ATLANTA (ABP) — A member of First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., matched his church's $5,000 donation to purchase mattresses for hurricane victims in Florida.
When the anonymous donor offered to match the church's contribution up to $5,000, Ronney Joe Webb, the church's minister of family life, said he “put out a plea for some money.” The church raised the money, and 43 queen-size and 16 twin-size mattress sets were shipped to New Hope Baptist Church in Wauchula, Fla., about 40 miles south of Lakeland.
Patrick Mahoney, New Hope Baptist Church minister of youth, is coordinating the distribution and has received several requests from people who lost everything, he said.
The mattresses comprised one of the largest single donations in the Wauchula area, said Timothy Wood, who is coordinating hurricane-relief volunteers for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Flooding caused by roof damage makes the mattresses a necessity for some hurricane victims, he said. “People's furniture and mattresses got soaked by Hurricane Charley,” Wood said.
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