2024 ANNUAL REPORT

Thanks to everyone who wrote  Annual Reports for 2024. These reports help us to reflect on and take note of the many ways our church was active in the past year.  Through all of our ministries, we continued to strive to live into being an Open and Affirming Church and a Just Peace Church through the words of our Church Purpose Statement:

We are a joyful, welcoming, inclusive, and supportive community of Christ followers, eager to shine God's love by connecting people through partnerships and service that foster peace and hope in our neighborhood, wider community and world.

At the same time that the word “I” is used in many of the sentences in this report, I am always keenly aware that nothing I do as pastor can be done alone. I am so  grateful to serve this church, where members and friends are committed to faith through prayer and action.

This past year, I continued to focus on ways to keep us connected with one another, the wider UCC church and happenings in the world. This is done through my emails to our “email blasts” which reach over 100 people, and our email Prayer Chain. I wrote the bulletins and monthly newsletters, served as administrator for our church Facebook page and coordinated our church website. 

I led worship services for Sundays and special services including Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday. I led and coordinated our filmed services and posted them on Facebook and You Tube, making it possible for people to participate when not able to be in person for worship. My thanks to our film team: Jamie Rooke, our Videographer for much of the year, Keith Walker, our current Videographer, Geri Thompson and Judy Milano, for our Altar Designs, Gerri for scripture readings and Frank Jackson, our organist and hymns leader. I also wrote  the weekly “Snail mail,” including each week’s bulletin and sermon which was mailed out to those who are unable to attend in person worship and without access to a computer. 

In the community, I coordinated with members and friends in outreach ministries through our partnerships which include The  Gray House, Rebecca Johnson School, Open Pantry and Church World Service. I took the lead in our church hosting the “International Peace Day Fair,” as a way to put my faith into action as a member of our local Campaign Nonviolence. I served on the Steering Team for our Regional Crop Walk for Hunger. I also served as a member of our NST (Neighborhood Support Team) who support and walk alongside the refugee family from Afghanistan. I continued in the role of coordinator for our Christian Education ministries and continued involvement with and resourcing boards and committees and teams. I also helped with fundraising events throughout the year.

This year, we experienced the joys of Heidi Mayfield, Ron Maagero, Nick Chechile, Kim Pages and Sean LaTerz  joining our church’s membership, and the baptism of Harper Dols, infant daughter of Stephen and Holly Payne. We experienced the sorrow of the deaths of dear church members and friends: Shirley Wright and Donna Griffth and in very recent weeks (in January 2025)  the deaths of Dick Pond and Vivian Gonzalez.

There are so many people to thank for your support and steadfast faithfulness. 

Thank you to everyone for your financial support to the church, which enables us to move forward with confidence and hope. Thank you to Ted, Kevin and Joe, who work on our behalf in the ministries of church finances. 

Thank you to everyone in leadership roles including Bruce Moore, our Moderator and all who served as officers. Thank you to all who served on boards, committees and teams. Thank you to our choir, God Time Guides, nursery volunteers, ushers, readers, coffee hour teams, and all who work in other areas of church life, including Gerri and Judy, our “Garden Angels.” (The names of people serving on Boards and Teams and church groups are included in separate reports.) Thank you to Lori LaTaille, Judy Milano, Jim Cummings and everyone who helped and supported our fundraising efforts. Thank you to our wonderful staff. Thank you to Frank Jackson for blessing us with your talents and gifts as our Choir Director and Organist. Thank you to Patty Blomquist and George Rose for your custodial and groundskeeping work and to Rick LaTaille for snow removal. Thank you to Patrick O’Brien, our  administrative assistant and to Hayley LaTaille for your  care for our little ones in the nursery. Thank you to Jim Cummings, who volunteers to plow during our wintry months. I am so grateful to all! 

On a more personal note: At the beginning of this year, I was diagnosed with stage four metastasized cancer. (There is treatment, but no cure). I experienced little side effects through treatment of oral medication and infusions and have been able to continue to work  full time as your pastor. I thank God for the support and care given to me by members and friends and by my husband, Keith.

We know there will be challenges for our church in the coming year. May we move forward in hope, striving to continue to bear the light and love of Christ from our little corner of the world.

Respectfully Submitted and in Prayer,  Barbara Schenk

MODERATOR ANNUAL REPORT 2024

This year was an exceptional year at Foster Memorial Church. One important focus was church safety. We purchased an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). A team of six members were trained in Basic Life Support and updated all Fire safety requirements.  The church is now on an automatic schedule to maintain all our fire extinguishers. The addition of a child changing station was greeted with enthusiasm. A new group was formed to help with maintenance of church grounds and properties aptly called the “cutting crew.” We meet for one hour on Wednesday from 5-6 PM. All are welcome to join us!

The church continues to maintain our community support efforts.  We continue to prepare hot meals monthly for Loaves and Fishes, the Open Pantry’s Soup Kitchen.  We also provided the “Bun Run” for Loaves and Fishes one week a month. We marked our fourth year of  collecting donations of weekly food and monthly donations  from our monthly ”Drive Through.“ Along with our weekly collection of food, we donated hundreds of pounds of food to Open Pantry’s Emergency Food Cupboard each month.

We set a church record for monetary donations to our local Crop Walk for Hunger.  We collected school supplies for Rebecca Johnson school and Christmas gifts for The Gray House. We also collected coats, jackets and new winter outerwear through our “Mitten Tree.”  Church members and friends really came together to support all these efforts.

We had some great fundraisers for the operating costs of the church, including a Pancake Brunch/Sing Along, Vendor Fair, Craft Fair and Quarter Auction to name just a few. New fundraisers include cards for Big Y and Texas Roadhouse which give us a small benefit for our participation. Another new fundraiser is the Music Box, inviting people from our church and community to enjoy local performers.

Social groups: The Fosterians (women) gathered on a regular basis and the Men’s Club met monthly for breakfast and fellowship. 

One of our most loved ministries by Pastor Barbara is the continuation of our online pre-recorded films of Sunday services. We are an active and enthusiastic, small but mighty parish, hopeful in making a positive impact on our community and beyond.

Respectfully submitted, Bruce Moore, Moderator

BOARD OF TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2024

This past year, members of our Board were busy helping with church maintenance for our church building, our house on Wilbraham Road, and outside on our lawns. We helped with repair of the  sink in the Friendship Room Closet, restrooms. We were also involved with setting up/taking down of wreathes and lights for the Christmas season.

Members were also involved with our church’s new group called “Cutting Edge” that meets from 5-6 PM on Wednesdays. Thanks to our Garden Angels, Judy Milano and Gerri Thompson.

Our paid staff continued this year to do a wonderful job. Patty Blomquist    is the sexton for the inside of our church and George Rose takes care of general maintenance of our church lawns.

We hope to take on some larger projects in the coming year. Please let us know if there are concerns about our properties, inside and out.

As Pastor Barbara says, It takes a whole village to help to maintain the projects and ministries of our church.

Grateful thanks to the members of our Trustees: Mary Caron. Mark Coughlin, Judy Milano, Dennis O’Keefe and John Pappanikou.

Respectfully Submitted, Jim Cummings

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION BOARD (CE) ANNUAL REPORT 2024

We are so blessed by our children and youth. We strive to provide a meaningful God Time (church school) experience for all ages. For the second year, we the “Feasting on the Word,” published by the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA).  This curriculum follows the prescribed readings for Sunday called the Common Lectionary. Pastor Barbara follows this as well, so on most Sundays, the themes for God Time coincide with the themes for our Sunday worship.

In June, we celebrated Children and Youth Sunday, hosting an Ice Cream social after worship.  In September, we held our Rally Sunday, the official beginning of a new program year for God Time and we hosted another Ice Cream social after worship. In October, we collected donations for our annual Trick or Treat for UNICEF Sunday. 

December was a busy month: In early December, we hosted a Pancake Brunch with proceeds going to our sponsored youth, Tenzing, who is a Tibetan refugee, living and going to school in India. We support Tenzing through The UCC’s Child Sponsorship Program. This same event featured “Christmas Fun” that included children making gingerbread houses with Connie Gumlaw and CE members and friends offering crafts for all ages. Our Christmas Pageant was held on December 22, with God Time Guides taking the lead in coordination and over twenty children and youth taking part as readers and characters.

We express our grateful thanks to our God Time Guides: Karen Coughlin, Kevin and Robin Withers, Lori LaTaille, Sharon Gormbley, Alice Kempf and Matt and Kim Kobjeck. We are so grateful to Hayley LaTaille for her wonderful care for our youngest children in our church nursery. Thanks to our nursery volunteers: Joanne Wells, Amy Pawle, Deb Kirchherr, Laura Condega, Karen Coughlin, adult substitutes and our youth helpers.

Our thanks  to Gloria Checile and Nick Checile, who facilitated our summer God Time sessions. We welcome Gloria and Nick as new members of our Board! And thank you so much to all church members and friends who helped with our ongoing CE ministries and special events.

We remain so very grateful to Dick Pond for all his years of coordination and leadership for our CE ministries with children and youth. At the time of this writing, we have just learned of his passing from this life to the next. We ask God’s help in following the model he gave to us of faith and fun.

Respectfully Submitted,

Pastor Barbara, CE Coordinator, on behalf Christian Education Team: 

Karen Coughlin, Sharon Gormbley, Vivian Gonzalez, Alice Kempf, Kim Kobjack, Lori LaTaille, Gloria Chechile and Nick Chechile

DIACONATE ANNUAL REPORT 2024

Diaconate Officers: Chair: Mary Caron, Secretary: Ann Cesan 

We are many strong and enjoy doing God’s work together.   

We continue to be creative in the ways we, the Diaconate, support the pastor in plans and ideas for worship and special services – participating through our in-person worships, Facebook worship, checking our emails for the latest updates, hosting the Annual meeting luncheon, and of course participating in the in person and drive through activities.   

Committee volunteers 2024:

Baptism                                                 

Mary Caron, Connie Gumlaw

Practical Christianity/Functions        

Persephone Pappanikou/Judy Milano 

Communion                        

Connie Gumlaw, Persephone Pappanikou

Confined members and friends/sunshine

Dianne Hay, Eric Sutter, Bev Weinhold Shultz

Guest Preachers                                        

Mary Caron

Executive Board                       

Mary Caron

Deacon duty Scheduling               

Anne Cesan

Parament/alter cloth changing        

Sally Hawley

Diaconate participation 2024:

• In person worship
• Updated role of deacons; we are constantly evolving
• Zoom participation including worships and meeting 
• Reaching out to the congregation through prayers and cards.

Deacons continue to help others during the holiday season. For the twelfth year we collected money to be distributed through the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund for use at Christmas and in the future. 

We welcomed Judy Milano, Heidi Mayfield and Biff Simpson to our Diaconate team. We appreciate your time and talents.

Thanks to former Deacons for continued help; Bev Weinhold Shultz, who helps with Sunshine, and Sally Hawley for changing the liturgical colors of the paraments. Thank you to our ushers: Jeanie Marsh, Keith Walker. Thank you to our lay volunteers – without you we would not have enough hands to do God’s work.

Lastly, THANK YOU to present Deacons. Together we worship and serve many; we work as a team and we accomplish much.

With many thanks, 

Mary Caron, Diaconate Chair

MUSIC BOARD ANNUAL REPORT 2024

Our Church's music ministry continues to be a vital and uplifting part of our worship services.  Frank Jackson, as our Organist and Choir Director, leads the choir and shares his talents to inspire us with his upbeat enthusiasm and joy allowing us to deliver our musical talents. 
   

The choir is always open to anyone.  This year, Laura Bisbee Condega and Amy Pawle joined the Soprano section.  The rehearsal time is 9:15 AM on Sunday before worship.  During the summer break, the followings individuals and groups provided a variety of music:  “Pick-Up” Choir, Frank P. Jackson, pianist, Men’s Choral Group, Women’s Choral Group, Keith Walker & Pastor Barbara, musicians and vocalists, Roxie & Steve Bailey, musicans and vocalists, Sue Mcnary, Soprano Soloist and Kathy Schoeck, Violinist.

In closing, the Chancel Choir would like to thank Choir Director Frank Jackson for his leadership in keeping our music ministry going strong at Foster Memorial Church.

Respectfully submitted, 

Eric Sutter

The Music Team: Sandy Moore, Judy Milano, Gay Owczarski, and Eric Sutter

FMC FINANCE/STEWARDSHIP BOARD ANNUAL REPORT 2024 

The members of the Foster Memorial Church Finance – Stewardship Board met monthly to monitor the status of the church’s finances (mostly by reviewing and discussing the Treasurer’s monthly financial reports) and make decisions as necessary as to spending and investment. The monthly reports were also reviewed and discussed at the Executive Board at its monthly meetings.   

The budget for day-to-day operations of the church approved at the last Annual Meeting in January 2024 predicted a deficit of $16,176.00 for the church finance year (February 1, 2024 through January 31, 2025). As of the end of December, from a financial perspective, the church was doing much better than projected. To that date, we had a surplus of just over $3,000.  There are often a number of larger bills that are paid in January, but it appears there is a good chance we will have taken in more income than we have spent on budget items for this finance year.  The current surplus has been due almost entirely to much more being received for bequests and miscellaneous donations that expected. Because of the somewhat random nature of those receipts, it is always difficult to predict what amount we will receive in any year. A great effort by all of those involved in our fund-raising events also contributed to the budget’s health. The other items of income and expense in the budget were close to what we had predicted when the budget was adopted.

With respect to Stewardship, a sub-committee of the Finance Board, the Board was very pleased with the number of people in the congregation who have generously donated their time, talents and treasure to the many missions of the church. As of the beginning of January, we have received 52 pledges for a total of about $87,500 for next year. This is more than has been pledged in the last several years.

The Endowment Board did not meet separately during the year, as almost all its members are part of the Finance Board or the Executive Committee. Those who are not part of one of those groups received the monthly finance reports tracking the performance of our Endowment investments and the investment of the proceeds of the Puritan Road house sale, With respect to both of those investments, it was an up and down year, as the investments tend to track the general performance of the stock market. However, both funds recorded net gains for the year; the Puritan Road Fund gained about 11% and the Endowment gained about 14% which were very good results overall.

Respectfully submitted, Kevin Withers, Chairperson of the Finance Board

COMMUNITY OUTREACH TEAM/MISSIONS 

ANNUAL REPORT 2024

Throughout the year, our purpose was to help our church strengthen partnerships of outreach, both local and global. It should be noted that our team has not gathered for formal meetings. Instead, members of the team work on different aspects of mission outreach ministries throughout the year. 

Our Monthly Drive Through Collection of Food for Open Pantry is into its fourth year. All food is donated to the Open Pantry. A team of volunteers continued this year to prepare and serve a monthly dinner for the guests at Open Pantry’s Loaves and Fishes meal program. Grateful thanks to Joanne and Peter Wells, our coordinators, and to our team of volunteers. This year, we also resumed in person serving the meal at Loaves and Fishes. The “Bun Run,” delivery of baked goods to Loaves and Fishes has also continued. Grateful thanks to Sandy Moore, our coordinator, and to our team of volunteers. New volunteers are also welcome to help with these teams.

Support for our Refugee Family: This year, the NST (Neighborhood Support Team) has started to intentionally step back from hands on support, with our focus on our shared goal of self-sufficiency for the family. We enjoyed fellowship with the family through an All Church picnic this summer.

In August, we marked the 10th  Anniversary of Waving for Peace witness. 

We  also collected school supplies, which were donated to the students at our partner church, Rebecca Johnson School.

In September, we helped to host The International Day of Peace, which brought together local agencies and faith communities working on issues of peace. 

In October, we participated in the annual Greater Springfield CROP Hunger Walk, which helps people in our community and throughout the world with food insecurity, refugee settlement and much more. Members of our team serve on the steering team for the walk. We thank everyone for participation as walkers, volunteers at the walk and our sponsors. We also held our Annual Blessing of the Animals with the community, and collected donations of food, money and pet supplies for the Thomas J. O’ Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center.

In December, we collected new and gently used coats and jackets and new outerwear for all ages, to be distributed to our community through three of our local partnerships: The Gray House, Rebecca Johnson School and the guests at Loaves and Fishes.

Throughout the year, our church donated financial gifts for wider outreach ministries through several Special Offerings, including Blanket Sunday (distributed through Church World Service), One Great Hour of Sharing (UCC Disaster Fund), Easter Special Offering, Cancer Awareness (donated to two local cancer centers) and Christmas Eve offering for the UCC’s Christmas Fund. We also collected soup for the Open Pantry for our Souper Bowl offering.

We are so grateful to everyone for your continued support.  Please speak to any one of us if you would like to help with any of the ministries listed here. We also welcome new ideas! 

Respectfully submitted,

Pastor Barbara, on behalf of our team: Judy Milano, Sandy Moore, Gerri Thompson, Joanne Wells, Rebekah Crampton Kamukala and Vivian Gonzalez

FUNDRAISING REPORT FOR 2024

This is an informal report about fundraising efforts for the year for our church’s ongoing operations. In total, we raised $7534.58. Our thanks to Lori LaTaille, Judy Milano, Jim Cummings and all who helped and supported these special events.

Our events included:

Vendor Fair/Yard Sale

Craft Fair

Many, many Raffles

Corned Beef Dinner

Quarter Auction

Pancake Brunch/Sing Along with Keith Walker

Annual Financial Pledges

Christmas and Easter Special Offerings

New/ Ongoing Fundraisers

Monthly fundraiser through Texas Roadhouse

Big Y gift card program

Newest idea for Fundraiser:

The Music Box

Thanks again to everyone.

Respectfully Submitted by members of our Events Team and Pastor Barbara

DELEGATES ANNUAL REPORT 2024

We represented Foster Memorial Church as delegates on Sunday, February 4, for the  Installation of Rev. Chontell Nelson Washington, Pastor of First Congregational Church of West Springfield, by Hampden Association UCC. The opening worship service included scripture reading by Charles Jason Washington and a musical selection with violin played by Alexis Marie E. Nelson, respectively the son and daughter of Rev. Washington. Rev. Barbara Hesse, pastor of Second Congregational Church of Westfield, gave the sermon.  During the ceremony of installation participants included moderator of the Association, moderator of First Congregational Church, chair of the search committee of First Church, chair of the Association committee on Church and Ministry, and Area Conference Minister of Southern New England UCC.     

Rev. Douglas Bixby was installed as Pastor of First Church of Christ, Longmeadow, in April 21. He had been welcomed into the United Church of Christ by Privilege of Call.  He shared the journey of his faith from an earlier denomination into a new  relationship with the United Church of Christ. Present were members of his family and from previous churches. Participants in the service included the moderator of the Association and of the local church and of the Association committee on Church and Ministry. ministry 

  The Spring meeting of the Hampden Association of the United Church of Christ was held on Sunday, May 5 at First Congregational Church of Ludlow. The opening worship service was on the topic "What Gives Us Hope?”. The service was led by Moderator Paul Nesbit, Susan Kennedy, Nicole McKinstry, Gary Grimes and Ted Lyman.The theme of the meeting was “Finding Hope." A presentation by Rev. Eric Elley, SNEUCC Digital Minister, taught us how to make a video for Finding Hope and our own social media. Several representatives from our member churches talked about how they find hope in their congregations. The Finding Hope program will also be presented at the Annual Meeting of the SNEUCC Conference, June 21-22 at U Mass, Amherst.   

We were the in-person Foster Church delegates to the 5th Annual Meeting of Southern New England Conference United Church of Christ, held June 21-22 at U Mass Amherst. Pre-Meeting events were held on Friday, June 21. On June 22, the Opening Worship included music by Persephone Hall and Liberty Christian Band and the sermon "Finding Hope Now" by Rev. Darrell Goodwin, Executive Conference Minister. Plenary #1 included opening business, speakouts, state of the Conference addresses, WISE Resolution and recognition of Authorized Ministers. The W.I.S.E. (Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive, Engaged) Resolution was passed  A presentation was given by Dr. Erica Dollhopf, PhD., Director of the Center for Analysis, Research & Development, and Data for the United Church of Christ, exploring findings from recent research on congregational vitality in the UCC and beyond.

In the afternoon Prayers for Peace were held, followed by the Keynote speech "God Math!" by Rev. Dr. Courtney Stange-Tregear. She is the Chief Relationship Officer at the Cornerstone Fund of the UCC, who shared inspiring stories of churches that have grown their ministries and more greatly impacted their communities.   Plenary #2 included Find Hope Now, speakouts, vote on the 2024 Budget, election of conference officers and Board of Directors, report on Legacy Corporation, and Recognition of Local Churches. The meeting closed with worship and Communion.   Reports and videos about the Annual Meeting (/2024AM) and the June 2024 Annual Report (/annualreport) are available by going to the website www.sneucc.org

 We attended in person the Annual Meeting of the Hampden Association of the Southern New England United Church of Christ Conference (SNEUCC). The meeting was held on October 6 at 2 pm at The Wilbraham United Church, 500 Main Street, Wilbraham.  Due to the CROP Walk at Trinity United Methodist Church at the same time no other Foster Church members were able to attend the Annual Meeting. Following a brief worship service in the sanctuary we moved to the Fellowship Hall for refreshments. The annual meeting included the business meeting with approval of minutes, approval of reports, and election of association officers. A special remembrance of the late Mrs Rachel Tierney, an active member of the Committee on Ministry and other association activities. Regional Associate Conference Minister Rev Terry Yasuko Ogawa brought greetings from the SNEUCC.  Eric Ellev, Digital Minister, SNEUCC. spoke about two topics: Church Without Walls and FindHopeNow.org. The meeting concluded with with three topics: Finding Hope- Hampden Association, Merciful Conversations on Race, and reports from three churches which have received VitaMin Grants.

Respectfully submitted by Rev. Susan Tarantino and Rev Dr Robert Loesch 

JUST PEACE TEAM REPORT FOR 2024

Our meeting on Sunday, January 7, 2024,  was cancelled due to the snowstorm. Members were encouraged to attend the annual Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence program marking Martin Luther King, Jr.  holiday on Monday, January 15 at 7 pm at Mary, Mother of Hope Church, 

840 Page Boulevard, Springfield. 

At the Sunday, February 11 meeting team members reviewed some recent events including the Martin Luther King event on January 15 at Mary, Mother of Hope Church with the main program by Chris Judd about ROCA.  The team received minutes from the January 24 Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence meeting.

 
At the Just Peace meeting Sunday, March 10, we reviewed the February 28 minutes of the meeting of  Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence. Each team member was invited to select one specific justice issue that each one will be able to report  and encourage actions at future Just Peace meetings. 

The nine JP team members who are also on the Neighborhood Support Team (NST) with the Afghan refugee family will include this as one of their selected topics. The issues from which our team members are selecting are: racial justice, housing justice, economic justice, environmental/climate justice, indigenous justice, education justice, gun justice, nuclear weapons, Palestine/Gaza/Israel justice, Ukraine/Russia justice, food justice,  human rights justice and health justice. 

Our team meetings were held on April 14, May 12, June 9. At each of those meetings we discussed several of the selected justice issues. We also reviewed the monthly minutes of Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence and discussed some of their future activities. 

We did not meet in July or August due to vacation schedules. Our next meeting was on Sunday, September 8 when we finalized the ways our Just Peace team would help with the Peace Fair, 3-5 pm on Sunday, September 22 sponsored by Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence. We distributed the Springfield Republican advance article about the August 6 Hiroshima Remembrance event and "Memories of 9/11/2001" by Robert Loesch. 

The next three meetings were held on Sundays, October 13, November 10 and December 8. At each of these meetings we reviewed specific topics among our justice issues and minutes of meetings of Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence. At the last two meetings of 2024 we also discussed ways that we can respond to the divisions in our communities and continue to reflect and focus on primary issues in the months ahead. At the December meeting I distributed a letter to the editor that I had written to Springfield Republican and published on December 2. It was titled "2024 Nobel Peace Prize recognizes Nihon Hidankyo" a Japanese organization of survivors of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

During 2024, those attending your Just Peace team meetings have included: Vivian Gonzalez, Rev. Dr. Robert Loesch, Judy Milano, Sandra Moore, Persephone Pappanikou, Rev Barbara Schenk, Beverly Shultz, Charlie Shultz, Eric Sutter, Rev. Sue Tarantino, Gerri Thompson, Keith Walker, Joanne Wells, Rev. Dr. Peter Wells, Kevin Withers, Robin Withers, Kimberlee Pages, Sean LaTerz and Nick Chechile. 

All of our meetings are open to our church members and friends. 

Respectfully submitted by Robert Loesch

FOSTERIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2024

The Fosterians (Women’s Group) had four gatherings this past year. We meet on Saturdays beginning at noon, which seems to work very well with people’s schedules. We have averaged 25-30 women at our gatherings!

All women members and friends of the church are welcome – and welcome to invite more friends!

In March, we had a sandwich luncheon, followed by a fun game of “Gift Bag Bingo.” In May, we enjoyed a light lunch and enjoyed fun activities around the theme of mothers. At our November gathering, our theme was pumpkins! We also had a light lunch.

In December, we enjoyed a lasagna lunch followed by a fun “Yankee Christmas Swap.” We also collected money for a team of shoppers to make up Christmas bags for our members and friends unable to attend church. 

The Fosterians help the church whenever we can. This year, we helped with All Church events including the Vendor Fair/Yard Sale and Craft Fair. We donated money to help with the purchase of a ladder for the church,  purchased tablecloth protectors for the Fellowship Hall and purchased flowers for our church gardens.

Grateful thanks to everyone who helped host these gatherings and contributed food for our luncheons. And thanks to everyone who participated in our gatherings! If you would like to help us in hosting, please speak to one of us. We also welcome new ideas!

Lori LaTaille, Judy Milano and Gerri Thompson, Co-Leaders