Recently issued the following announcement.
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.
This year Family Fun Day is proud to announce a record number of Sponsors for our event with their gifts going to the operation and work of the Herrin House of Hope. We want to thank our Platinum Sponsors
for having made gifts of $5000+: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Modern
Woodmen of America, Sam’s Club, Southern Illinois Worship Center & TCC
Gives. We are blessed by our Gold
Sponsors having made gifts of $1000-$5000: Cornerstone Church, Community of
Faith Church, Herrin First Christian Church, Herrin Second Baptist Church,
Swinford Media Group, West Monroe Apostolic Church, Molina Healthcare, SIU
Credit Union, Sam C. Mitchell & Associates & Aetna. We wish to thank our Silver Sponsors with
gifts of $500-$1000: Caring Counseling Ministries, Centerstone, Banterra Bank,
Ron Ward Chevrolet, Tru-Bilt Building Company-Josh Zettler, Crabtree &
Merriman Optometry, AISIN, Black Diamond Harley Davidson, Knights of Columbus-Council
#2164, Herrin First Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Harvest Time Worship
Center. Finally, we want to thank our
many Bronze sponsors that made gifts of $250-$500: Bank of Herrin, FedExp
Ground, David Anderson, State Farm Insurance, Shawnee Express Inc., The Sollami
Co., Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, Regions Bank, Watermark Auto Group,
Hyatt-Marion Reservation Center, Christian Life Church, LiQui Tube,
Moreland/Bishop McDonalds USA, Dave Severin, IL State Representative, Herrin
Signs- Tracy Estes, Megabytes, Country Financial-Marion, Hurricane Memorial
Baptist Church, Bryan Street Baptist Church.
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 we welcome these special event
sponsors: Caribbean Hut Food Truck, M.A’s Filipino Cuisine Food Truck, Sergio’s
Mexican Restaurant, More than Coffee Food Truck, Herrin First Baptist Burgers,
Brats and Dog Stand, Harvest Time Worship Center Lemon Shake-up Booth, Herrin
Church of Christ Dessert Stand along with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic
Church Drink stand sponsored by Pepsi MidAmerica.
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, blow-up inflatables & 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 those 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 12:30-6:00p, 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. 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 Channel, Facebook Page and Sermon.net platform channel. 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
