Special Edition Newsletter - Wednesday, September 4, 2019
We are delighted to present the third in a three-part series on this year's Hometown Heroes. Our 2019 honorees will be celebrated at our annual awards breakfast on Thursday, September 12th at the Computer History Museum. A limited number of tickets are still available; click here to purchase.

CSA 2019 Hometown Hero
Spotlight on Mountain View Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

Dr. Shion O'Connor, Senior Pastor, Mountain View Central Seventh-day Adventist Church.
When Dr. Shion O'Connor dropped in at this year's Empty Bowls event in March, he was still very new to his position as Senior Pastor, Mountain View Central Seventh-day Adventist Church and also new to the mission and scope of CSA. "I was delighted to hear that the church had been supporting Empty Bowls for so many years and thrilled that the funds being raised were benefiting the most vulnerable members of our community," he said.

The genesis for this annual fundraising event was during the tenure of a previous pastor at Mountain View Central - Pastor Curtis Church - who was approached 29 years ago by members of what is known today as Orchard Valley Ceramic Arts Guild, a 2018 CSA Hometown Hero. Pastor Church was serving on CSA's Board of Directors and had been actively working with other faith congregations to provide shelter space for the city's growing homeless population. "I volunteered our congregation to coordinate the very first Empty Bowls event to benefit those staying in the shelters and we soon began hosting the fundraiser on an annual basis."

Pastor Church also started many of the traditions that continue to this day including approaching local restaurants to contribute soup, working with several churches to sell bowls before the event and recruiting faith-community volunteers, local Boy Scout troops and others to help staff the event. "We had a lot of fun with it. Empty Bowls is very much a community effort," he says.

Fast-forward nearly three decades, Dr. O'Connor is also committed to bringing the faith community together to work on these issues of poverty and homelessness and sees the work of his congregation and CSA as natural partners. "So much of what we do as a faith community is minister to the poor, to the sick, to the most vulnerable. Churches, synagogues and other religious entities should be driving the process of identifying people who would benefit from what CSA offers and getting them to the agency for services. CSA has the expertise and resources to help the people whom we serve on a spiritual level."

Mountain View Central has been critical to the continued success of CSA's Empty Bowls fundraiser. Every year, the church opens its doors to CSA for the event, making the community room, tables and chairs available and providing full use of their commercial kitchen in addition to coordinating with us on the logistics. Throughout the year, they provide storage of our bowls and supplies in a shed that was specifically purchased for this purpose.

"We are excited to continue to work with CSA in support of our shared philosophy of taking care of our neighbors in need and are grateful to receive this honor," says Dr. O'Connor.

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