How Our Church Can Help the Lavelle Family

 

            Liam Lavelle is a 6 year old boy from Penn Township who tragically had to have both of his feet amputated because of a lawn mower accident. His family is in need of our prayers and our help. 

            The Penn-Trafford community has been wonderful in responding in so many ways and our church would also like to be able to help.  We have reached out to let the family know we are here to help with any specific things that they may need now or in the future since Liam is going to be on a long road with his recovery.  We are also encouraging our congregation to think about helping in one or more of the following ways.

            Many of you have expressed an interest in finding out ways you can help this family. Unfortunately, it has been reported that some individuals are trying to set up scam fundraisers to profit from this family’s pain.  We are sending out this e-mail with the legitimate links in it if this is how you’d like to help.  We have also put some information below about a collection that the Deacons are organizing to help this family.  We know that not everyone feels comfortable donating online so we hope our collection box will give you an additional option for how you can assist this family in need.

            Thank you for your help.

Blessings,

The Deacons

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            There is a GoFundMe that has been set up by Liam’s aunt.  This family will be facing many financial challenges in the days ahead and your contribution will help them to better deal with those challenges.  If you would like to make a donation, we are putting the link to do that below.  If you are interested in reading a little more about Liam and his family there are also updates on this page.

           

            A Meal Train website has been set up to help Liam’s family.  If you are not familiar with a Meal Train it is a site where people in the community can sign up for a specific date to bring the family dinner.  The meal can be from a restaurant or be homemade.  If you would like to help in this way, please click on this link and follow the directions we have listed below to navigate the website. Right now all of the dinner dates have been filled for August, September, & October which is a reflection of our generous community.  Our church has been in contact with the Meal Train organizer and she will be adding more months to the Meal Train dinner date list that you can sign up for in the future.  Please continue to check back to the site for this to happen.

            - To deliver a meal to Liam’s family yourself  (not through the GrubHub                                    Restaurant cards on the site)

            - Click on the Date you would like to sign up for

            - Click Details – This will give you the family’s address, preferred time to deliver                    (5:00pm-6:00p.m.), and the number of people the meal should be able to feed                    (3 adults, 3 children)

            - The meal can be homemade or take out from a restaurant. Some of the family’s                    favorite restaurants are listed on the site but any restaurant is welcome.                            There is also a place for you to list what you may be bringing or if you are                          not sure you can put TBD (to be determined)

            - If you do choose to use the GrubHub Restaurant gift cards, please bear in mind                    that some restaurants will take a portion of the gift card you purchase for                          delivery charges.  These can vary depending on the restaurant.  Your money                    may go further if you are able to order and deliver the meal yourself.

 

            An expense that many families have to deal with when traveling into the Pittsburgh hospitals is the cost of gas. Our church would like to be able to help this family to not have that worry.  The Deacons have set up a collection box in the church office for gas gift cards.  If you would like to help in this way, any kind of gas gift card would be very appreciated (Sheetz, GetGo, Sunoco, etc.)  You can also place your gas gift card in the collection plate on a Sunday if that is more convenient. We will be collecting the gas gift cards until the end of August. Also, if you would prefer to just put a monetary donation envelope into our collection box, the Deacons will take care of purchasing the gas card for you.

 

            Prayers can bring hope, comfort, and miracles. Please remember Liam and his family when you are talking to God.  If you would like to follow along with Liam’s recovery and progress at Children’s Hospital, the family has set up a Facebook page to give updates on him.  It can be accessed through the above GoFundMe page link as well as through the link below.  Children are very resilient and you will see in some of the postings how much Liam is a fighter.  His Facebook page is titled Liam the Lion.

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            Everyone enjoys getting cards.  If you would like to drop an encouraging greeting card for Liam into our collection box the Deacons will make sure he receives it.  Please remember he is only six when you’re picking out or making your card.  If you have kids, making some cards together can be a great family project. It’s important for kids to know that they don’t have to wait to be an adult to be capable of making a positive difference and caring for someone in their community. All cards will be collected until the end of August.