West Church has been called “the small church with a big heart”. We offer a sanctuary of faith for all those who wish to come and worship. We are a member of the NHUCC
Sunday Worship is held at10:00 AM with childcare available.
During the school year, our Sunday School runs concurrently with the church service, allowing the children to experience part of the church service with their families before going off to their classes.
Monthly Calendar
Food Pantry –Hungry people needs: Suggested donations are: canned corn, pasta sauce, rice, tuna fish, peanut butter, jelly, canned fruit, cereal, spaghetti sauce, toilet paper, soap, shampoo, frozen meat, frozen pizza, milk eggs. Items can be brought to church Sundays or left off at the church office during the week. We have access to a refrigerator and a freezer. Monetary donations are accepted year round and may be mailed to the church: West Congregational Church, Att: Financial Secretary/Food Pantry, 499 North State Street, Concord, NH 03301.
Food Pantry Hours: Every Friday 10AM to 12AM and other times by appointment. Please call the church office to make arrangements.
Moderator’s Moment
Have I got some exciting news! West Church voted to enroll West Church in the Great Lakes Scrip program. What is it you might ask? It is fundraising while you shop. It was founded in 1994 and has raised more than $300 million for its 14,000 non-profit clients in every state. A friend of mine who attends the Pembroke Congregational Church told me about a fundraising program that they were using and it sounded very interesting. I invited Mark Herring, who is their coordinator for the program, to come to our Church Council meeting, to give us the lowdown. After an hour we had all our questions answered and we let Mark go home. The last question we asked him was what’s the down side. He said they hadn’t found one yet. The company says when people hear about scrip they may ask, ”What’s the catch?” The catch – if there is one – is that families need to plan ahead a little and do their normal shopping with gift cards.
So, how does it work? You purchase Scrip fundraising gift cards from your program coordinator (which is me). They are the same gift cards you would normally purchase from a retailer and work the same way, except for the fact that with the purchase of each card a certain percentage of that card comes back to the church and is automatically deposited in the new checking account established for this program. The percentage does not come from you it comes from the retailer. For example: you purchase a $100 gift card from L.L.Bean, you get a $100 worth of merchandise and the church gets $16 deposited in the checking account (L.L.Bean gives back 16%).
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Cards have no expiration date
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They may be given as gifts
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They can be used out of state
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They range from 2.5% to 20% return
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They can be reloaded at home from your own computer
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Some retailers give bonus awards with the purchase of their card
If you want to find out more about the Great Lakes Scrip program simply go to www.glscrip.com and look around the website. It gives you a list of the retailers and the percentages they give back. They include grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, movie theatres, home improvement stores, department stores, and almost any business that accepts gift cards.
I hope you get as excited by this program as I am and start planning now which cards would be a good match with your life.
Julie Westgard-Cole
Moderator
The West Congregational Church Cookbook, “175 Years and Still Cooking” is available to order now! Click on the picture below to download the order form, print and mail to the address provided.