To our friends at the Oxford Leader

A HUGE thank you from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dryden for your support of our Music Concert on March 11 with Matt Watroba. We had hoped our advertising would attract attention, but it was your article that really encouraged people to make that long drive to Dryden.

Having a church full of people singing along with Matt and his wife was magical.

Your support of local community events helps bring us together in a world that too often wants to tear us apart. That sounds like God’s work to me. Keep it going!

Sincerely,

Becky Foster, Sr. Warden

St. John’s Episcopal Church

In search of space

I am writing to you on behalf of Love INC North Oakland County. “Love In the Name of Christ of North Oakland County” is a non-profit-cooperative effort that links churches, volunteers and service agencies and helps them to organize their efforts by reaching out to the poor and disadvantaged. We serve as a needs Connection Center, where people in need contact us and we in turn, get them connected with local churches and agencies that provide them with assistance.

Currently, we are in need of a facility to house our Bed, Blessings and Beyond inventory to assist our community members in need. We had a flood in our facility and we can no longer house our household items there.

At this time, our Connections Center is located at Lakepoint Community Church on W. Drahner in Oxford, and our Clothes Closet is located at Oxford Free Methodist Church on Lapeer Rd. in Oxford.  Unfortunately, neither of these two facilities have sufficient space to accommodate our Bed, Blessings and Beyond items. 

Long-term, we would LOVE a location that could house all three spaces together; Connection Center, Clothes Closet and Bed Blessings and Beyond. However, currently, we would be extremely happy with a space for our Bed, Blessings and Beyond items. We prefer to be in the Orion/Oxford area, since those are predominantly the communities we serve, as well as the facility be VERY affordable, or an “in-kind” donation. We know this is a big ask, however, we are hoping someone, or someplace, has some unused space and would love to help us out so we can better serve our communities.

Here is a link to the website www.loveincnoc.org. Here is the Connections Center/Office phone number, 248-693-4357, you may talk to whoever answers the phone, or ask for Executive Director, Patricia Schapira.

Please reach out if you have any available space, any contacts or ideas. 

Thank you,

Karen Appledorn

Love, INC Board Member

Do more for children

Several weeks ago one of my fellow Oxford residents wrote a letter to the Editor about the “gem” Michigan Congressional Representative Josh Schriver. Unfortunately, I have to strongly disagree with the glowing characterization of Mr. Schriver. Although his voicemail box states that he will respond to the calls of his constituents, my numerous calls have gone unanswered.

As a parent of an Oxford High School shooting survivor, I am saddened that Mr. Schriver is not whole-heartedly supporting the common-sense gun reforms that have been introduced by the Democratically controlled House. Trying to stand behind the statement that there are already laws in place to protect children, they just need to be enforced, is not enough. Obviously, the laws that we have in place did not do enough to protect the children of Oxford or Michigan State. And, as an Oxford resident himself, I would assume that Mr. Schriver would want to do everything in his power to protect our Oxford children. The majority of Michiganders support common-sense gun reforms.

“More than 58% of firearm owners stored at least one gun unlocked and hidden, while nearly 18% of firearms owners stored at least one firearm unlocked and unhidden,” (Forbes, March 2, 2023). It is because of statistics like these that we need actual laws on the books to protect our children. It is no longer enough to ask people to do the right thing, there must be consequences if children access a weapon to kill their classmates, or unintentionally kill a family member or friend.

So, I’m asking Representative Schriver to do more for the children of Oxford, and do more for your constituents. At the very least get someone to answer your phone or respond to messages left.

Jennifer Prather,

Oxford Village