Rain Barrel Giveaway Draws Big Turnout - Holy Communion Lutheran Church

Stacks of rain barrels, and every one of them claimed! The rain barrel workshop at Holy Communion Lutheran Church attracted so many people that they had to close the registration. The workshop offered by Kelsey Brooks, Regional Watershed Restoration Specialist with Maryland Sea Grant, trained everyone about why a rain barrel reduces water pollution as well as how to install and maintain it properly so it will contribute to the goal of preventing stormwater runoff: slow it down, spread it out, and sink it in.

Over 40 people took rain barrels home with them to install on their home properties and the next day remaining rain barrels were blessed and given away during the worship service during which IPC's Kolya Braun-Greiner preached a sermon focused on caring for local waters, citing one of IPC's motto's "God makes rain, but we make runoff!"

By hosting these two events back to back Holy Communion fulfilled two of the actions you'll find in our Menu for Action: Forming - activity that informs and provides spiritual context for Creation care, and Caring - visible/measurable action. These combined events generated a lot of excitement and engagement within the community about being good stewards of the land and waters.

All this was made possible through their successful application which secured funding of $5,000 from the Mini-Grant Community Engagement program of the Chesapeake Bay Trust. See our Mini-Grant webpage for more information about how to apply and what kinds of Forming and/or Caring Actions you might dream of putting into action!