Imagine a community weather disaster – an earthquake, flood, wildfire, or tornado. A whole community is impacted and homes are damaged. Where to you go to find cleaning supplies? The local store may also be damaged or the shelves empty.
This type of disaster is uncommon here in New England, but happens all over our country and the world.
UMCOR, The United Methodist Committee on Relief, donates hundreds of buckets full of cleaning materials every year to be used in disasters. These buckets enable those affected by floods, hurricanes and tornadoes to begin the overwhelming job of cleaning up. With severe spring weather across the United States, the buckets help so many people in difficult times.
Hope Ministries at First United Methodist Church Gilford teamed up with Trinity UMC at the Weirs and Bath UMC in Bath, Maine, to assemble almost 75 cleaning buckets plus 160 hygiene kits filled with basic grooming necessities for displaced people. While the buckets are used only in the US, the hygiene kits can be sent anywhere in the world. In the spring of 2022, the news showed a relief plane filled with kits from churches all over America being given to Ukraine.
We thank everyone involved for their work
on this project, to all the people who donated money and supplies, and to the
ones who shopped, inventoried and packed the buckets. The buckets were dedicated in worship and then taken to the distribution hub in
