More than 200 children helped by Golan Assembly of God

When the dust had settled on the event, the church had provided 217 children from 92 families with clothing and school supplies. Stylists who donated their time also cut the hair of 115 students.

Heather McCullough was the chairperson of the program and was happy the church was able to help the community.

“Of course, we’re Christians, and of course that’s why that’s the baseline for why we do it,” she said. “But it’s just love as a world, as a community, if we can’t come together and support one another, the worse the world gets, the worse the economy is, we’re not going to be able to survive. “We have to depend on each other. It takes a village 100% and this just shows that everybody needs a helping hand. It can be high class, middle class, low class, everybody is struggling right now.”

No family or child was turned away and no one was screened to find out their income or resident. As was with Jesus, everyone was given the proverbial cup of water in His name.

Families came from as far away as DeFuniak Springs, Mossy Head and East Milton and each family was shown the kindness and love of Jesus.

“We had some families with eight children, some with three,” McCullough said. “We have 25 people from our church helping in different areas. That doesn’t count the nine stylist that are cutting hair for free.”

The doors opened at 1 p.m., but McCullough said people started to line up at noon. The fellowship hall of the church remained packed throughout the afternoon.

For those that have never shopped for school supplies, or haven’t done so in a few years, McCullough said the costs place a heavy burden on a family that is already stretched financially. In some cases, school supplies for a single child can run up to $100 and then there is the cost of clothes pushing the expenses to between $150 and 200.

Golan Assembly was just one of countless churches and civic organizations in the North Okaloosa County and around the region provided clothing and school supplies for students.

Thanks to the generosity of those in the community, every family was cared for and the children were able to start the school year with everything they needed.

“We estimated that the cost of the supplies we had was $5,000,” McCullough said. “That was between the donations from different businesses in the area and what our church provided.”