Cheney church offers clothing

CHENEY - What started as a back-to-school drive has transformed into a clothing drive for victims of regional wildfires.

According to Cheney Church of the Nazarene Pastor Chuck Perry, the congregation decided to do some early preparation for a back-to-school clothing drive.

Little did they know the Gray, and Oregon Road and Winona Fires would change their plans.

"The funny thing is we were actually gathering clothes for kids going back to school," Perry said. "But then the fires hit, and for me, God showed me there was a greater need.

So, we started offering clothing to victims of the fires.

"We were in a position where we had an overabundance of clothing already, so we immediately wanted to help people who had lost everything."

Perry said the church has also been collecting donations of household items for fire victims.

The church at 338 W. Betz Road has been opening for specific hours for people to pick them up; fire victims can call the church to make a pick-up appointment.

"We have to make sure we can have someone on site to help these folks," Perry said. "All of the people coming in are volunteers, and plus we have a pre-school on site so we can't just be completely open door about it."

The church has had tremendous support from the community, and even from its Kansas City, Mo., headquarters has offered to send funds, he said.

Church volunteers have been helping to sort and offer clothing and other goods. And community volunteers have been stepping up to help in other areas.

"So, we can connect potential volunteers with areas they can help in," Perry said. "But once again because of the pre-school we have to run all in house volunteers through background checks and such. But people can call and we can directly connect them with other families or organizations they can jump in line for."

Perry said the church is also able to connect people with other services.

"We can't feasibly offer every service that people are going to need," Perry said. "But we certainly can give what we have and we can connect people."