CROMWELL, CT (April 28, 2009) – The Children’s Home of Cromwell (CHOC) honored two New Hampshire Evangelical Covenant churches last week for their work to change the lives of students at the home.
“These kids have been shunned by their parents because of addictions, crime and mental illness,” said Garry Mullaney, the CEO and president of the home. “They feel they are a burden rather than a joy.”
Greenfield Congregational Covenant Church and Concord Covenant Church have committed themselves to helping students understand they are so much more. Because of their work, CHOC presented them with the David Carlson Good Guy Award.
“This award is given annually to the group that over time has made a commitment to the Children’s Home,” said Mullaney. Previous recipients have included the Carrier Corporation and the Independent Electrical Contractors.
Lead by their pastors, Dan Osgood of Greenfield and Earl Dunbar of Concord, the two churches have teamed up for short-term mission trips for the past several summers. “The churches have come down and taken on big projects like painting or planting a garden and then at night, do something with our kids like laser tag,” Mullaney said.
After working on projects during the day, the group from New Hampshire, which included high school and junior high school students, along with residents from CHOC would go out for ice cream, take in a baseball game or gather in the gym for games of soccer, basketball and floor hockey. Through the tasks and the games, the residents of CHOC and the team from New Hampshire made friends, shared laughter, encouragement and their lives.
Dunbar and Osgood said the experiences were important to their members because the events were ‘hands-on’ opportunities to reach out to children that society had let fall through the cracks. The pastors added that, through the projects, games and new friendships, the team from New Hampshire was able to leave tangible evidence to the children that they did, indeed, matter.
The award is named in honor of a past director of the home who served for 32 years.
CHOC is a full-service Christian treatment center, providing residential treatment, special education, group homes, and outpatient therapy services for struggling children and their families. It is affiliated with Covenant Ministries of Benevolence of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Roger L. Turner is a regional writer for Covenant News Service and a financial services representative for Covenant Trust Company.
