Church reaches out one last time

[ Originally published on: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 ]

GREENFIELD -- The 156-year-old Baptist church that closed its doors a little more than a year ago has donated $132,000 of its $452,000 in assets to area service agencies and charities, which will use that money to help local people in need of food, shelter, warmth and counseling.

The First Baptist Church of Greenfield closed its doors in October 2008, selling its Federal Street property to the Providence Moldovian Baptist Church.

Shirley Mills, John Pettengill, Cindy Caplice, Marcia Miller, Jeanne Hall and Fred Billiel, members of the former church who make up the Closure Committee, spent months deciding what to do with the church's assets.

''We got input from all of our members and then we went to work doing the research,'' said Mills, whose late husband was pastor of the church from 1983 to 1986.

''(The donation) was a godsend for us,'' said Faith Rockwood, president of the board of directors of the Franklin Area Survival Center, which received $15,000 from the church. ''We've done some capital improvements.'' The center, located in Turners Falls, expanded its doorways so that it can unload food in inclement weather and also added some outside storage so that it doesn't have to rent space to store.

''This was a tremendous help to us and we're very grateful,'' said Rockwood.

For the full version of this story, you may purchase The Recorder electronically, by returning to the home page and clicking under ''E-Edition'' on the right side of your screen, or you can purchase the print edition, which is available throughout Franklin County, Massachusetts.

 

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