By Brett Hetherington *

Family of Faith UMC (Northern Waters District) in Akron has grown a summertime tradition of community outreach it calls “Christmas in July.” This event brings together local community housing services, health services, educational institutions, a free hot meal, and even volunteers who have gathered goods to give away to anyone who has a need.

Rev. Michael Farmer shared that the ministry was a staple of the church when he was appointed to the church in 2024.

“Sue Hazelett and Lerryn Campbell developed this event together after doing an event in December for Christmastime years ago. And they said, ‘let’s do this in summertime too and have Christmas in July!’ So now we have this twice a year,” he said.

Farmer pointed out some of the services present to provide aid to the community who showed up, include services for Akron Public Housing, Asian Services in Action, Akron Metro Health, those living with Autism, the Lived Experience Committee of Summit County, Habitat for Humanity, Akron University’s nursing program and many more. There were also individuals present who wanted to give from the kindness of their hearts.

“These are people who want to give things out. Some have been going to garage sales; some have made things. One person went to MacBid and bought things to give away,” Farmer shared.

One volunteer, April, crocheted winter caps and stuffed animals to give away to community members. “I sit there and make them while watching TV. I didn’t know what people would like but now I know. I love it. As soon as I retired, I knew I was going to do something like this,” she said.

Lerryn Campbell was one of the original organizers of the event and she shared some of the history behind Christmas in July. “We started out around the corner in a residential neighborhood running our Giving Tree event and didn’t have space for the event we wanted to put on so we asked for a parking lot. The church said, “yes” and church members got wind that we were doing it and they came and participated. And so, they started saying, “what if we did one in the summer could we do the same concept as you did in December?” and the rest has been history and we’ve been doing this for five years,” she said.

Campbell is the executive director of The Homeless Charity in Akron. Underneath their tent for this Christmas in July, she and her daughter were giving out Bombas socks and bags that they had obtained through a partnership with Amazon.

Sue Hazelett elaborated even further on the origins, sharing that the church began with a concern for community health during the pandemic by bringing a vaccine mobile to the parking lot to offer free vaccines. Her interest in outreach grew from there.

“I started working with Lerryn at Christmas time on an event called the Giving Tree where it was simply people coming opening their trunks and people coming to take stuff. And that’s a great event too. So, I started working with her and providing food at the event. And I wanted to merge all of it. As a third leg of all of this I also have a federal grant that is involved in educating older adults and family care givers about resources in the community that might be able to help them. That’s where I now turn to having vendors that represent job and family services, housing, transportation, healthcare, the area agency on aging and others,” Hazelett shared.

Planning for Christmas in July starts in February with Hazelett’s list of vendors when she picks a date in July and starts emailing to invite them to be a part of the event. “I like Thursday nights, especially for our vendors. They don’t pay to be there; they are just there to provide information. It seems to work out well for the vendors and the people who come. We get a pretty good crowd,” Hazelett shared.

Pretty good is an apt descriptor for the turnout. By Hazelett’s estimate Christmas in July serves between 350 and 400 community members.

The hot meal was a highlight for many at Christmas in July and is an important element to the event. “Having food there really just brings people in. Here’s a nice dinner you can have. We try to make it so it’s not just chips and a hot dog, we try to put effort into it and make it be something that’s worth bringing the kids out to,” said Hazelett.

In previous years the fire department was able to provide a fire engine to be onsite. The police department provided a K-9 unit, and one year there were police cruisers for children to explore. This year there was a bounce house for children to spend their time in.

Christmas in July provides more than just an opportunity to give things away. It provides a touchstone for community connection.

“The personal interaction that the people get to have with the people they are serving directly is what makes it all the better. Instead of donating all your items to a local place you can come here and personally hand them out to the people and build rapport with them. And then a lot of repeats every year of the people with the cars giving away and so they begin to know one another and those are the types of things that move people forward whenever they can see the same people in the community over and over again,” Campbell shared.

Christmas in July also offers the community a steppingstone to resources that they might not otherwise know existed.

“We know from healthcare that you can prescribe all the right medicines but if you don’t have a house if you don’t have a job, if you can’t get to your doctor’s appointment none of that matters. We’re very concerned with making sure that people know what resources are out there and how to access them. So, to walk up to a booth and learn about things, it is more comfortable than to go downtown and walk into a building. And they happen to learn something that might help them out,” said Hazelett.

Multicultural Ministries Director Will Fenton-Jones was present and sharing resources with the community and shared his thoughts on the day.

“This is a great example of churches engaging in community life. The connections that local churches build with organizations in their community is extremely important in getting resources to their neighbors,” he said.

The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.

* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.