'Superhero' preschoolers collect donations for ministry

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. They certainly include the essential workers that have served the nation well during the COVID pandemic over the past 15 months.

But it also includes those helping their neighbors behind the scenes.

At Messiah Lutheran Church on Vernon Avenue in Park Ridge, the families of students in the congregation's Child Care Center have regularly made donations of food and cash to Messiah's Assistance Ministry and local food pantries over the years. Children are encouraged to bring in donations weekly.

However, in early June, one of the preschool classes held a special food drive as part of a week set aside to talk about what superheroes are and what they do. Unknown to all, this food drive would also result in an amazing surprise for one resident coming to the Assistance Ministry for the first time.

The food drive was held Friday, June 4, when 15 children, ages 4 and 5 set out to collect food from neighbors in the company of their teachers, Ms. Cindy, Lavonne and Becca. The children were all dressed in superhero costumes, capes and all.

Earlier this spring, a student had asked Ms. Cindy (Cynthia Decker) if the class could celebrate superheroes for a week.

Never having planned a superhero week for her students before, Ms. Cindy asked her students, "Who are the superheroes in our community? And what do the superheroes do in our neighborhoods?"

They then decided to hold a superhero week near the end of the school year.

Two days before the collection date, the children walked around the neighborhood, distributing flyers to alert neighbors when they would come by to collect the donations. The flyers were printed on neon green paper and attached to a Jewel grocery bag. In class, the children also spent time decorating their capes with insignia from the Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman stories.

On June 4, the children came to school wearing their favorite superhero costume. They tied their capes around their necks and started on their quest. Pulling two wagons to place their donations in, the children went to homes where they could see a bag with the neon green flyer attached to it.

"Each child ran to a house with his or her cape flowing in the wind and brought back the bag and placed it in the wagon," said Ms. Cindy. "One house donated a bag that was pretty heavy, so two children went up to the house and carried the bag back to the wagon together."

In all, 14 households donated enough bags so all 15 children had a chance to carry a bag from the donor's home to a wagon.

Collecting food for those who are hungry is nothing new in metro Chicago. This has been especially true in light of the increased unemployment and financial insecurity caused by the health pandemic. But the story with Messiah's superhero preschoolers doesn't quite end with the collection of donations.

"It so happened," said the Rev. David Heim, interim pastor at Messiah, "that among the items collected by the superheroes from the Child Care Center were some baby food and baby formula."

He added that because the volunteers of the Assistance Ministry do not normally encounter people with small children, they decided to donate the baby food and formula to another agency that works with children and could use them.

"But it happened that just as the volunteers of the Assistance Ministry were sorting through the food items, a person showed up at the door of the church who had never come to the church's Assistance Ministry before. She had been brought by a friend, who was a frequent guest of the Assistance Ministry," said Heim.

The volunteers learned that this woman had three young children and a teenager and was in need of a special kind of baby formula, which is exactly the kind the children received in their donations. This woman was utterly amazed and, as someone put it, "beyond thankful."

Together, 15 preschoolers and their teachers, generous neighbors and a church and school had linked arms to assist vulnerable residents facing personal challenges. But, for one woman and her children, "a sign of hope was also offered," said Heim. "It was, as someone else said, 'a God moment.'"

Messiah's Child Care Center, 1605 Vernon Ave., Park Ridge, has been in operation for the past 55 years. Karen Black is its director. The school offers year-round morning preschool, full-day child care and full-day kindergarten. Registration for the fall 2021-22 school term is now underway.

For information, call (847) 825-3767 or visit messiahchildcarecenter@gmail.com.

The Assistance Ministry at Messiah offers meals, food to take home, clothing and fellowship from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Monday.

For information about this community service, call (847) 823-6984.