69����

Calvert had a new book bag with new folders, notebooks, crayons and pencils inside—one of the giveaways church volunteers and donors organized Saturday afternoon at New Life’s Freedom Fest.

This year, the event ran about eight weeks later than usual, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers decided to trim out the live music and rides the annual festival has become known for. Instead, the festival was run as a socially-distanced version of itself.

The usual charitable giveaways of food, clothing and other goods remained part of Freedom Fest—the main piece, actually—along with spiritual and emotional resources available for visitors, plus fireworks at dusk.

Scaled back as it may have been, hundreds who turned out to the festival availed themselves of the charitable giving. Calvert said it was a godsend to receive a free book bag with new school supplies—a small piece of help for her and her four children.

“When schools closed down in March because of coronavirus, our weekly grocery bill, the costs, they went up. Way up. Let’s just say the last several months have been an adventure. It’s been challenging,” Calvert said.

Calvert already had shelled out more than $100 for back-to-school supplies for her four kids, and she wasn’t able to get every item she needed. The free book bag and goods inside represented $30 or $40 Calvert wouldn’t have to spend.

An hour after Freedom Fest opened its gates to guests, New Life had distributed more than 500 boxes of groceries—about half the food donors had readied for giveaway in a drive-through set up on the grounds.

During a brief break in traffic in the grocery drive-through lane the church set up, New Life food pantry volunteer April Brown sat in a shed next to boxes of food and cooled off.

“This garage is half-empty from where it started. It proves that food is much needed in this community right now. It proves it to me anyway. The need is there,” Brown said.

New Life Pastor Jason Karampatsos said the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout of layoffs and hourly cuts for workers has brought a spike in need that his church has felt since this spring.

In Rock County, the unemployment rate during the pandemic shutdown spiked at almost 16% in April. It remains at about 10% as of last month, and thousands of other have dealt with hourly pay cuts or intermittent furloughs.

Among his own congregation, Karampatsos said, the impact of the pandemic has been uneven. Some of his churchgoers found themselves working overtime as “essential” employees during the pandemic. Others got by on unemployment benefits, while still others continue to weather hourly cuts.

Karampatsos said the weekly grocery giveaways the church hosts have seen an uptick in demand—but he’s also seen an uptick in charitable giving from those who partner with the church.

“It’s been a big time for church families to really start caring for one another. And that extends to the community, too. We saw that right off the bat with this pandemic. We had an increase in our Tuesday night drive-in food pantry. But we suddenly had extra people that were volunteering, extra people that were coming in, to be able to help out.”

He believes many local churches have weathered the storm of COVID, despite some churches still seeing scant attendance at services.

Volunteers from six other Janesville churches stepped up to help with Freedom Fest, and Karampatsos said private business operators who normally pitch in for the event dug deep again to help out.

Karampatsos said perhaps the biggest unknown need is people who are struggling emotionally as the pandemic continues to bring what Karampatsos called “an endless season of uncertainty.”

One tent at Freedom Fest was staffed with masked counselors who were there to help people talk through emotional hardships they’re under.

Karampatsos said the church has started the last few months to see more and more people attending its weekly support groups, in part because of the impacts of the pandemic.

He knows the church isn’t reaching every person who’s fallen into isolation under the pandemic.

“They’re emotionally weighed down. They're not getting help that's available to them, whether it's employment help, counseling for depression or anxiety, or anything, because they're not leaving the house," Karampatsos said. “What we need to do most now is to help those people get back up on their feet, enough to be able to get some help to get that forward momentum feel.”