Submitted Information:

Name Andy Wiebe

Email [email protected]

Comment 1. Moms and Tots -weekly Tuesday morning event

2. Provide a regular time for moms and young kids to get together for adult conversation and for kids to interact with other kids.

3. We found a leader who could regularly show up in the church fellowship hall to host the event. Started advertising and ladies showed up. There is no curriculum and no agenda beyond hanging out together.

Most ladies are actually from the community, but they come because there is really no other place for them to meet other ladies. Some have come to church on Sunday morning and we pray that more will. They show up at 9:30 and stay till 11:00 in the morning. The leaders put all the toys out ahead of time. Recently they got a donation of a Tassimo machine so they can provide fancy drinks for the ladies. They put out a few nicely decorated tables for the ladies to sit around.

The leaders regularly invite the moms to other church events that are coming up. They have started an occasional Scrapbooking night out of this group - inviting other ladies to join them.

4. The cost has been minimal but has been helped by a donation of a couple hundred dollars from the local Lions club and some more from the local PB club. They like supporting community enhancing programs. They are spending some money now on the Tassimo drinks. A further cost this year will be a First Aid class they are providing for the moms. But you could run the program with minimal costs: some toys is really all you need to start.

5. Suggestions: It's good to connect with community groups that want to support such things. One thing we have not done well, but would like to, is find ways of connecting the husbands with a BBQ or something. The one we did was well attended and well received.