The 8th Avenue Church of God Youth Ministry Council has been to engaging their children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The council has held monthly Zoom Youth Services and even a Zoom movie night. Youth have continued to memorize scripture as well as complete Bible Story Lessons online via Google Classroom.

In addition to holding events to minister to the youth, there have been two events that have allowed the youth to minister to the senior citizens of the congregation. Members of the youth department mailed “miss you” cards to all the seniors in June, and it participated in a drive-by Senior Citizens Parade in July. The youth made posters, decorated cars and then drove to deliver gift bags to each senior’s house.  Since many of the seniors are staying home due to COVID-19, members of the youth group wanted to let them know they are loved and missed.

During August, the YMC wanted to show love and encourage the youth as they headed back to school. A back to school drive thru was held in the church’s parking lot. Parents and children drove through to pick up a personalized backpack along with school supplies and a snack bag. Each family was also asked to take an extra bag to share with someone in need.

Members of the Youth Ministry Council are Marilyn Hall, Rakia Jackson, Jinnell Miller, Lanetta Taylor and Stacey Miller. Rev. James Hopson serves as pastor.

Line crews respond after hurricane

A group of 15-line workers and warehouse personnel left Dixie Electric Thursday morning, to travel to Baldwin Electric Membership Cooperative, which is located on the Alabama Gulf Coast. More than 78,000 of Baldwin EMC members were without power after the area sustained a direct hit from Hurricane Sally on Wednesday.

For the past couple of weeks, linemen from Dixie Electric have been in DeRidder, Louisiana restoring power to Beauregard Electric’s members after Hurricane Laura struck that area.

In prolonged outages, Dixie Electric rotates the linemen weekly, so they can rest and see their families. The second group of line workers had just begun working in Louisiana when they were called back to Laurel because Hurricane Sally was predicted to hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

“Unfortunately, this is turning out to be a difficult hurricane season for our neighbors in Alabama and Louisiana,” General Manager Randy Smith said. “We are proud to respond to electric cooperatives in neighboring states and help restore electric service to their members.”

Winning slogan from West Lauderdale

Addison Cornish, a seventh-grader at West Lauderdale Middle School, was named the winner of the Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency’s Program for Public Information 2020 Flood Awareness Slogan Contest. Her winning slogan was “Noah listened … will you?”  Cornish was awarded a t-shirt with the slogan on it and a gift card to Walmart.

Junior Auxiliary delivers uniforms

Members of the Junior Auxiliary of Meridian dropped off thousands of dollars worth of donated uniforms Thursday to the Lauderdale County School District Central Services Office.

In all, the brand new uniforms are valued at roughly $9,000. JA members delivered the uniforms,however, the clothing was donated by the owner of the local ACE Hardware store, David Majure. Elizabeth McDonald is the JA spokesperson for this project.  

Cheryl Owens writes the Neighbors column for The Meridian Star. Submit items to cowens@themeridianstar.com.