Starting Saturday night, people have been dropping off cases of bottled water and gallon jugs of water at Piqua Christian Church off state Route 185. The church will truck the water it collects Monday morning.
It is headed to the Western Avenue Ministries in South Toledo, said Jeff Ratliff, the church's associate minister. The ministry is out of water, which it needs to prepare the meals it serves, and it also needs water to distribute to the community, he said.
"So far we've heard, particularly in the area of South Toledo where the poverty rate is high and our missions partner serves, is people, a lot of them don't have cars so they can't travel to water distribution points," he said.
For those who are able-bodied, it often means a walk of an hour-and-a-half to get to a distribution point. "Then when they get there they're having to wait three, four hours for water and there is no guarantee that they'll get it," he said.
Western Avenue Ministries wants to serve as a distribution point for the community, and Piqua Christian Church is doing what it can to help make that possible. "As a church our mission is to serve others," said Travis Mowell, senior minister, through "passionate action."
Mowell said the church already has a partnership with Western Avenue Ministries. Now that their mission partner is in greater need, the church is stepping up to help meet that need, he said.
The church first posted notice they were collecting water at 8 p.m. through social media, such as their Facebook page, Ratliff said. By early Sunday, they already had 10 to 15 cases of water, plus gallon jugs as well as monetary donations. The goal is to have so much water they'll need to rent a tractor-trailer to haul it all, he said.
"We're pretty excited to see everybody come together to help those folks out," Ratliff said.
The church, located at 3969 W. State Route 185, will continue to collect water through 10 a.m. Monday for this trip, and throughout the week so it can send another truck on Saturday.
