Local ministry providing hygiene and amenities
Living With Purpose Girls Nonprofit Outreach Ministry (LWP) will continue to give away hygiene/amenity items for women and girls on the first Saturday of the month — including April 4 — from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
LWP Ministry will continue to be available to the community during this tough time. Bags of items will be walked out to the parking lot in a safe manner without physical contact until the COVID-19 outbreak is over.
The pick-up location is Faith Full Gospel Church, 6881 State Road 135 North.
For more information, email [email protected]
Energy companies to sponsor fundraising event
The third annual Bron County Touch-A-Truck event to benefit Brown County Weekend Backpacks Inc. will be Saturday, June 27.
This is a free, hands-on event that provides kids the opportunity to see, touch and explore their favorite big trucks, heavy equipment and emergency vehicles. They can also interact with community support leaders including police officers, firemen, construction workers and others.
“The Duke Energy Foundation is proud to join with another great community partner in SCI REMC as co-presenting sponsors of Brown County Touch-A-Truck,” said Bruce Calloway, community relations manager for Duke Energy. “We share in the commitment of the Weekends Backpacks volunteers by supporting these efforts to serve Brown County youth in need.”
While many families in Brown County are doing well, 1 of every 5 children lives in poverty. For many of these children, a school breakfast or lunch may be the only meals they can count on eating during the week. The Brown County Weekend Backpacks program helps students in families struggling with hunger get through the weekends by providing a backpack containing six nutritious, easy-to-prepare meals, plus a snack. Eating well on weekends helps kids come to school each Monday ready to learn.
“The Brown County Touch-A-Truck event offers a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together and support a great cause while having fun,” said Tammy Haenlein, manager of member services for SCI REMC.
The food to serve more than 150 low-income students costs more than $26,000 a year. A third of the food is donated, but the remaining food cost must be obtained by fundraising events.
The Brown County Touch-A-Truck event is open to the public and admission is free, although donations are welcome. The entire family will have an opportunity to get up close with these vehicles, learn about what they do, how they work, and how they benefit the community.
For more information, visit browncountytouchatruck.com.
Volunteers sought to help in hospice care
Main Street Hospice is seeking individuals to fill a variety of volunteer roles. Opportunities include:
- visiting patients in private homes, assisted living, and long-term care facilities;
- providing respite for in-home caregivers; and
- assisting with office/clerical duties.
Main Street Hospice provides holistic, compassionate hospice care in nine Indiana counties including Brown.
Volunteers with specific skills or licenses such as barbers, beauticians, massage therapists and musicians are also encouraged to apply. Initial volunteer training and ongoing education is provided.
The group also accepts donations of homemade lap robes from knitters and crocheters.
For more information about hospice or volunteering, call 317-736-0055.
Red Cross installing free smoke detectors
The Red Cross will come and install a smoke detector for anyone in the county who would like one. This is a free service.
Call 888-684-1441 for more information.
Foster homes for kittens, adult pets needed
The Brown County Humane Society is in need of foster homes for kittens.
Fostering does not take a lot of room or supplies. Humane society staff can teach whatever knowledge is needed. Regular support is provided. Foster homes for adult dogs and cats are also needed on occasion.
If interested, fill out an application at bchumane.org/volunteer/foster-application.
To learn more about fostering kittens, visit bchumane.org/kittens.
Health department has free sharps containers
The Brown County Health Department is giving out sharps collection containers that residents can use to safely dispose of needles, syringes and lancets.
Containers may be picked up or dropped off at the Brown County Health Department, 201 Locust Lane, weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. with the exception of holidays.
Once the container is full, it can be returned to the Brown County Health Department for free disposal. Anyone can get another free sharps container upon return of a sealed full one.
The health department will only collect and dispose of FDA-cleared sharps containers. Alternative sharps containers, such as laundry detergent bottles or coffee cans, will not be accepted. Sharps containers are for sharps only. No other waste is to be placed in the container.
This is not a syringe exchange program. It is “an effort to keep sharps out of our daily trash and helping to maintain Brown County as a beautiful place to work and live,” the health department reported in a press release.
For more information, call the Brown County Health Department at 812-988-2255 and ask for the nursing division.
USO seeks volunteers for Camp Atterbury
EDINBURGH — Volunteers are needed at the Camp Atterbury USO center. Volunteers help welcome military service members and support the USO goal of being a “home away from home” for all those who will be training at Atterbury away from family and comforts of home.
When Atterbury is active with military training, the USO center becomes the primary place for service members to socialize, decompress and grab a snack.
Help is needed to help keep the Atterbury USO open for 15 hours per day, seven days a week. The center serves more than 71,500 military service members per year.
For more information, contact Jaclyn at [email protected]; call her at 317-991-1073; or visit usoindiana.org to sign up as a volunteer with the Atterbury USO.
Get free overdose rescue kit at health department
Brown County Health Department has received a supply of overdose rescue kits from the Indiana State Department of Health to distribute in an effort to help prevent fatal opioid overdoses.
Kits contain naloxone hydrochloride, a non-narcotic medication that reverses the life-threatening respiratory failure that is usually the cause of overdose deaths. The medication is also known by trade name Narcan.
Distribution locations in the county for naloxone can be found on optin.in.gov or by calling the health department. Anyone wanting to get kits must get training on how to administer naloxone.
The health department is a registered naloxone dispenser. People in need of naloxone can request it from a registered entity. A prescription is not needed so long as people are requesting the medication from a registered entity.
Naloxone is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and has been used for more than 40 years by emergency medical services to reverse opioid overdose and revive people who might have died without treatment. It is not addictive, and although it is only effective at reversing overdoses of opioid drugs like heroin or prescription painkillers, it is not harmful if administered to someone who has not taken opioids, the health department reports.
For information on treatment for substance use disorder, visit the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction website at in.gov/fssa/dmha.
Free vaccines given at health department
The Brown County Health Department, on the second floor of the County Office Building, 201 Locust Lane, is offering immunizations free of charge for uninsured adults. Adults and children who are insured also can be immunized at the health department without paying a doctor’s office visit fee; bring your insurance card with you.
Vaccines include tetanus, Hepatitis A and B, DTaP, MMR, PVC13, PPSV23, varicella and others.
For more information or to make an appointment, call the health department at 812-988-2255 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
