Pack a backpack for back to school!

SouthBrook has teamed up with various school districts around the Miami Valley to provide school supplies for local under-resourced families. 

Stop by the Atrium before or after service on Sunday, July 20th or July 27th, and pick up a backpack to fill with school supplies. Each backpack has a list of needed supplies.

Backpacks must be returned to SouthBrook no later than Sunday, August 3rd to ensure they are ready for the first day of school.

Questions? Please email Steve Holt at steve.holt@southbrook.org 

During the summer many kids are left home alone while the parents work. This camp provides a Monday through Friday safe and fun outdoor experience (including lunch) for the children that live in Chevy Chase Apartments.  We're looking for volunteers to oversee games, activities, set-up and cleanup.  10:00am - 4:00pm.  

For more information or to sign up to volunteer click here!

Questions: shelly.bastian@southbrookcitylights.org

SCAC (Springboro Community Assistance Center) provides food for families who are working hard to overcome the challenges of layoffs, single parenthood, or insufficient wages to support the family.  Food distribution takes place on Monday afternoons.  Volunteers are needed as "Shopping Helpers" to help families select food and hygiene items of their preference. Quantities are determined based on family size.  

We have one serving event planned each month, January through May 2025, to be "shopping helpers" to help families select food and hygiene items at no cost to them. 

Please review the SignUpGenius for more information and to sign up, and contact Nancy if you have any questions!!

SCAC Serving Opportunity

Declare’s Living City Project in Dayton -

When: Saturday, April 26, 9 - 12

For more information or to sign up: Click Here

Love the Burg: Come help us clean up Miamisburg. We will meet at Riverfront park and serve lunch after we are done.

When: June 7th, 9-12

Help us “Pack the Pantry” of our local food pantries: First Dawn in Centerville and Helping Hands in Miamisburg. Bring any or all of the following items to the atrium between Mar 30 and April 13th.  

Items needed:

• Canned Fruit

• Canned Vegetables

• Canned Tuna or Chicken

• Canned ham/Spam

• Canned chili

• Granola bars or Pop Tarts

• Jelly

• Peanut Butter

• Spaghetti Sauce

• Box of Spaghetti Pasta

On December 10, 2021, life in Western Kentucky was forever changed by one of the worst tornadic events in our nation’s history. Thousands of homes were destroyed and people were displaced.  Over the next 3 years SouthBrook will have a chance to help in the recovery effort by serving alongside CrossRoads Missions. 

You are invited to help rebuild Western Kentucky and work with professional project managers to make a difference for affected families and communities.  You can go for a day or stay the whole week, bring a group or go by yourself. All meals and housing are provided.

Pick a date and Sign up Here!

For further questions contact Kerry.shrewsbury@southbrook.org

The Gospel Mission has been serving the less fortunate in Dayton since 1912. They conduct daily evangelical chapel services, followed by a nutritious meal in our on-site King's Table Restaurant (a commercially licensed kitchen). Currently, they are serving 70-110 people daily. All of the guests have limited, if any, financial resources and are reliant on government benefit programs. Many guests are homeless. Nearly all of the female guests live in the Gateway women's shelter.  A significant number of older guests live in senior (subsidized) housing.
Except for the head chef (who receives housing and a modest living allowance), each meal is prepared and served entirely by volunteers. During the course of a calendar year, they will work with nearly 200 volunteers, serving either individually or as part of a larger group.

Currently SouthBrook has one team that serves the third Thursday of each month but Gospel Mission but Gospel Mission is seeking more groups and has asked if another group (4-8 volunteers) could commit to a different evening once a month.

If interested or if you have further questions you can reach out to Rich Anglin: dirmindev@gmission.org or Kurt Kleiner: kurt.kleiner@southbrook.org

It was an amazing week at the Chevy Chase Summer Camp thanks to all the volunteers and all the organizations and people that partnered with SB. It couldn’t have been accomplished without some of the most hard working and giving volunteers who showed up to serve! If you missed it this year, check back next July and sign up to impact a child’s life too!

SouthBrook City Lights has teamed up with various school districts around the Miami Valley to provide school supplies for local elementary and middle school students.

Stop by the Atrium before or after service on Sunday, July 21st or July 28th, and pick up a backpack to fill with school supplies. Each backpack has a list of needed supplies.

Backpacks must be returned to SouthBrook no later than Sunday, August 4th to ensure they are ready for the first day of school.

In the Summer several of the children at Chevy Chase Apartments in Centerville are home alone during the day while their parent/guardian works.  This is especially true for the older age group because they age out of childcare after the age of 12. In addition, many of the children that have aged out of childcare are at home watching their younger siblings for the Summer.

SOUTHBROOK CITY LIGHTS is putting on a Summer Camp called "Summer Fun Days" at Chevy Chase Apartments July 15th-19th, 2024 from 11:00-2:00pm.  We are excited to engage and build relationships with these children, provide a hot lunch and lots of fun activities!  This year our theme is the "Summer Olympics in Paris 2024".  If you have a passion for positively impacting young lives please join us!  

Sign Up Here!

On Friday evening, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 SouthBrook will once again host a conference for first responders and their significant others. This is more than just a conference; it's an opportunity to be reinvigorated, equipped, and uplifted by focusing on physical, psychological and faith fitness. Explore how faith can be a driving force in positively impacting your life, family, and community. If you want to know more about the conference check out heroicdeeds.org.

SouthBrook is excited about the opportunity to do something for our community of first responders. To support this you can do any or all of the following:

ATTEND:

• For First Responders: First responders or the significant other of a first responder register here. (Open to active and retired traditional first responders - fire, dispatch, medics, law enforcement, corrections/custody, parole/probation, chaplains.) Each registration includes one free ticket to the comedy show.

• For First Responder Chaplains: A pre-conference will take place on Thursday, March 7 and Friday, March 8. You can find more details register here. Each registration includes one free ticket to the comedy show.

• For the General Public: The conference will conclude Saturday evening, March 9, with a comedy show open to the public. 5:30-6pm dessert reception, 6-7pm comedy show. You can get more information and purchase tickets here.

VOLUNTEER: A team of 100 volunteers will make this conference happen, we invite you to join the team here.

Purpose: To address food insecurity throughout Dayton, aka, the “Gem City”

We are encouraging SouthBrookers to “give back” to local food pantries and ministries that help feed the hungry by donating food and/or volunteering with these organizations. 

Event Details:

Dates: February 25th to March 10th. 

Where: SouthBrook and various organizations throughout Dayton

Organizations supported:

• BOGG

• First Dawn

• Miamisburg Helping Hands Food Pantry

• Gospel Mission 

• Pirate Packs 

• Springboro Community Assistance Center

• Sunshine Bags

How to help: 

• Donate items to support local food pantries: squeezable jelly, spaghetti sauce, cereal, canned fruit or applesauce

• For Pirate Pack donations ONLY - you may drop off the items in the SouthBrook Atrium from February 25th to March 10th

  • Microwaveable Mac n' Cheese Cups

  • Microwaveable Chef Boyardee

• Sign up to volunteer! Learn more about serving opportunities after service in the Atrium, February 25th to March 10th 

More about the “Gem City Give Back” 
It is more than a motto; it's a yearly outreach of SouthBrook, also known as City Lights. City Lights is a source of love and positivity in Dayton's diverse community. We strive to “light up” our communities with acts of love, both big and small, echoing the brilliance of light reflecting off a gem. Our goal is for every SouthBrooker to see themselves as a source of light, spreading love, peace, hope, and connection, just like Jesus.

Questions? Please email Steve Holt at Steve.Holt@southbrook.org

Christine King, one of the Centerville Community Leaders, is starting a text message group to help people in our community.  It could be a meal, help moving something, taking items to St Vincent, car repair, dropping off clothes at Threads, a home repair, picking up groceries, etc.  Christine will send out the need, if you are able to help just respond and she will send you the details.  If you would like to be a part of this team text "QUICK RESPONSE TEAM" to 423-309-0150

For the second year in a row, Springboro City Lights has adopted a family for Christmas. We have the pleasure of blessing a family of 4 this year: a single mother with 3 kids (including twins!) and we would love to invite you to be a part of this wonderful initiative!

Attached you will see a Google Sheet where you can sign up for items you would like to purchase. Please add your name and contact information so we have it if needed. 

SIGN UP HERE

Please bring your gift(s) wrapped with a post-it stating which aged boy your gift is for (16, 6/twin 1, 6/twin 2). You can drop your gift(s) off in the following ways:

• Anytime at John & Lisa Saunier's front porch (429 Meadowview Ct., Springboro) 

• Bring to the Springboro upcoming City Lights meeting at SouthBrook on Wed. Nov. 29th

• Bring to the Springboro Annual City Lights Christmas Party on Wed. Dec. 13th

If you have any questions, please contact our Adopt-a-Family Coordinators John and Lisa Saunier at 937-657-6368.

The Hope 4 Christmas Store will be back again this year: a place where over 300 under-resourced families will experience the joy of shopping at no charge for toys, gifts, underwear, socks, and children’s bibles. The store also offers these families a free gift wrapping station, a prayer team for those requesting prayers, and a local resource area.

Many local churches and organizations are working together to help make this store successful - SouthBrook is doing our part by committing to fully stock this store with all the socks and underwear these families might need. We would love for you to help by donating socks and underwear from now until Dec 1st when the store opens. Please drop them off in the atrium of SouthBrook or shop and ORDER FROM AMAZON and have them delivered directly to SouthBrook.

You can also help by volunteering to work at the store: click here to sign up.

Advent is a time of waiting for the arrival of Christmas. The story of Christ's birth is one of promise, hope, and revolutionary love. So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a Savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists. When it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas? What if Christmas became a world-changing event again? We created this Advent calendar for you, and we genuinely hope you can find a way to use it to slow down the fast-paced hustle that Christmas has become and capture each day with your family. This is not a checklist or a to-do list; that would defeat the purpose! If some of the ideas won't work for you or your family, come up with creative ideas of your own. 

Many activities are just plain old-fashioned fun that will help you spend quality time together. We hope some of the other events will remind you and/or your children of the true meaning of Christmas. We also think it's important this time of year to focus on others: those we love and those who may need a little extra help.  

Click here to download your copy!

Merry Christmas from the City Lights staff!