ALTON - Main Street UMC’s, Team Honduras, is pleased to announce that they will be hosting their 9th Annual Just For Chicks event on Saturday, March 12, 2022 from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the church located at 1400 Main Street in Alton.
“This special fundraiser for the Team is a celebration of the ladies in our community,” said Greg Gelzinnis, Team Leader. Gelzinnis added “It will feature ladies-oriented vendors like Craft Garden, Sazzy Fashions, Tepen Hollow Designs, Everything’s Shiny Creations, Countryside Gardens, Window to my World Stained Glass, and The Bag Ladies just to name a few.” As in previous years, spa opportunities & chair massage by Fitness for the Soul will also be offered. An assortment of homemade soups and salads prepared by Team Honduras members will be on the lunch menu, and the day’s speaker will help the ladies unravel the kNOTS in their life.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Just For Chicks IX Guest Speaker, Tammy Tiller-Hewitt FACHE, is the founder and chief executive officer of Tiller-Hewitt HealthCare Strategies, the nation’s leading healthcare solutions firm specializing in strategic growth, physician alignment and engagement. She is a sought-after expert and speaker. Tammy also hosts two podcasts: The Leadership Lens & Take 10 (Maybe 20) with Tammy. Ms. Tiller-Hewitt is a member of The John C. Maxwell Team, a group of independent certified Coaches, Trainers, Speakers and Professionals, offering workshops, seminars, keynote speaking and coaching to aid in personal and professional growth.
She is also an active member on the teaching team of Enjoy Church.
“I was very pleased to be asked to be this year’s guest speaker for Just For Chicks” said Tiller-Hewitt. “Greg and I have been friends and colleagues for a long time.” Ms. Tiller-Hewitt remarked, “Being able to help the women of our community reach their fullest potential, as Greg and his Team help those in Honduras made this opportunity a slam dunk for me.”
Tammy’s talk will be centered around the insights of her most recent #1 Best Selling Book, Untie every kNOT. Tammy’s book is about kNOTS—little k, big NOTS.
"It’s about the kNOTS we tie around ourselves, around our dreams, our purpose, and even around our God-given destinies. It’s about the kNOTS we subscribe to or blame others for binding. We can get so tangled up in our own kNOTS that it’s nearly impossible to recognize their paralyzing, life-limiting, dream-smashing grip. Just For Chicks IX attendees will be inspired to not allow a kNOT to cause them to miss out, chicken out or be counted out." Tiller-Hewitt reminds us, “Breakthroughs happen when your kNOTS intersect the end of your rope.”
The Pandemic of 2019/20 caused the Team to miss their every other year trip (started in 2005), but plans are in the works for the Main Street based Team to make their 9th Mission trip in June of 2022. The Team goes to Honduras every other year so that they have an opportunity to raise funds to help offset costs for the trip and to provide the necessary supplies the team needs to do their Mission projects and ministries.
Gelzinnis shared, “Our policy is that everyone commits $600.00 of their own money towards the trip. But it has always been on my heart that I don’t want anyone who feels called to Missions to not be able to go because of financial resources,” said Gelzinnis. He continued, “It costs about $2,800.00 per person to go on the trip, and over the years we have done some pretty crazy things to raise the additional $15-$25,000 necessary to cover the additional costs for each Team Member.”
Veteran Team Member, Mike Short recalls, “One time we were asked to provide valet parking for an every 5 year reunion of Litchfield High School graduates.” Short added, “We had cars all over the airport tarmac and were just glad that we didn’t have extra keys or cars at the end of the night.”
The team routinely works the holiday festival circuit, selling their 500 pints of homemade apple butter, 1,000 pounds of homemade peanut and cashew brittle, and throws in walking tacos and grilled corn on the cob at summer festivals. The Team even added pan-fried cinnamon sugar biscuits with some of their world-famous Apple Butter during this past summer’s festival season.
Always trying to be responsive to the needs of the Mission, the Team has taken on building churches, working on the Mission’s Headquarters building in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, building stoves, and providing “Blessing Baskets” to families in the villages where the Team has served since their first trip in the summer of 2005. During the summer of 2017, the Team also hosted a series of knitting & sewing workshops for women in several communities under the watchful eye of Team Members, Nancy Steward and first time Team Member, Pastor Debra Hoertel.
“The Knitting Project was two-fold,” said Steward. “It gave the Ladies an excuse to get together for fellowship, and we wanted to give them enough instruction to make some items that they could sell.” Pastor Debra remarked, “I will never forget the expressions on the women’s faces when they finished their shoulder bags and sack dresses for their children…so PROUD!”
Newest Team Member and Directing Pastor of Main Street, Pastor Alberto Ramirez, has been using his bilingual skills to speak with Pastor Alba Belinda de Mejia, the Pastor of the El Paraiso United Methodist Church which Main Street is in partnership with, and has learned of her dreams for an Internet Café to help the children of the community be able to attend video classrooms and also for the development of a community garden.
Pastor Ramirez remarked, “This will make a wonderful way for the local church to feed mind, body and soul for its community residents.” Proceeds from Just For Chicks IX will be used to provide the resources necessary to launch and continue these ministry projects, as well as ongoing church construction in 2022.
Tickets for the event are now on sale at the church office, online at www.mainstreetumc.net, or from Team Members at a cost of $20 per person. Seating will be limited and reservations are encouraged. Anyone interested in being a vendor may contact Greg Gelzinnis at 618-550-9291.
