Two local men will spend 24 hours shooting hoops Aug. 1st-2nd for some very worthy community causes.
Pastor Jachin Mullen of Word of Life Centre and Justin Hubert, co-founder of Berachah Place and CEO of Heritage Family Services, will literally be up all night for the fundraiser, which will also feature all kinds of family-friendly activities, movies, food, entertainment and music. Events will be held at both Rotary Park (behind the tennis bubble) and at Word of Life Centre.
Proceed will go to programming for Berachah Place and for iHeart Red Deer which includes a range of ministries directed at the local community via Word of Life Centre.
Berachah Place first opened in 2007, and offers a warm place where vulnerable people can have a shower, do laundry and store their things. Staff say their goal is also to enter into relationship with the homeless population. Berachah is the Hebrew word for ‘blessing’.
It’s located at 4611 Gaetz Ave.
iHeart Red Deer has been serving Red Deer for the last decade in many different ways.
A few of the programs are the Backpack Back to School Drive (the church has helped hundreds of families send their children back to school with the supplies needed).
The Sunday Lunch Program provides weekday lunches for school-aged children who would otherwise not have lunch (since the lunch program started almost two years ago, they have made more than 10,000 lunches).
Also, the Pack the Pantry Program provides food hampers for families in desperate circumstances.
New this fall, they are launching their Love Learning Scholarship Program, helping young people achieve academic goals and ultimately a chance at a better life.
As to the fundraiser, Mullen said he’s pretty much all set.
“It starts at 7 p.m. this Friday, August 1 through to Saturday, August 2,” said Mullen. “I’ve been training for two months to hopefully get through it,” he added with a laugh.
Mullen said he got the idea from a friend involved in a Los Angeles ministry who had run a similar fundraiser a few years back.
Meanwhile, event highlights, as mentioned, include movies such as an Iron Man movie marathon at Word of Life starting at midnight, a pancake breakfast at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, a hot dog lunch, a concert featuring popular local singer Randi Boulton at 1 p.m., a beach bash at 4 p.m. and a barbecue at 5 p.m. as well.
“We’re hoping that some of the crowd from the Farmers’ Market will come over too,” he said. And if people want to come alongside the guys and shoot hoops as well, they are more than welcome too.
“Number one, hopefully that would let me slow down,” he laughed. “But the other side of it is about meeting people and connecting with the community. And being able to talk one-on-one with a lot of people during those 24 hours.”
Folks in attendance will be able to purchase tickets for a number of these activities through the course of the event, thereby helping to support the causes.
Visit www.berachaplace.com/events or call Word of Life at 403-343-6570 for more information, sponsorship opportunities or to pledge support.
editor@reddeerexpress.com
