A stone worth more than just a stone

Local boy finds an innovative way to raise money for a good cause; funds for his efforts at $350.59 to date
For a sixth-grade kid, Willy Whiston is quite the entrepreneur, but the money he earns from selling his polished rocks at Sherwood Park’s Baseline Road Farmer’s Market doesn’t go to his piggy bank.
Instead, Whiston donates every penny of his sale towards a worthy cause.
Whiston first heard about Timothy House in his Grade 4 class at Strathcona Christian Academy Elementary from his teacher, Darlene Eisner. The house was a derelict building in Resita, Romania that would soon be converted into a kindergarten, library, soup kitchen and community centre for people in the area.
“At school, we’ve always raised money for Timothy House,” Whiston said. “Miss Eisner really has a passion for it and she shared her passion with us.”
Whiston said that originally, he wanted to support Timothy House with a lemonade stand, but when his grandmother gave him a rock-polishing kit for his birthday, he started to think of some different ideas.
“I had all these rocks but I never knew what to do with them,” Whiston said. “So it just made sense that I would polish rocks and sell them for Timothy House.”
As Whiston began to create a business plan, he decided to polish rocks to make jewellery and pins. Slowly he started to build up pieces to sell at the Farmer’s Market.
“The fine grit really makes them shiny,” Whiston said. “Most people like the rocks shinier.”
Whiston said that people purchase rocks from his collection for many reasons. Some purchase because they really like the rocks, while others purchase simply to support his cause. His profits total $350.59, all donated to Timothy House. Whiston hopes that they can continue to do good work for the people in Romania.
“I have other things like my train set that I’d much rather spend my spare time playing around with,” Whiston said. “But the cause is what really keeps me doing it. I think it’s just such a good cause.”

Erin Pentelechuk, Sherwood Park News, Friday October 3, 2008

A Message from the Cross Family

As a family, we have a passion for sharing the bountiful blessings God has given us as well as a passion for Timothy House. Here are some of the small ways our family has found to support the efforts to get Timothy House up and running in order to serve our brothers and sisters in Romania.

Our first fund raising effort was Amanda's birthday in September of last year. She requested in her birthday invitations that each person bring a donation for Timothy House instead of bringing a gift for her. This alternative to receiving gifts for birthdays has become a tradition in our family, and so her sister Trinity followed her example and also raised money when her 6th birthday came around in February.

When Read-in Day happened for her grade four class (which was a read-a-thon costing two dollars to participate in order to raise money for Timothy House), Amanda decided that giving a toonie to support Timothy House would be great, but she wanted to do more. So instead of just paying the toonie to participate, Amanda took pledges for her reading and raised over forty dollars for Timothy House.

This year, having been motivated by a speaker at the Willow Creek Leadership Conference, we got together as a family to think about what we could do to make a difference in world poverty. We thought that going out for a meal or treat was an expensive and frivolous way for us to feed ourselves, and so each time we chose to spend on ourselves this way, we would match the funds to place in our World Poverty Jar. When our jar had the first one hundred dollars in it, our girls voted unanimously that TImothy House should be the first recipient of a donation from our jar.

It has been such a joy for us to watch our children grow in their concern for others, and their ability to give to others more and more selflessly as they realize the bounty with which God has blessed them. We feel privileged to be part of this ministry. We pray that God will continue to bless all who are working hard to bring the fruits God has planned for TImothy House.

Jim and Meg Cross
Trinity, Amanda, Jillian

Garage Sale

On February 29, the grade 2 students of Strathcona Christian Acedemy Elementary had their annual garage sale with all proceeds going to Timothy House. It was "shop till you drop" day and everyone joined in with glee. Popcorn, cookies, and other people's "treasures" changed hands, and by the end of the sale, a whopping $3092 had been raised for our friends in Romania to continue building Timothy House up for the needy of Resita. Thank you to the grade two children and teachers, parents, and all of he students of the school for making the event such a success.

Paint Pail Collection

Throughout January and February, the students of Strathcona Christian Academy Elementary School brought spare change from home. Their goal was to fill up the empty paint pail that had been placed in their classroom by Miss Eisner with all the money collected going to Timothy House. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies, toonies...and lots of paper bills soon filled pail after pail up. Many special events happened to help fill up the pails and make a lot of cash for Timothy House. For instance, Eden Yuill, pictured on the far left of the paint pail, had a birthday party and instead of regular gifts, asked her guests to donate money for Timothy House instead. She and her birthday guests are pictured having a great time bowling together, after having donated $155.00 to Timothy House!

Altogether, the students of SCA Elementary, their teachers and many parents raised over $10,000 for Timothy House. This will be partly matched by another organization for a total of nearly $18,000. Well done everyone! Together we pray that Timothy House can soon be finished, to the glory of God and the good of the people of Resita, Romania.