Hats ON for One Great Hour of Sharing!

The United Presbyterian Church of Randolph, NY loves to support mission work, inside and out of the congregation. So naturally, congregants support the Presbyterian mission offerings, and raise money creatively for all sorts of events. The church, tucked into the Amish country of western New York, struggles with finances like many others, but members believe without mission, the church is nothing more than a social club.

The idea started with an article in Presbyterians Today, which told of a church group that decided to raise money for One Great Hour of Sharing by inviting ladies to wear their Easter bonnets to church, and for the men of the church to sponsor them through donations.
When UPC Mission Committee member and OGHS aficionado Bob Whitney saw the article, he wrote “The Ballad of the Bonnets” for the church newsletter, asking the gentlemen of the church to let him know they would support the idea. Crestfallen, he announced he hadn’t heard from anyone.

Veteran news photographer Jack Berger caught hold of the idea. Noralyn, his wife of nearly six decades dug out her box of hats, and Jack recruited three generations of UPC ladies, Karen Anderson, daughter Tracy Carlson, and her 2 year-old daughter Anna, to pose with Pastor Leslie Latham for a picture and article that ran in the Randolph Register and Jamestown Post-Journal days before Easter.

Easter morning dawned cold and sunny, and behold—35 ladies, including many members of the choir, along with one intrepid man—came to Easter service with their bonnets!

Dick Chubon, who had received a dare to wear a hat based on an email mistakenly sent to him instead of his wife, bravely donned his brown bonnet garnished with bright blossoms. Linda Inkley, chair of the mission committee, bragged that her bonnet was worth $25 because of the stuffed yellow chick perched on the brim. Husband Clair was ordered to “pony up,” and he did—almost twice as much.

By the time the checks were tallied, the little church of just over 100 members raised over $1000 for OGHS!