USC church offers event for children of single parents
Finding the time to shop during the holiday season can be difficult for single parents.
With that in mind, an Upper St. Clair church is offering an event to give single parents a few hours to shop for the holidays.
On Dec. 9 from 9:30 a.m. to noon, Providence Church is hosting an event at Snapology in Mt. Lebanon, where parents can drop off their kids for the morning and use the time to shop.
Patrick Harmon, the event’s organizer, said church officials were thinking about something they could do around the holiday season to help the community.
“A lot of us have kids, and we spoke to a fair number of single families and asked for them to give us their most needed things that they would be able to have as far as support,” Harmon said. “Child support was one of the main things they said they could use.”
In the past, Providence Church has done service at food shelters in Pittsburgh, but Harmon said they wanted to do something specific for the South Hills.
“I’m a young father of three young children myself. My wife and I talk about how we don’t know how we could handle all the things parenthood calls for by yourself,” Harmon said. “Long-term, we want to be able to help them in other ways. Hopefully this is the first year in a long run in being able to help those families.”
Snapology is an organization designed for children to have an interactive Lego experience. Harmon said choosing a place to host the event for the kids to be educational focused was important, too, so the parents know the kids will have a good experience.
Providence Church meets every Sunday at Boyce Middle School for its services. To contact the church about the event, call 412-942-1000 or email office@provchurch.org.