Winter 2003-04 Events
Souper Bowl Helps Feed Johenning Children
Before the Patriots or the Panthers took the field in Houston, several churches in the greater DC area took action to help children in Southeast DC on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Souper Bowl of Caring is an annual effort to encourage churches, faith-based organizations and individuals interested in fighting hunger and poverty to ask people to drop a dollar in a soup pot on Super Bowl Sunday to help the hungry. City Gate, in partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank, provides a hot, nutritious meal at the Johenning Center each evening after-school for 30 children. During summer the program includes a hundred youths who also receive breakfast and lunch. The Food Bank will provide enough food for all the children at the Center if City Gate covers the cost of the cook and other kitchen expenses.
We thank the churches who participated in this year's Souper Bowl! Contributions received covered one month's expenses. (Nationwide, the 2003 Souper Bowl generated $3.5 million for local charities.) Checks from individuals and churches are needed on an on-going basis to sustain the Johenning feeding program. They should be made out to City Gate, and mailed to the Johenning Center at 4025 Ninth St., SE, Washington, DC 20032.
Sunday at the Movies
Many Johenning children have never gone to a movie theater. In January, City Gate was given a block of tickets to "The Legend of Johnny Lingo" at the Mazza Gallerie Theater in Friendship Heights for a 1 p.m. Sunday showing. With transportation provided by the Metropolitan Outreach congregation that meets at Johenning, nearly a dozen and a half children reveled in the wonder of the big screen and plush velvet reclining chairs as they watched the story of how a young boy learned the importance of truthfulness, commitment, and the lesson that love is the greatest treasure one can seek. Prior to the movie, the Johenning children joined other youths from our summer camps for a special program during the Sunday morning services and a lunch at Wisconsin Avenue, before going up the street to the theater, accompanied by a large group of college students and adults.
Helping the Homeless
City Gate marshaled 100 walkers for the annual Help the Homeless Walkathon on the Mall on Nov. 22, 2003. A bus load came from the Johenning Center, and another group of children, youth, and adults from Agape and Wisconsin Avenue Baptist Churches took the metro to the Mall. The event raised a total of $6.5 million for programs in the area.
Every year City Gate involves the children in its summer and after-school programs in the Walkathon. It is a great field trip with a colorful T-Shirt provided! Some of the children from Southeast actually have not been on the Mall, and cannot identify some of the monuments and buildings in their own city.
Perhaps most importantly, the Walkathon is a community service opportunity to help others (again, some of the children seldom have a chance to contribute to the larger community). Because of sponsorships by Fannie Mae, the City Gate walkers raised about $2,000 for the homeless ministries of the DC Downtown Cluster of Congregations.