If you haven't been able to take that summer vacation or weekend getaway, it's time to use those summer shopping skills for a good cause. Faithworks is holding a fundraising dinner and silent and live auction at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, at Eastside High School, featuring many delightful weekend getaway packages.
The dinner will be catered by Terra Foods, owned by Don and Deborah Theall, which provides corporate catering for Delta. Dress is casual and music and entertainment will be provided.
The silent auction begins at 6 p.m. and the live auction will kick off at 7 p.m. Items up for bid include a one-week stay at a five bedroom house overlooking the gulf in Gulf Shores, Ala., and weekend stays at Callaway Gardens, Reynolds Plantation and Pine Mountain.
Artist Erin MacIntosh of University of Georgia has donated a painting and local artists have donated other paintings, heirloom-quality quits and other art works.
Dr. Hoyt Oliver of Oxford is donating a wooden bowl carved from a historic tree from Covington Square.
For sports fans, University of Georgia football tickets and Braves tickets will be up for auction as well.
Faithworks is a Christian non-profit made up of 26 member churches that provides emergency utility and housing payment assistance to local residents.
The organization currently operates out of a tiny space on Thelma Street donated by the Newton County Minister's Union. The donation makes it possible for Faithworks to put 86 cents of every dollar it receives towards assisting families instead of paying for overhead, but the cramped office is already bursting at the seams during the day with applicants. The organization is in dire need of more space to expand its services and serve the more than 10,000 Newton County residents living in poverty.
Faithworks is looking to raise enough funds to acquire a new space without having to pay a mortgage in order to continue using the majority of its money for helping families, said Gil Gainer, event organizer and missions chair at Covington First United Methodist Church.
"We feel very strongly in their mission and what they're providing for the community," said Gainer.
The organization hopes eventually to have enough space to hold budgeting classes, literacy training, computer classes, job searching classes and mock job interviews in addition to being able to assist more families with emergency utility relief, according to Faithworks Chair Bob Furnad.
Tickets are $25 each and can be purchased at the door or at the office of Covington First United Methodist Church. For more information, call (770) 786-7305.
