Our Daily Bread is seeking snack foods (healthy items like raisins, granola bars, peanut butter or cheese crackers etc) for children who are becoming a more common sight at this feeding facility for the needy and homeless.  These snacks are mainly for summer and holidays – when school is not in session.  There is a box in Lowe Hall for your contributions.

All Island Denominations

All Island Denominations is seeking several persons from each church on the island to provide telephone coverage for the client telephone. Calls are received from people on the island or from island churches for help with rent, utilities and/or food. You would have the client phone for a certain number of days at a time and handle any calls that came in.  Training will be provided.

Military Ministry

We are collecting items to send to those serving overseas in the Military. There is a box in Lowe Hall and hope that you will help us fill them with items for the servicemen.  These items will be forwarded to MOTS-Manatee Operation Troop Support.

Click for list of items that are needed!

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread Needs You!

Old shirts needed. Our Daily Bread needs some used men’s shirts, the bigger the better. Guests who come to eat in tank tops are asked to put on a shirt with sleeves while they are eating—which is returned after the meal. They desperately need some more shirts. Can be T-shirts or any men’s shirt, any size, as long as it’s clean and serviceable. Give to Alex or Ruth Richardson.

Their recent newsletter states that Our Daily Bread, fed 89,000 meals in 2011 and an average of  7,000 meals a month for the first quarter of 2012.  They are in need of some additional help now, as many of their volunteers are winter residents who have gone home. They need salad preparers and people to work on the serving line.  If you can help, you can call them at 745-2992. Or talk to Bill and Sue Wait or Don and Julie Lind who are regular volunteers there. Your support is appreciated.

All Islands Denomination’s Food Bank

The food bank has a desperate need for:

  • cereal
  • oatmealoil
  • rice meals
  • Spam
  • tea bags
  • soup
  • canned green beans
  • pasta
  • pasta sauce
  • jams and jellies
  • toilet paper
  • bars of soap
  • shampoo
  • juice in small cans or boxes

There is a basket for food near the garden entrance of the church. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Turning Points

Help for the Homeless - Walk a Mile or donate

Turning Points is the new name for the Coalition for the Homeless in Bradenton.  Not only do they have a new name—they have a new mission.  Whereas before they once served mostly single men, now 50% of their clients are women with children. They are working not only with the homeless, but also to prevent homelessness.  Often a small rent subsidy is enough to keep the working poor in their homes.  This is just one of the ways they are serving this growing population—on average 200 family units a day. In 2012, they served an unduplicated count of 7,000 individuals.

All of this takes money, and Turning Points is holding a Walkathon at Coquina Beach on Saturday April 20. Check in is at 4 pm, walk begins at 5:30.  They are seeking walkers for the one mile course. They are also most grateful for donations.  You can register on line at SignMe Up.com/90182.  T-Shirts will be given to pre-registered walkers.  There will be a live band, bounce house, raffles, food vendors, face painting, and lots of fun activities for all.  They are a charitable 501(c)(3) corporations, so your donation to Turning Points is tax-deductible.

You can read more about the walk and about Turning Points and find a registration form the bulletin board in Lowe Hall.  For more information, talk to Jeanne Akers.

HAP-Handmade Afghan Project

We have a group that knit or crochet 6” x 9” rectangles. These are sent to a organization in Maryland that uses them to make afghans for wounded service men and women.  We have shipped over 3,900 rectangles to date, and the project continues with an ever-growing number of women knitting.  Over 8,000 afghans have been shipped to service men and women.

Afghans for our Service Heroes

Bill and Sue Wait sent off another huge box of knitted and crocheted afghan rectangles to Washington DC where volunteers crochet them into afghans for our wounded warriors.  We gathered 238 rectangles on Sunday, March 17, 2013.  They were blessed and will be sent to Washington DC. That makes a total of 5,788 rectangles from Annunciation!! That’s 118 afghans!!  The total number of afghans sent to the wounded warriors is over 9,400!  Thank you all who make these.  If you crochet and would like to put together an afghan with supplied rectangles, see Sue Wait.

Welcome Bags

Each Sunday, after the peace and during the announcements, our Clergy (or Senior Warden in their absence) welcomes newcomers or winter visitors who are returning. They introduce themselves and are given a gift bag which contains a newsletter and other bits of information which will be useful to a visitor. It is our way of letting them know that we are happy they have chosen to worship with us.

The welcome bags that we give visitors are chock-full of local information, tchotchkes, coupons and ads from Island  businesses.  So, CotA Parishioners, let’s do our best to support the businesses that give our visitors special deals:

  • Sandbar/BeachHouse/MarVista Restaurants
  • Waterfront Restaurant
  • Harry’s Continental Kitchen
  • Olive Oil Outpost
  • Sun and Surf store (with the birds!)
  • Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium
  • Mixon Fruit Farms
  • the Pine Avenue General Store
  • Flip Flop Shop & Candy Stop
  • Picture This (framers & art)
  • Relish Café.

Our thanks to these businesses.

Be a Christmas Angel

About Thanksgiving each year we receive names and ages of children from rural poor families in Arcadia that have requested help providing a Christmas presents for their children.  For the last several years we have provided gifts for over 40 children and a gift card for the family.  When the list is posted, please take a card, write your name on the list and bring your unwrapped gift or gift card by the return date.  The gifts will be delivered to Arcadia.