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By Charlotte Hopkins

When Calvary Chapel South Pittsburgh (CCSP) opened their church doors four years ago in West Elizabeth, they held their first annual community event as an effort to introduce themselves to residents. Pastor Tim Green explained, “We wanted to reach out to the community to get to know them and for them to get to know us.”

The daughter and father cooking duo, Madeline Rickard and Mark Rickard

West Elizabeth Community Day is a free event that includes a bounce house, face-painting, races, and a duck pond for the younger children. Children and teens could work the spinning art wheel, fill sand bottles, and paint pumpkins. Treats at the community picnic included a pig roast, fresh baked cookies, and snow cones.

Speakers included Pastor John Thomas of Calvary Chapel Brownsville, who lead a discussion on what makes a Christian, and Officer Garrett Kimmel, who educated the crowd on the history of Ryker, his K9 partner. Ryker was imported from Holland and just celebrated his fourth birthday. Officer Kimmel clarified, “Ryker is certified by the North American Police Work Dog Association for narcotics detection and patrol. He can track suspects or missing persons, search buildings for criminals, do crowd control and criminal apprehension.” Kimmel pointed out that there is no expense to the tax collectors for his K9 partner. He is supported 100% by donations. Kimmel also chose not to receive extra compensation for his work in the K9 Department simply because he loves the job.

The event was a great success. Green went on to say, “We were blessed in so many ways this year by the West Elizabeth Community Day. We had many people from the Council and the local fire and police departments come together to help make it a huge success. As in all that we do, it is our hope that we showed the love of Christ to all those we worked with and met before, during and after the Day!"

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