All Saints' Has Busy Summer Building Community in Drayton Valley

All Saints’, Drayton Valley had a very busy summer and we wish to share with you a couple of the highlights.

Like many churches, we faced the question this year of ‘what do we do when there is a community parade and celebration scheduled for the same time as our regular worship?’ We decided to offer worship at an alternate time, so that anyone who wanted could attend the service and also participate in our local parade. We had a wonderful time decorating a truck (pictured is Miriam Roberts handing out bookmarks). We also had seven children join me in the truck bed while others handed out candy and bookmarks. It was great to see so many people coming together to help with this project.

Later in the summer we welcomed our neighbours to a Block Party and Food Drive. This initiative gave us an opportunity to visit neighbouring housing complexes, apartments and assisted living condos. We organized simple activities for the children and a people bingo game for the adults. We provided a barbequed meal, with gluten free, all beef and vegetarian options.

We had more than 40 people come to our event. The incredible thing was that many of the children from the low-income housing complex came without their parents. Two of the teenagers saw us setting up and came over early to help with set-up in their excitement. We gathered six boxes of donations for the Drayton Valley Food Bank to help offset the food shortage they often experience toward the end of summer. There are many families in need of some extra help in September when their children are going back to school. Submitted by the Rev. Emma Vickery (pictured on the parade float with daughter Trinity)