Girls perform volunteer service at Rainbow House

The American Heritage Girls TX0624 at St. Thomas the Apostle in Robstown provided blessing bags, winter clothing, supplies, toys and fellowship to the women and children of the Rainbow House on Dec. 16, 2014.

Rainbow House, located at 1906 Leopard Street in Corpus Christi, provides transitional supportive housing and emergency shelter for women and children, and access to free counseling and child care.

Several weeks prior to the event the girls gathered and assembled the items needed for the blessing bags, winter clothing and the extra supplies of diapers and wipes. In addition, the girls decided to forgo exchanging gifts among each other for Christmas and instead opted to provide toys for the shelter.

The troop visited with the women and children of Rainbow House and served hot cocoa and snacks to the residents and spent time in fellowship with them. The children of the shelter were treated to an evening of fun with story time and finger rhymes.

American Heritage Girls TX0624 is a non-profit ministry for girls, ages 5-18. Its mission is to build women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country. Since August 2014, the St. Thomas the Apostle troop of 14 girls has performed more than 220 hours of community service to its charter organization, their parish and the surrounding community.

"Of our time with the women and children of the Rainbow House, the girls mentioned how much fun they had visiting the residents there, providing them with much needed goods, and how they left with a feeling that these residents were part of a larger family working together to help each other out," Ester Schlimper said.

For more information on American Heritage Girls TX0624, contact Schlimper at (361) 537-9554 or via e-mail at [email protected].