By Don Rush

Since 2007, Love INC of North Oakland County has worked on building relationships and a working network of 25 area churches to help residents who “lack resources.” They provide meals, clothing, household and personal items. All these ministries take money to operate and to that end, the group is having a fundraiser dinner on March 4, at Indianwood Golf & Country Club in Lake Orion.

“This is the first year for our Share the Love fundraising event,” Love INC Executive Director Patricia Schapira said. “We have experienced a generous outpouring of support from our community including many wonderful silent and live auction items. This event is the largest fundraiser we have ever had, as we are moving more toward building donor and church relationships, rather than having multiple
fundraisers throughout the year.”

Love INC (Love In the Name of Christ) is a national organization with local affiliates throughout the country. They provide a model where the local affiliates network together with local churches, church volunteers and community organizations.

Love INC of North Oakland is headquartered at Lakepoint Community Church on W. Drahner Road in Oxford Township. Schapira, who has worked for the group for seven years, said funds raised at the event will be used to further their mission.

“Love INC is all about relationship building,” she said. “Relationships in our community, with our
neighbors, with our volunteers, our partner churches, and our donors.”

Their goal is to transform lives, she said. Identifying and meeting a person’s need is an opportunity to begin that transformation. Building relationships with “people in need” opens opportunities to partner with God in those life transformations.

They have a meals program in Orion and Oxford four days a week: Mondays, from 5:30 to 6 p.m. at Lake Orion United Methodist Church on Flint Street; Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Immanuel Congregation Church on Hovey Street in Oxford; Thursdays at Lakepoint Community Church from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.; and Saturday mornings at 9:30 at the Oxford United Methodist Church.

This past July, they moved their Clothes Closet program from St. Mary’s in the Hills Episciple Church in Orion Township to the Oxford Free Methodist Church, 790 S. Lapeer Road. This program offers gently used infant to teen, men’s and women’s clothing.

“As an assistance organization in North Oakland County for over 16 years, we have experienced over and over again the devastation of generational poverty,” she said. “Generational poverty occurs when living with a lack of resources has become a way of life and it is modeled to children who then become adults and pass it along to their children. In considering the most effective way to help individuals who have accepted generational poverty, we realize that we can’t continue to do what we’ve always done — we need to change our approach.”

There approach was to implement a new ministry, New Beginnings which was designed “to move our organization from giving a handout to giving a hand up. Giving a handout rarely addresses the root cause of the presented need and often creates a great dependency on the giver. Instead, New Beginnings offers biblically-based, holistic training and support to encourage emotional, relational, and spiritual wellness. It’s a goal-oriented, accountability-based journey designed to help individuals make lasting changes.”

Aside from cocktails and food, the Share the Love fundraiser will have a live auction and a silent auction and testimonials. The semi-formal affair starts at 6 p.m., tickets cost $75 a person. For more information about the event, to buy tickets, to volunteer or if you or someone you know is in need of assistance, contact Love INC at 248-693-4357 or visit their website at www.loveincofnoc.org.