It was a busy day in June when I received a phone call from Tiffany Johnson, the Soles4Souls outreach coordinator. She was looking for the Grundy County Food Bank because of previous food distributions by the Ragnar Relay team. Once she explained that Soles4Souls wanted to do a shoe distribution in Grundy County, the wheels started turning. An event outside of our summer, the time of year in which we get to work with the highest number of families, would allow us to meet more needs of the community and continue fostering the relationships we have built over 37 years of ministry. It would also allow us to see the children we interact with over the summer and recruit new children to our summer programs. Among many other reasons, the excitement that began over that phone call turned into the very first Mountain T.O.P. Fall Festival.
On Saturday, October 27th from 10am - 2pm, we opened the gates of our camp to Grundy County residents with no charge to the public. Over 500 people showed up! I happened to be standing at the gate when it was opened and I couldn’t believe the steady stream of vehicles. People had lined the road and waited so that they could receive much needed items for the winter. We ended up giving out hundreds of books, coats, shoes, socks, hats, gloves and scarves. 800 of those books were donated by Scholastic. Coats were collected by the Murfreesboro organization, MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers), along with one of our Adults in Ministry participant churches, Kent UMC in Kent, OH. Socks were collected by the local youth group of Tracy City First United Methodist Church. Hats, gloves and scarves were collected in part by University of the South (Sewanee) students. Toiletries were distributed by the Grundy County Family Resource Center. Plus, many of our 20 weekend volunteers brought these items as well.
Approximately 600 hot dogs, bags of chips and apple slices were served by a local church, Morton Memorial UMC in Monteagle, TN. Frito-Lay donated 700+ bags of chips. Sysco donated a portion of the hotdogs. Booths with carnival games, information and giveaways included eight local entities: Grundy County Rotary, Grundy County Early Intervention, HeadStart, Grundy County Health Council, Family Resource Center, Camelot Care, Tracy City FUMC youth and Beersheba Springs Health and Temperance Ministries. And the festival was funded by a large grant Mountain T.O.P. received from the Community Fund of the South Cumberland Plateau!
Watching all of this unfold (on a freezing cold day!) was truly overwhelming. After months of planning and organizing, everything worked beautifully. Kids were gleefully running through the field, jumping on moonwalks, riding horses, eating a hot meal and proudly showing off their painted faces. Families stood patiently in line anxious to receive new coats and shoes. Volunteers joyfully greeted everyone and worked hard to make sure everyone was having fun and their needs were being met.
Later that evening, we had a sharing with our camp community about the day’s events. Story after story told of the gratitude from Grundy County residents, the life-shaping encounters our volunteers will cherish and the overwhelming evidence of the Holy Spirit moving throughout the day. There was not a dry eye in the room. One camper’s story in particular has stuck with me. Becky Strickland helped the Soles4Souls team distribute shoes among the families. As she helped a little girl take of her old, worn shoes and put on a brand new pair of shoes, she couldn’t help but think about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples the night before His death. How He must of felt as a He served, how they must have felt as they received, how powerful and significant it must have been to cleanse and make anew, to be cleansed and made anew. As she said, this act of giving new shoes can be likened to a “modern day foot washing.” Removing the old. Rising with the new. Coming one way. Leaving another.
And so, we can say with blessed assurance that lives in our community have been changed for the better because of this event. We thank everyone who played an integral part in making it a success. We are full of gratitude and praise for this gift.
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