{"id":4088,"date":"2013-04-26T11:09:14","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T18:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=4088"},"modified":"2013-04-26T11:09:14","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T18:09:14","slug":"rochester-umcs-community-closet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/rochester-umcs-community-closet\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochester UMC&#8217;s Community Closet"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\np.padding {padding-left:.5cm;}\n--><\/style>\n<p><center><em>June Gelvin pictured with clothing donations at the Rochester UMC Community Closet. The Rochester Community Closet is open on Mondays, from 4-6 p.m.; Wednesdays 3-5 p.m.; and Fridays 10 a.m. \u2013 Noon; and closed on Holidays. Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/rumc_communitycloset\" target=\"_blank\">bit.ly\/rumc_communitycloset<\/a> for more info.  For more photos, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.369874053092592.92288.113819642031369&#038;type=1&#038;l=7c276c19b5\" target=\"_blank\">PNW UMVIM page<\/a>.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>More Than Clothing<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Rochester UMC\u2019s Community Closet reaches out to its residents in need<\/em><br \/>\n<em>By Jesse N. Love<\/em><\/p>\n<p>At the edge of Thurston County lies the town of Rochester, Wash. It\u2019s a small community of about 1800 \u2013 and within this \u2018bedroom community\u2019 lies Rochester United Methodist Church. One of its signature ministries is the Community Closet \u2013 collecting and providing clean clothing to people in need. This ministry played a key part in providing clothing to those affected by the floods in Lewis County in 2007.<br \/>\n<!--more Read more about Rochester's Community Closet--><br \/>\nThe Rochester Community Closet is open on Mondays, from 4-6 p.m.; Wednesdays 3-5 p.m.; and Fridays 10 a.m. \u2013 Noon; and closed on Holidays. The Closet receives many of its donations from the local community. But, they also have received donations from companies such as Costco (clothing), TransAlta (grants for clothing, facilities), and Great Wolf Lodge (mattresses). The Closet washes clothes on site at the Church and has a furniture warehouse in Centralia.<\/p>\n<p>June Gelvin serves as manager for the Community Closet and has served for almost six years. Gelvin anticipates that around 30 families will drop by when they open their doors the following day. Of those in the community who visit, around 2\/3 are white and 1\/3 are Mexican, ranging between the ages of 30-60. Around 4-5 volunteers help manage the Closet when it is open for a few hours.<\/p>\n<p>Gene Weaver is the lay leader and serves on the Board of Trustees for Rochester UMC. Weaver shares that the Community Closet was open for almost 119 days in 2012. With approximately 1500 people signing in, this represents about 5100 family members receiving support and over 29,000 articles of clothing distributed.<\/p>\n<p>In neighboring Lewis County, there is a high rate of unemployment (13.4% according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/publicdata\/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&#038;met_y=unemployment_rate&#038;idim=county:PA530750&#038;fdim_y=seasonality:U&#038;dl=en&#038;hl=en&#038;q=unemployment%20rate%20lewis%20county%20washington\" target=\"_blank\">data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>). Having a clothing bank like Rochester\u2019s Community Closet serves to provide not only resources in the community, but also offers a spiritual-emotional need as well. Heather Sparkman, pastor of RUMC, feels that the Community Closet is a ministry that nurtures relationships outside of the four walls of the Church. \u201cWe are in constant contact with our community, always asking how we can make a difference,\u201d shares Sparkman. \u201cAsking how we can support or have a compassionate response to the needs \u2013 the needs for school supplies, backpacks, or if someone is moving into a house and they don\u2019t have anything \u2013 the people here will respond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Community Closet ministry at Rochester UMC has also been a great way to welcome new people to church. \u201cIt\u2019s a draw not just for people to come to the Community Closet, but for folks searching for a church. We might be one of those places people come to because of our activity here and in the community,\u201d shares Sparkman.<\/p>\n<p>The Community Closet at Rochester UMC continues to provide resources for the people of this town and works to respond as it is called by God to serve the spiritual needs of this community.<\/p>\n<p><center><em>Special thanks to Jim Truitt.<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Jesse N. Love serves as the print &amp; publications manager for the PNWUMC.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/rochesterumc.org\/clothing-bank.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Community Closet\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/LINK_ClothingBank.jpg?w=696\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td>\n<p class=\"padding\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rochesterumc.org\/clothing-bank.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Clothing Closet &#8211; Rochester UMC<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\nWhat started as a cooperative effort with counselors at the Rochester primary and elementary schools to provide emergency clothing has grown to a full-blown mission project! <a href=\"http:\/\/rochesterumc.org\/clothing-bank.html\" target=\"_blank\">(more)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June Gelvin pictured with clothing donations at the Rochester UMC Community Closet. The Rochester Community Closet is open on Mondays, from 4-6 p.m.; Wednesdays 3-5 p.m.; and Fridays 10 a.m. \u2013 Noon; and closed on Holidays. Visit bit.ly\/rumc_communitycloset for more info. For more photos, visit the PNW UMVIM page. More Than Clothing Rochester UMC\u2019s Community [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":4094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,114],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-features"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/FEATURES_Rochester1.jpg?fit=600%2C308&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-13W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4088"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4116,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088\/revisions\/4116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}