Hunting Park: Christian Nonprofit Grows with Park Renewal

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Blessings Inc., a Christian nonprofit childcare organization, started its roots in Hunting Park two years ago. The business currently resides in the Hunting Park Recreation Center, located at 900 W. Hunting Park Ave., and is run by director and founder Heather Haywood.

Blessings Inc.’s mission statement is, “to provide a nurturing, educational, Christian environment that will prepare today’s youth for the responsibility that is theirs – to assume the positions that will shape our world.”

Currently, the program meets every Saturday morning at the recreation center. One of the recent projects the children have been working on is journal-making. Once the children made the journals, they took them home to write down their thoughts during the week. At the next meeting, Haywood said the children will have the option of sharing what they wrote with the rest of the group.

The company is comprised of Haywood and three volunteers. Joan Lloyd-Lendell, a volunteer of two years, first got involved because two of her grandchildren were in the program. She now runs a car pool for the program to make sure as many children as possible are able to attend the weekly meetings.

“I play with them, read to them and teach them about God,” Lloyd-Lendell said. “I like to help the kids make stuff.”

The revitalization efforts in Hunting Park over the past few years have helped the business to grow. Haywood said that the efforts have brought more attention to Hunting Park and the recreation center, which in turn has created more exposure for her business.

“It has made it easier to get our information out because there are more activities going on in the park, “ Haywood said. “Through the community group Hunting Park United there is more organizations that service the area that are connected together.”

As the organization continues to grow, their future events are able to expand as well. This summer Blessings Inc. plans to have their first summer day camp at the Lenfest Center located at 3890 N. 10th St. The program hopes to accommodate up to 30 children and will be free of charge for all who attend.

“We are in the process of planning that and trying to fundraise for that and write some grants to get funding for it,” Haywood said. “That’s a big undertaking for us right now being so new and being relatively small.”