2010 Brings Changes at DXC

A New Year means a new beginning for the Dayton Christian Center. As some of you might have heard, there has been big news surrounding the Dayton Christian Center. We wanted to share this news with our blog followers.

This is the article as it reads in the Dayton Daily News. Courtesy of
Meredith Moss, Staff Writer for the Dayton Daily News:

The Dayton Christian Center, a presence in the Miami Valley since 1921, has closed its Linden Avenue location in East Dayton as of Jan. 1, and plans to reopen by March in an expanded but still undisclosed location.

The Rev. Bob Bishop, executive director of the organization, said the group has been in discussions with the city regarding a larger new home, and said that the location will definitely be in East Dayton.

“We’ve been renting space from a church that was way too small for what we needed,” Bishop explained, estimating that the group serves up to 600 clients each month on Linden Avenue. Because a one-year lease had to be renewed with the church by Jan. 1, he said the board decided the time was right to initiate the change.

The two Centers offer programming ranging from Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) to meals for the homeless and day care. The West side location, at 1352 W. Riverview Ave., is housed in a building constructed in 1950.

Bishop said one of the proposed projects is a new sports and wellness program that will be organized by Drew Formentini, a University of Dayton graduate student assigned to the Center for the next two years.

“The idea is to link a variety of different agencies and programs in East Dayton and put them together in a way that will hopefully revitalize the community,” Bishop said.

He said he is hopeful the new location will be available even before March on a rental basis so that the VITA program and the new sports program can be offered there. He said grants also are being pursued.

Bishop, who oversees both locations, said the Centers have a staff of 20, some of whom are paid by other community organizations such as AmeriCorps and Wright State University. The Linden Avenue location was opened in 2005. It also offered tutoring and drop-in guidance to help clients hook up with a variety of community organizations.

“What gives me the greatest pleasure is to know that we are not only helping people today, but hopefully changing the structure for many generations after us,” said Bishop, who took his job in 2003 after serving as a church pastor for 17 years.

“As a faith-based community center, our faith drives us to do what we do,” said Bishop. “Hopefully, the plan we’re going to unfold will be big news for all of East Dayton.”

For information, visit www.daytonchristiancenter.org

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss@Dayton
DailyNews.com.

We, at the Dayton Christian Center are very positive that this will be the change that Dayton Christian Center needs. This change helps us to put more focus on programs and to reach out to even more families in Dayton. We will be able to provide more information soon, but I hope this gives you a glimpse of what will be for the Dayton Christian Center in 2010. Please continue praying for us!

What Christmas is All About

Merry Christmas everyone! Please enjoy the pictures below of our kids from the Altrusa Christmas Party. And remember the Reason For The Season as you celebrate with friends and family during this holiday season. Love to you all!

Blessings and Love,
From your family at the Dayton Christian Center

GetUp New Years Eve

Looking for something to do on New Year's Eve this year? Take a look. You're invited!

Groovy Steps

As a partner with GetUp Montgomery County we are trying to make the center a bit more healthy. I mean really, isn't our mission to enrich and empower lives one choice at a time? :-) With that said, we serve 3 meals a day that are well balanced and nutritious. As educators our goal is to incorporate more teaching about eating and living what we teach. Our staff have a snack box... with well... not so many healthy choices. We've taken a poll and created a list of some options. I am happy to say that we will be trying some of them out and see what happens.



Through LinkedIn we get a variety of information from GetUp and I just had to share this. Any ideas where we could do something like this. Any comments I'll relay to GetUp and maybe somewhere (or in several locations) we could get a cool set of stairs like this. Thoughts??

Ladies and Gents: We Have Press Coverage!!!

We are very proud to say that because of the hard work of Phil Greene, our new AmeriCorps member, the Dayton Christian Center was on Saturday night's 6:00pm news! The clip below portrays our annual Christmas Party hosted by the Altrusa Club of Dayton. Thank you WDTN Channel 2 News for coming out to the center and helping bring smiles to the staff who have been working hard to get us press coverage!

The party was held on Saturday, December 12. Each child received a present full of toys and clothes handed to them personally by Santa himself. Parents also received a goody bag full of toiletry items and a Bible. Pictures from this event will be posted soon!

Merry Christmas everyone!

CJ Volunteers are Simply Wonderful!

We were SO happy to have another volunteer day with the volunteers from Chaminade Julienne High School! We were truly blessed to have them come out on December 5th and finish our Christmas boxes for the kids and to make our parents boxes as well. We couldn't ask for better volunteers. Not only were they enthusiastic and fun, but they worked hard and fast! So fast that I ran out of projects for them to do!

Take a look at the pictures from the two groups that came out on December 5th. One group was here from 8am to 11:30am and the second group was here from 12pm to 3:30pm. All together, we have 29 volunteers from CJ that day. They came to us as part of the National Honor Society Program at CJ, run by Mr. Jim Sparrow. We couldn't be any more thrilled at how much work they got done and to top it off, we are expecting them to come back next year! Yay :) Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication CJ volunteers. See you next year!

Have a blessed Christmas everyone!

Betsy and the staff at DXC

Christmas with CJ

Wow! Time is flying past us and Christmas is going to be here in about 25 days! To help us get ready for the holidays, a group from Chaminade-Julienne came and helped us prepare Christmas boxes for the kids at the center. The groups were from the NHS program at CJ, and they were wonderful volunteers! We had around 30 volunteers at the center, half of them here from 8am to 12pm and the other half from 12pm to 4pm. They made homemade Christmas cards for the kids, made an inventory list of all the donations we have received, and made around 55 personalized boxes for each child full of toys, clothes, books, and school supplies. The second group was done early, so we had them sanitize our school rooms. We always appreciate a nice, clean, sanitized room :)

Another group from CJ will be here this coming Saturday and we can't wait! Take a minute to view the pictures below to see what hard working volunteers they were! And check back soon for more pictures from the second group!

Thank you CJ for working hard and for coming to DXC! We appreciate you! And most of all, the children will appreciate all the hard work you put into the boxes and into the homemade Christmas cards. We hope you all come back to visit!