Rochester church trailer used for outreach programs stolen – ABC 6 News

(ABC 6 News) – Rochester Covenant Church is searching for a bright orange trailer nicknamed Clementine that was stolen from its parking lot over the weekend.

Church members arrived early Sunday morning to prepare for the service when they noticed the trailer was missing from its usual location.

“Yes, we were shocked,” Kristin Limberg said.

Limberg, the church’s Director of Children, Youth and Families, received the call a little after 7:30 Sunday morning.

“I got a call at my house and they asked if I had taken the trailer somewhere because it wasn’t here,” he said.

Limberg is usually responsible for the caravan that the church purchased in 2021 to help the community.

Stocked with books, toys, games and snacks, the church took Clementine to parks, after-school programs and other organizations in Rochester to bring some fun into people’s lives.

“They came in and provided programs for our kids that we didn’t have the resources for,” Julie Miller said.

Miller is a board member of Friendship Place, a faith-based, nonprofit after-school program that provides what they call “home-style” services for mostly immigrant children.

Clementine was a very important part of this work.

“Woman. Kristin does a great job,” Miller said. “He can accommodate any kind of kid that might come to the park and he has all these resources there. It wouldn’t be this harmonious without these resources. “You can’t put all this in the back of a car, absolutely not.”

All is not lost, though.

Rochester Covenant Church still plans to bring the fun despite Clementine’s absence.

“We’ve reached a lot of kids and their caregivers with this, and we’re not going to let that stop us,” Limberg said.

They don’t hold grudges either.

“We have to keep loving people,” he said. “Even though there is anger and disbelief that people will steal from the church, we must pray for them.”

Limberg hopes that even if he doesn’t return, what’s inside the trailer will come in handy.

“What we tell the little kids who know about this is that we pray that the people in the trailer are being used by other kids we don’t know.”

The church is asking anyone with information, including potential video from nearby cameras or ring doorbells, to contact Rochester police.

The church’s regular Wednesday outreach event will continue to be held at the church from 10 a.m. to noon, except for Clementine.