LAKELAND, Fla. – The children of First Baptist Church (FBC) Naples are learning the importance of giving at an early age. Throughout the month of May, the preschool and children’s ministries at FBC Naples took part in a project called Quarter Mile of Nickels to help raise funds for the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes.
Beverly Day, director of preschool ministry for FBC Naples headed up the project. She explained that the Quarter Mile of Nickels project was designed to raise funds for the Mother’s Day Offering for the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes and the importance of giving.
“Yes, we actually measured a nickel and used our calculators to figure out how many it would take end to end to make a quarter mile,” Day said.
She explained that the children’s ministry came up with the Quarter Mile of Nickels project to fit in with their church’s I-366 campaign, which stands for Inner change 366. The I-366 concept was introduced to the church in January, which is meant to remind people to do something every day towards their personal spiritual growth or inner change.
“This year is a leap year, which has 366 days instead of the normal 365. We thought this was a great way to emphasize that every day is important to our personal spiritual growth. I-366 is our way of challenging church members to continually question what they will do with each day of the year in terms of spiritual growth, or inner change,” Day said.
“The kids really seemed to connect to the I-366 campaign through the Quarter Mile of Nickels project,” Day said.
The Children brought in 9,180 nickels, totaling 459 dollars. They brought in their coins on weekends and raise 800 dollars.
“We didn’t reach our quarter mile goal, but the kids really got into the project, and I think it really had a positive influence on our church’s overall Mother’s Day Offering. We increased our Mother’s Day Offering by $6,000.” Day said.
“Last year our members gave about $11,000 and this year they gave $17,581. We were amazed, especially considering the tough economy that we’re in right now.”
Julie Boyd, vice president of development and communications for the Children’s Homes said it’s not too late to participate in the Mother’s Day Offering. “Although many churches had record offerings, there are some churches that have yet to do their offering. We want them to know that it’s not too late to give to the Children’s Homes ministry,” Boyd said.
Boyd said the Mother’s Day offering provides the resources for critical needs and services provided by the Children’s Homes.
“Unfortunately there are many children across Florida who have been abused, aband growing process for these kids.”
“This ministry belongs to all Baptist churches because they are the ones that make it happen with their generous gifts and offerings. We simply would not be able to serve as any many kids as we do without their support,” Boyd said.