CITY IMPACT ~ Omaha, NB: 275 Collaborating Congregations!

Organizers still seeing fruits of Palau festival
BY CHRISTOPHER BURBACH, WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The yard signs that sprouted like dandelions in Omaha yards this summer are long gone, but there are other signs that the Luis Palau Heartland Festival is having an ongoing practical effect in Omaha.

Yard work and home repairs, to name two.

Dollar signs, too.

And, say backers of the festival that cost $1.75 million, things harder to measure and yet to come to fruition: new relationships, fuller faith and firmer resolve to help the community among people and organizations across lines of neighborhood, religious denomination, race and class.

Today, Palau festival backer John Kotouc handed a $20,000 check to Cindy Grady, executive director of Together Inc., a multi-faith emergency relief services organization. The money went to the group's food pantry operation.

The money is important to Together Inc., but not a huge part of its annual budget of $1.4 million, about half of which comes in donations of food and other goods. Palau festival-goers in July had given a big boost to Together Inc. and other pantries with food donations.

But what really made Kotouc smile today was hearing from Grady that several pantry directors who met because of the festival are working together like they had not done before. The result: More food moves more quickly to the people who need it, and less is wasted.

"That's exactly what we wanted to happen from the festival — people who wouldn't have known each before, coming together to help the community," Kotouc said.

Another $20,000 will be given soon to the Children's Scholarship Fund, which provides partial tuition assistance for low-income families to send their children to private or parochial schools.

The donations keep a promise to Palau festival sponsors who pledged a portion of their donations to local charities, Kotouc said. He and his wife, Wende, were co-chairmen of the festival.

The event — featuring Oregon-based evangelist Luis Palau, Christian rock stars and evangelical extreme-sports athletes — drew an estimated 100,000 people to downtown Omaha over two days in July.

Organizers said 275 Christian churches participated. The event cost $1.75 million in corporate sponsorships and private donations===>Click headline to access complete article . . .


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