wfn.org | UMNS# 05029-Human Relations Sunday offering touches lives

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Human Relations Sunday offering touches lives

Jan. 12, 2005	 News media contact:   Tim  Tanton * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05029}

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Susan Passi-Klaus*

How far will a dollar go? Not very when it comes to acquiring high-tech
gadgets and designer clothing. But a dollar in the hands of volunteers
buying tennis shoes and school supplies for jail-bound teenagers can
literally change lives.

In some cases, those dollars even save lives. Marilyn Higgins of
Milwaukee saw that firsthand in the aftermath of a suicide at a local
elementary school.

Higgins is a community developer at Solomon Community Temple United
Methodist Church in Milwaukee. She is a pro at stretching dollars into
life-changing deeds. Her ministry is one that will benefit when United
Methodists put extra offerings in the plate on Jan. 16, Human Relations
Sunday.

Human Relations Sunday gifts let Higgins do "little things for the kids
in our community. We can give them deodorant and toothpaste so they're
not embarrassed in school. We can feed them the only hot meal they may
get in a day. And we can pay for ACT tests they need to take to get into
college."

But they also let Higgins and her colleagues address some big problems.

>From her church office in Milwaukee's inner city, Higgins can watch as
workers piece together a much-needed addition at the local elementary
school. Until construction began a few months ago, she could see to the
rooftop of the old brick school building. She will always remember the
day a well-liked sixth grade boy climbed two stories to the top of
Martin Luther King Elementary, ignored pleas to come down, spread his
arms and then fell to his death.

When his small body hit the tarred playground outside a classroom
window, students inside heard the impact.

"When we went over to the school to see what the kids needed, we found
tears everywhere," Higgins said. "Nobody had an answer to why this sweet
12-year-old would take his own life."

In the following weeks, Higgins mobilized volunteers and mental health
professionals to provide counseling and comfort to the students. One of
those caregivers was Julia Means, a nurse at Columbia-St. Mary's
Hospital.

"In the face of death these kids needed to know they were significant
and that their feelings mattered," Means said.

Means and Higgins spent most of their time holding crying children in
their arms. As they wiped away tears and heard several other students
admit that they, too, had considered suicide. With hands held and arms
entwined the two women walked three vulnerable fifth-graders to the
office of a school counselor. It didn't take long for secret hurts and
family traumas to emerge.

Within days of the intervention, nurse Means was walking down the school
hallway when she heard "a small voice" say, "Thank you, Ms. Means." It
was one of the young girls who had earlier confessed to wanting to take
her own life.

"If we hadn't been here," said Higgins, referring to the Community
Development Program at Solomon, "those little girls who had been
thinking about suicide may not have changed their minds. Yes, we may
have lost one student that week, but we saved three."

Sunday, Jan. 16, is the official date for the denomination-wide
observance of Human Relations Sunday. However, local churches may
receive the offering on another day of their choosing.

One of six Special Sundays with Offerings observed across the United
Methodist Church, money United Methodists give on Human Relations Sunday
supports the ministries of community developers and United Methodist
Voluntary Service, programs of the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, and youth offender rehabilitation programs coordinated by
the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.

Every offering can make a difference for ministries such as the
Community Development Program and many others that might receive little
attention but have significant impact.

"Sometimes the people sitting in pews aren't really educated about what
we do here," Higgins said. "They don't understand that in our
communities, dollars save lives."

# # #

*Passi-Klaus is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn., and publisher of
Cracked Pots, an inspirational newsletter for women.

News media contact: Kathy Noble, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5441 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service