Thrivent Financial donates to church helping children in St. Bernard Parish

ARABI, La. ( WGNO ) — Community leaders in St. Bernard Parish came together on Saturday, July 20, to ensure the school year starts wonderfully for kids.

“This is more than just school supply. It’s about meeting a need. Not only the financial need but the spiritual,” said First Lady of Greater South Shore Full Gospel Baptist Church Adelle Duhon.

The gift of giving has always encouraged both Pastor Allen Duhon and Adelle Duhon as they held their annual school supply giveaway.

“We are not just giving them random school supplies. We got the list from the parish of exactly what they need. They are getting the brand names and all. They are getting exactly what they need,” said Allen.

In mid-July, the first day of school is right around the corner, and they both know prices aren’t cheap, even for two-parent households.

“We tend to think the only folks that come to pick up school supplies and stuff like this are folks that are desolate. You have folks here that are two-income families. When it comes to school supplies and uniforms, that’s a task for even two-parent households,” said Allen.

Both say as the event grows, the next goal is providing uniforms, a goal that was reached sooner than expected.

“For the celebration of all the work you do, Thrivent is going to donate $10,000 to Greater Southshore. I heard we are trying to buy some uniforms and help out with that. We hope that’s some good seed money to help out with that,” said Thrivent financial advisor Andy Allain.

Thrivent, a financial services company that represents the Duhons, wanted to make their dream a reality.

“They have been wanting to provide uniforms to the community for a long time now. Being able to help with those uniforms is going to make a big difference for some of the folks here. This is the community to do it, as they do a great job of outreach,” said Allain.

As the Duhons held back tears, they said this was a true blessing from God.

“To hear the information, to hear what Thrivent was going to do for this community to support us, we are just so thankful for them, thankful to God that God is using them in that capacity,” said Adelle.

“We just want to serve this community and the fact now we are going to be able to give uniforms, I can’t tell you how happy we are about that,” said Allen.

Together, the event was able to give out all 450 bags Saturday, making their largest impact to date. Along with adding uniforms next year, they are hoping to bring out a couple of barbers for haircuts as well as an immunization truck to help keep the kids healthy during the school year.

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