Brown County's Faith In Action rated highly

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- With a little more than a month to go until its second birthday, Faith In Action of Brown County, is already among the top half of the Faith In Action programs throughout the country.

Those were some of the encouraging words the group received from its National Director, Dr. Burton Reifler, who is visiting some of the Faith In Action programs in Minnesota this week.

Faith In Action is a 20-year-old program with around 1,000 programs. Faith In Action is a volunteer service group that puts people in need of help together with people who want to help them.

Faith In Action works with churches and the community at large to find volunteers willing to help people, especially the elderly, the chronically in and the disabled who are in need of help with many everyday activities. volunteers visit with people, help with errands or household chores, or provide transportation for people, helping them maintain independent living as long as they can.

The group also works with people who are caring for elderly parents or family members who may be suffering from Alzheimers or other forms of dementia, providing training and support for the caregivers.

Faith In Action, Brown County started in September 2002. It has a roster of 60 volunteers who help 110 people on a regular basis.

Reifler told volunteers at a reception Thursday that the average Faith In Action group has about 45 volunteers, which means the local group, headed by executive director Stacy Daub, has grown to an above average size in its first two years.

"You are off to a spectacular start," he said.

The local group presented Reifler with some gifts representing the county -- an antique brick from the Ochs Brick Co. in Springfield, a Chief Sleepy Eye lapel pin, and a sample of Buddy's Orange Soda and a Buddy's t-shirt from the August Schell Brewery in New Ulm.

Faith In Action can be reached in Sleepy Eye at 794-5601, or in Springfield at 723-3240, or in New Ulm at 354-5370.