Community Outreach Partners needs funds, volunteers

From just before Thanksgiving to Christmas Day, it seems as though there were dozens of coat drives, toy drives and canned food drives. Jay Pope was thinking about that one day as he was burning leaves in his yard and he had a vision.

"There were all these little fires, sucking the oxygen away from the other fires and none of them really prospered," he said. "I thought, 'Why not make one big bonfire?'"

That's just what he and several others in the community are trying to do. Pope, along with Wilbert Nelson, Kenneth Cooper and others, have formed a 501 (c) 3 "umbrella" charitable organization that could not only make it easier to raise funds for the partner organizations, but easier for those who want to give. In a set-up similar to the United Way, the umbrella organization, Community Outreach partnership of Bedford County (COPBC) would raise funds, then distribute them to the partner agencies.

"We'll coordinate so we won't be competing," he said. "We'll have fundraisers every month and share the proceeds -- and share the work. That's what we need -- laborers."

He also intends to share the word. The minister of Lighthouse Church and the director of Halfway Home, he said, "We want to meet the needs of the community and we want to do it with love. Our main ingredient is to show the love of Jesus Christ."

The Community Outreach Partners is located at the Drake Signs building on Holland Drive, and co-owner Cindy Drake has been hired as the director. So far, Halfway home and Angel Food Ministries have joined the partnership and Pope hopes to have more under the umbrella soon.

Currently, the organization is mapping the county, identifying the needs and the agencies struggling to meet those needs. Those agencies will be invited to join the partnership, although Pope is aware that some will choose not to.

"You'll always have some opposition," he said. "It's sad. It's like when you go down a street in a small town and see dozens of different churches -- it shows division, not unity."

Some, he knows, won't be able to because they receive federal grants and are subject to federal rules and regulations, but he plans to work with those agencies as much as he can.

"We're all here to help each other," Pope said. Help means more than handouts, though. Pope is a believer in not in handing a man a fish, but teaching him how to catch his own.

Community Outreach will soon be offering a soup kitchen, especially for children who receive free lunches at school but not during holidays or summer vacation. But it will also be offering classes -- workshops to help families learn how to recover from financial setbacks and how to avoid them in the future.

Pope was active in establishing community gardens this year, also offering education and assistance hand-in-hand, and would like to expand Community Outreach Partners services to include serving the elderly and homebound and getting the local youth involved.

Although the organization was brand new this year, it still managed to collect almost 2,000 toys to distribute across the county.

"We have a database for tracking," said Pope. "We want to keep people from abusing the system."

How to help

Community Outreach Partners needs funds and volunteers. For more information, contact Jay Pope at 212-7815, Cindy Drake at 607-7381 or Vivian Salas at (615) 593-2423.