The First 50 Years

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WE BEGIN THE THIRD QUARTER
Part 6

Our Vacation Bible School, held each summer, is an educational as well as a fun experience for our young people. The theme for the yearly program is cleverly carried out with study, music, crafts and recreation. Capable volunteers are the backbone of the endeavor.

Some of the mission work our young people have shared in include working, studying and visiting at Buckhorn, Kentucky; Ozone, Tennessee; Iona School, Jamaica; Southwest Detroit Youth Clubs; Grand Cayman Island; Stony Creek; Saginaw Migrant Camp; Confrontation Point; Warren Wilson College; Wilderness Camp, Altamont, Tennessee; Greenwood Camp; McCormick Theological Seminary; Louisville Seminary; Toronto, Canada; Cambridge Home, North; Temple Emanu-El; New York City and Brooklyn; Junior High Jamboree, Bowling Green, Ohio. Our young people work industriously on these mission excursions. They actually help to construct buildings, clear ground for roads, hold Bible classes, work in the kitchen and dining room. One of our members was water front director at Camp Ozone and another the director of summer projects at Southwest Detroit. The well-rounded experience is one of mutual benefit for our young people and for our mission friends.

As a small thank-you to all the volunteers involved with these many projects a church-wide appreciation dinner is enjoyed each spring.

Our Trustees have done a yeoman's job these past twenty-five years. Inflation has taken its toll on all of us, even so The First Presbyterian Church. With the enlarged establishment and the cost of additional utilities and the maintenance involved, the growing staff and their requirements, charitable institutions needing more benevolences, insurance costs rising dramatically, having fiduciary responsibility of managing Church investments, the Trustees have accepted their charge with enthusiasm and vigor.

Our Trustees are incorporated and are governed by corporation laws. They have come to play an ever-increasing role in keeping our financial "ship afloat".

They are responsible not only for the Church's fiscal dealings but also the physical aspect of our church building as well. A relatively new project sponsored by the Trustees, possibly less glamorous but more fun, is Grubby Sunday (or perhaps Saturday). Volunteers actually scrub, paint, rake, weed, just any manual work which will stake our building and yard more attractive. The volunteers even "do windows". The Corporation is in reality the "keeper of the keys" and the "keeper of the cash".