wfn.org | Duke grant to assist North Carolina flood victims

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

TITLE:Duke grant to assist North Carolina flood victims

Oct. 12, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-71B{530}

NOTE:  For a related report on the hurricane relief efforts, see UMNS story
#531.

By United Methodist News Service*

The Duke Endowment has pledged $6 million to help North Carolina recover
from the massive flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd.

An initial $2 million will be released immediately. An additional $2 million
will be released each year over the next two years. North Carolina Bishop
Marion M. Edwards said the funds would help the United Methodist Church
"play an even bigger role in the flood recovery stage."

The denomination's North Carolina Annual (regional) Conference and its
districts, along with rural United Methodist churches, are among the groups
eligible to use the funds for flood relief. Not-for-profit hospitals and
children's homes also can apply to the Duke Endowment.

One of the largest private foundations in the nation, the Duke Endowment
awarded grants of more than $71 million in 1998.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) continues to work in North
Carolina by distributing supplies, providing emergency funds, offering
support personnel, special programs for children and pastoral care, and
coordinating volunteer teams for both cleanup and long-term recovery work.

For churches in North Carolina, those that have been damaged are receiving
congregations and those undamaged are giving congregations, according to
Edwards.

In Rocky Mount, for example, Englewood United Methodist Church has
established a disaster center offering food, clothing and cleaning supplies
and is helping a Spanish-speaking church do the same. The Rev. George Jones
said the Englewood church also sent out work teams both from its
congregation and neighboring churches to work on homes damaged by or
submerged in water.

The United Methodist Church in Scotland Neck - a town near the eye of the
storm when the hurricane hit land in North Carolina - organized more than
100 people in a daylong "ministry of cleaning." Parts of that group are
still doing cleaning, while others have volunteered to help at the shelter
and warehouse in Tarboro. 

A churchwide appeal for funds has been established for the states affected
by Hurricane Floyd, along with tornado victims from Oklahoma and Kansas.
Checks can be made to UMCOR Advance No. 982460-1 and dropped in church
collection plates or mailed directly to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room
330, New York, NY 10115. Credit-card donations can be made by calling (800)
554-8583. 

For information on participating in cleanup, debris removal and rebuilding
efforts, call UMCOR's Volunteer Line at (800) 918-3100.

# # #

*Kimball Pease of UMCOR provided information for this story.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://www.umc.org/umns