Rye Presbyterian Grant Helps New Orleans Rebuild

Rye Presbyterian Church (RPC) is helping to send extra love –literally and figuratively- down to New Orleans to help repair and clean homes that were affected by Hurricane Katrina. RPC Pastor Dan Love will be taking 25 kids from the Rye Presbyterian Church Youth group to New Orleans for their annual mission trip. A $1,000 grant from the RPC Women’s Association will help pay for supplies needed to help with repair, Love said.

The youth group has done similar missions in other parts of the country but this is their third year back in New Orleans, where they hook up with local groups there to find the people who need their help.

“New Orleans has been great, people are very thankful there,” Love said. “And we are a really efficient group. The kids work hard.”

The RPC Youth Group is one of 22 groups or organizations awarded grants from the RPC Women’s Association. This year the Association awarded a total of $50,000 to community organizations. Every cent of the $50,000 was raised at the Presbyterian Church Thrift shop, run by volunteers and open only three hours one day a week during the school year.

“That is a lot of one and two dollar items we sold to raise this money,” Said Kristin Jautz, a board member of the Women’s Association during the grant awards luncheon Monday, June 10.

“When you come to this event it is so humbling because we live in an area where many of us are privileged but there is still so much need around us and to be able to do this is a wonderful opportunity,” Jautz said.

This thrift store is open every Thursday during the school year from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This Thursday is the last day of the school year it will be open and everything is half off. It is located in the basement of Rye Presbyterian