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1ST ANNUAL FAMILY FUN DAY CAR SHOW
September 12, 2021 @ 12:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Press Release: Herrin House of Hope to Host 10th Annual Family Fun Day as a LIVE & VIRTUAL EVENT on Sunday, September 12 on the grounds of Community of Faith Church and virtually through the herrinhouseofhope.org or Herrin House of Hope Facebook page along with many other local church social media sites:
Herrin, IL, July 8, 2021 – The Herrin House of Hope will host the 10th annual Family Fun Day on Sunday, September 12 from 12:30-6:00p to benefit and celebrate our 9 years of operation and service to the Herrin Community on the grounds of Community of Faith Church and also via a VIRTUAL platform this year.
Amid the COVID-19 epidemic last September, the Herrin House of Hope was forced to change its 9th Family Fun Day from a live event at the Herrin Park to a virtual event hosted by Community of Faith Church and their media/video team along with support from the Swinford Media Group. We were blessed by the community’s outpouring and doubled our previous Fun Day Fundraising efforts to the tune of $73,000. With COVID-19 still in the concerns of our planning window, we have decided to host a hybrid event this year on the grounds of Community of Faith Church, to take advantage of their open grounds for live activities and to utilize their broadcast facilities to make our main stage a Live & Virtual Hybrid event. We are blessed to have Swinford Media Group joining us again to help produce the broadcast.
In light of this, our 10th Family Fun Day will be a hybrid event that is held LIVE with a full day of family-friendly activities, while also making the event available to those unable to attend through our VIRTUAL FUN DAY PLATFORM. People can come and support activities on the grounds where proceeds support the House of Hope and/or make donations through our on-line portals or through our virtual call-in phone lines. The LIVE EVENT will begin at 12:30p with our opening ceremony including the National Anthem, presentation of the colors and an opening prayer, and welcome by local officials, then we will open up the main stage for a great variety of music all throughout the afternoon, along with our amazing Food Court, Kids Fun Zone and all of our other activities for an incredible day. The parallel broadcasted event will begin with a COUNTDOWN preview show beginning around 12:00p and will go live at 12:30p to provide you an online way to enjoy the day’s events.
Family Fun Day is a family-oriented celebration of the Herrin community and their commitment to helping people in need. Area Bands and Worship Teams from local churches, civic & community organizations will perform throughout the afternoon on the main stage. There is no admission charge for the event or parking fees. Our Food Court this year will feature a big change. We will be featuring some of the area’s great food trucks and local restaurants, in addition to a few of our local church favorite food stands from Family Fun Day over the years. This year Family Fun Day will be adding an amazing Car Show. Our Car Show entertainment zone will be hosted by John Milani’s Big Elvis Rock & Roll Show. Bring your show car out for the day, and enjoy the music, food and children’s activities on the grounds. The Car Show will have numerous recognition and prize categories, all to be announced at 5pm from the main stage. As usual, Family Fun Day will have their signature silent auction and cake walk, which is always a blast and raises great funds for the House of Hope. We will also have the Children’s Fun Zone back, bigger and better. These activities will include children’s games, pony rides, bounce houses and so much more for the kids. John Steve, Director of the Herrin House of Hope, shared, “We will really be kicking up the food offerings all underway at 12:30p. We want to invite everyone to come out after church, bring their families and enjoy lunch and dinner on the grounds from our various vendors who are supporting our efforts to benefit the Herrin House of Hope. Let the kids have a blast in our Children’s Fun Zone and don’t miss our new incredible Car Show. It will be a win-win day. You go to lunch and dinner, and at the same time you’ll have an incredible day, with all the proceeds benefiting the House of Hope, as we head into our 9th year of service.”
All the proceeds of the day will go to help support the ministry of the Herrin House of Hope through its’ Hot lunch program, thrift store, auxiliary food pantry, GED Classes and Children’s Free Summer Meals Program, all a part of our broad-based ministry which was designed by the partnership of churches in the Herrin area to give people a boost in fighting poverty and overcoming times of hardship. The House of Hope is currently providing meals Monday-Friday, each-and-every week, for between 150-200 people a day or around 750-1000 meals per week. During the height of the Covid shutdown, we saw demands dramatically increase to nearly 300-500 meals a day, to as many as 2818 per week at the height. Through the crisis, the House of Hope was there every day, as an essential emergency feeding center. Everyone that needed a meal—received one from the House of Hope thanks to incredible community support!
In our first 9 years of operation from 2013-2021:
· Served some 299,554 meals for needy adults and children.
· Served over 10,000 persons through our auxiliary emergency food pantry, since it opened in July 2014, 8 years ago.
· Served over 5,000 persons in our Thrift Store, since it opened in October 2014.
· Seen over 300 students go through our on-site GED Program led by John A. Logan Jr. College, since it began in 2014.
· Now in our 5th Summer (May 30 to August 31) offering our Children’s Free Summer Meals Program. We have fed over 11,000 meals to children 0-18 in our 1st 5 Summers.
· Blessed with over 18,000 volunteer days served by those saints who have come in and out of our doors just this year to share the Hope and Love of Christ with those that need a hand of Hope in the Herrin Community, through a day of service.
All this ministry comes at a cost. Pastor Troy Benitone from Community of Faith and one of the founders of the House of Hope says, “We depend on the compassionate spirit of Christians who donate their time and money to help those who are less fortunate, add to that generous gifts from local civic organizations and businesses, and it is simply amazing what the Herrin Community has done and is continuing to do.”
This year’s Family Fun Day has a goal of raising some $50,000 during the event day through the proceeds from food, children’s rides, adult activities, sponsorships, and donations, all of which will be used to run our operations in the year ahead. We have a second goal to seek at least 100 people or organizations that will sponsor a day of operation for the Herrin House of Hope. John Steve, Director at the Herrin House of Hope says, “For a gift of just 70 cents a day, $21.00 a month, a mere $250 per year gift, anyone can fund a day of our ministry. If we get 100 sponsor a day donors, we can begin expanding our services to do even more to help people in the Herrin Community.” You can learn more about our Sponsor a Day program at our website www.herrinhouseofhope.org or on the grounds during Family Fun Day at our main information tent.
You can join us on site from 12:30-600p, Sunday, September 12 for our Live Family Fun Day this year and/or you can join us virtually. The event will also be LIVE STREAMED through the Herrin House of Hope Facebook Page or you can use our embedded viewer at www.herrinhouseofhope.org. We are also partnering with our host church, Community of Faith, who will be making the broadcast available on their www.coftv.com platform and also on their Community of Faith Church YouTube, Facebook and Sermon.net platforms. We will also be linking our feed to many other area church and business social media sites through their Facebook and YouTube feeds.
Contact: Rev. Dr. Troy Benitone, Virtual Family Fun Day Event Director
Cell Phone 217-725-7565 Email: Troy@cofchurch.org