What did you do?
On Saturday July 5th, 2025 people from our community and visiting tourists to the Elora Farmers Market stopped by to enjoy some colour and creativity. The Youth Group and some volunteers from the Elora Hope Springs United Church prepared craft kits to make a mini-picnic table to give away at a fun family and have planned a repeat event again on August 9th. Instructions were provided for easy assembly of craft. Information about celebrating 100th birthday of the United Church of Canada, and contact information Hope Springs Church in Elora was provided to invite people to send in pictures of their decorated mini-picnic tables. 50 free kits were distributed on July 5th at our first event at Elora Farmers Market. We displayed some completed tables and provided fun art supplies so that families could stay and play, or take their craft kit home.
There was a constant flow of people who stopped to look and talk with volunteers. Some visitors took pictures and asked great questions so there was terrific communication to bring awareness to Who we are, what we were doing and why we were inviting people to share in the 100 Table Project. We heard many positive comments from the people visiting our booth for the Mini-Tables and we are hopeful to get photos sent back into the church for our picture gallery. People were attracted by the fact that the kits were free, and there was curiosity and interest from both adults and children about what we were doing. It was a huge success and we were able to make Hope Springs United Church visible in the community, sending out a welcome message that there is room at the table for everyone!
We celebrated the 100th birthday of The United Church of Canada and had meaningful conversations with visitors to explain our mini-table project. It was fun. We are holding a repeat event on Aug. 9th and plan to complete our project by end of September.
Why did you do it?
Our goal is to celebrate & create family fun with the Youth Group who have fun creating this vision of 100 little picnic tables, provided as a gift to those who wish to participate. We hope to collect and display colourful and creative pictures of mini-picnic tables to make a beautiful collage to decorate the table top of our new BIG picnic table that was gifted to us by the ‘100 Table’ team from The United Church of Canada. This completed table will be used both indoors and outdoors at Hope Springs United Church in Elora to remind us all that; Everyone Is Welcome; There is room at Table for All; You are Invited!