September 29, 2005

ELGIN, IL – Norfolk, Va., has been added to the sites where Disaster Child Care volunteers are caring for children evacuated from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The program also has announced new training opportunities. Disaster Child Care is a ministry of the Church of the Brethren and serves at the request of FEMA and the American Red Cross.

Volunteer child-care teams have been working in Lafayette and Shreveport, La.; Kingwood, W.Va.; Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach, Fla.; Denver, Colo.; and Los Angeles and San Bernardino, Calif.

The child care team that had begun work at the Cajun Dome in Lafayette before Hurricane Rita hit the Gulf Coast, was evacuated to Shreveport along with the evacuees they were serving. The team then set up child care at the Expo Center in Shreveport. They and the evacuee group were on their way back to Lafayette Sept. 28, to continue offering child care at the Cajun Dome.

Disaster Child Care has received so many requests to do additional trainings, as a result of Hurricane Katrina, that the program has appointed volunteer coordinator Wilma Ammermann to handle all the requests. Several additional trainings have been scheduled to enlist new volunteers for a response that spans more states than Disaster Child Care has ever served at any one time.

Two additional Level I training workshops have been confirmed: at La Verne (Calif.) Church of the Brethren on Oct. 1-2; and in Norfolk, Neb., on Oct. 22-23. A registration fee of $45 is being waived because of the emergency status of these trainings. However, the program will be happy to receive any donations toward training costs. See http://www.disasterchildcare.org/ for more information about trainings and registration.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.

The Church of the Brethren Newsline