Christian Service Center began with three pastors having lunch
Christian Service Center began with three pastors having lunch
It all starts with the fact that nobody gets paid. From beloved director Linda Chappelle to Do-It-All couple Stan and Janice Moss, The Christian Service Center is a group of volunteers who are passionate about what they do. It helps that the reward for their work is almost always immediate. They see the difference they are making every day in every way.
Stories like the one from a mom with children who moved here for a job that fell through are common. A year later that client was back on her feet and sponsoring a family for Christmas.
The non-profit’s motto of providing a hand up, not a hand out is working. Chappelle has boxes full of notes from clients with similar themes. “CSC helped me after Hurricane Katrina when I had lost everything in New Orleans. You gave me hope. Now I’m doing fine,” reads another thank you letters.
One volunteer noted that while helping a client load groceries into her car, a child was overheard saying, “Look Mommy, we have cereal for breakfast now!”
Stories like that – and there are hundreds – are the reason CSC volunteers are so passionate about helping people in need living in Gulf Shores, Fort Morgan, and Orange Beach without regard to race, creed, nationality or gender.
The CSC is funded by the Pleasure Island Ministerial Assn. member churches, as well as almost every local community organization, business, and philanthropist. It now receives United Way and other grants from companies, foundations, civic clubs, and CSC fundraisers like Blossoms of Hope.
CSC clients are given immediate help as a Band-Aid, while case workers help them on their road to a more permanent solution to their problem. Counseling for continual needs are referred to other agencies.
A 1988 conversation between three ministers hoping to co-sponsor an Easter sunrise service at the Gulf State Park pavillion sparked the origin of the Pleasure Island Ministerial Association and that led to the formation of the CSC three years later. The first building was in the Pleasure Island Shopping Center next to the old Winn-Dixie.
CSC is now guided by a Board of Directors with representatives from PIMA churches and interested citizens and it operates out of a permanent home on Dolphin Ave. in Gulf Shores instead of a loaned store-front.
And it is still hands up rather than hands on in giving immediate emergency aid and guidance on finding solutions to problems. And it is still run by volunteers.