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Free food, services available Saturday at Love Elgin Day

Elgin residents who could use help making ends meet are invited to take advantage of free food and other amenities Saturday, April 25, at Love Elgin Day, an outreach sponsored through the cooperative efforts of 40 area churches.

Guests can receive free groceries, clothing, medical and legal services, chiropractic adjustments, haircuts, massages, bicycle repair, car services and other freebies, along with an inspiring message and personal prayer. With lively music, face painting and puppets, the event takes on a festive tone, and everyone gets a free lunch.

"It touches so many people in so many ways," said Nancy Kefauver, who has been volunteering with Love Elgin Day since it began three years ago. "We feed them physically and spiritually, and it lets the community know that we genuinely care.

"I love that hundreds of people are involved as volunteers," Kefauver said. "It's such a generous outpouring of love, and to be a part of this and know that so many of us are like-minded is just an awesome thing."

This will be the seventh time Love Elgin Day is offered to underresourced families and individuals. About 250 volunteers from nearly 40 churches set aside denominational differences to serve an average of 1,200 guests. More than three dozen business and organizational entities also are involved, either by providing services or resource information, making financial or material donations, or allowing the use of their facilities or equipment.

With registration at 220 Division St., the event takes place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at five downtown churches and an adjoining park. The Love Elgin Day campus includes Family Life Church, First Congregational Church, First United Methodist Church, Iglesia Carismática Puerta de Sion and Vineyard Church of Elgin. All are within a few blocks of each other, and volunteers will be available to help guests carry food and clothing to their cars.

Weather permitting, lunch will be outside at Carleton Rogers Park, where music and dance performances will be scheduled throughout the day. Division Street will be closed to traffic between Center and Spring streets, and Elgin police, fire and public works departments will make some of their vehicles available for kids to view up close.

Love Elgin Day takes place rain or shine, and all distributions are made on a first-come, first-served basis.

"The longer I live, the more I realize that there's so much unknown hurt out there," Kefauver said. "Maybe we can't do an outreach like this every day, but if for one day we can say, 'Here's a way we can bless you, we see you, you're not invisible' - then I think that's amazing."

For details, visit www.LoveElginDay.org.

  Love Elgin Day volunteers Luis Dosdedos of Elgin and Janet Tarihi of Bartlett help direct people to various sites while standing in front of First United Methodist Church at the corner of Highland and Center streets in downtown Elgin. Five local churches will host the event again this Saturday, April 25, including First United Methodist Church, Vineyard Church of Elgin, Iglesia Carismatica Puerta de Sion, First Congregational Church and Family Life Church. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com, 2013
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