Lawrenceville Presbyterian Gives Back to Community

By Julia Ireland

The chilly weather and unusual pre-Halloween snow last Saturday (Oct. 29) didn’t stop from holding its third annual Fall Fest benefitting local and international charities.

The event, held at the church in the 2600 block of Main Street (Route 206), featured art sales, a flea market, food from Frank’s BBQ, a bake sale and children’s activities. The only setback due to the weather was having to cancel the band, the church’s pastor, Rev. Jeff Vamos, said.

“The first year they put me in a dunk tank. I said never again, I had a cold for a week,” Vamos joked.

Vamos created the Fall Fest three years ago when the recession hit.

“We didn’t want to cut our mission budget for the money that goes to the community,” he explained. “We wanted to make a virtue of necessity.”

The mission budget benefits local charities including the program in Lawrence Township, Isles, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK), Crisis Ministry, and also international charities in Haiti and Nepal.

Church members have a longstanding relationship with Pastor Luc Deratus, the founding minister of Harmony Ministries in Haiti, and began supporting his work there in 1986.

“We made our first mission trip [to Haiti] in 1991,” church member Joan Semenuk said. “We’ve taken seven trips. The last trip we actually landed two hours before the earthquake.”

Groups of church members and friends have traveled to Haiti, carrying with them each time over a ton of supplies including medicine, books, school supplies, musical instruments and personal hygiene items.

Semenuk is part of a group in the church called Create and Relate, which meets every Monday to sew and knit items that are sold for the mission budget.

“One hundred percent of what we make today will be donated among 15 to 20 mission groups,” Semenuk said.

Another member, Sherri Anlers, said other recent projects include making preemie hats for Mercer County hospitals and scarves for the .

“Pretty much all of the vendors are members of the church,” Vamos said.

Artists Christina Peckham and Kim Moulder, founding members of the , shared a table.

“The Network has been around for two years, and I’m also a member of the church,” Moulder said. “[Peckham] actually works in the preschool downstairs.”

William McCarroll, landscape watercolorist, and Laurie Reeves Wilson, photographer, are also church and Network members.

“I’m a nurse for the township, but I’m a member here and at the gallery. Art is my hobby,” said Wilson, who has attended the church for over 20 years.

Vamos, who loves woodworking, had a number of items on display, including small cabinets and bowls.

In winter 2009, a beech tree in the church cemetery split after an ice storm and had to be removed. “Some say it was over 300 years old. We’ve cut and harvested the wood, but it’s not ready yet.”

Vamos, a talented woodworker, said he is anxious to use it.