As the first two months of the year come to a close, I thought I would give you an update on what is going on at Love Chapel. 2024 was a transition year, one which challenged us in many ways, but a year where we were able to complete our five-year strategic plan. As we have started this new year, a lot of work has already begun towards meeting this new strategic plan.
Here are some of the highlights:
We welcome Allison Kunkler onto our Love Chapel team – Allison’s role is Development Director, dedicated to helping us have the resources we need to operate. Allison has hit the ground running, by beginning to meet with donors, working on planning a couple of new fundraising events, and spearheading our efforts to enlist support from businesses in our community. More details will be forthcoming, but April 19th will be a concert at North Christian church from our local philharmonic organization. They will be performing Handel’s Messiah. We also will be hosting a “Taste of Columbus” showcasing local restaurants. She also is working on bringing a contemporary Christian artist to town. All part of our long-term strategy!
The Membership Committee has met and developed a plan to strengthen our relationships with local churches, both member and non-member. It will be great to see how we can more closely partner with our churches to further strengthen our work in this community.
We held our first housing forum to look at future space needs in late January. We are so fortunate to have Britt Brewer, a local architect willing to work with us as we go through this process. We hope to hold a second meeting in early spring to further detail what we need from a space perspective.
Lastly, we have updated our Vision/Mission to accurately describe what Love Chapel does. It is as follows: “Love Chapel strives to show Christ’s love in action by serving Bartholomew County residents with food, shelter and financial assistance.”
We continue to be very busy at Brighter Days, the numbers at the Food Pantry have shown a slight decrease, which they often do during tax time. Lastly, our Program Services Director, Stacy, is no longer with us and we are currently in the interview stages of the search for her replacement!
Thanks,
Kelly
