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September 17 will be a big day for KiDs Beach Club® as we take part in North Texas Giving Day, which raised more than $26 million last year to support nearly 1,600 organizations in North Texas.

Please visit www.northtexasgivingday.org on September 17 beginning at 6 a.m., Central, and continuing through midnight, to make a gracious donation. The first $10,000 given directly to KiDs Beach Club® will be matched by an enthusiastic KBC donor. Additionally, every gift of $25 or more will go further with more than $2 million in bonus funds and prizes through the North Texas Giving Day program.

All gifts you make to KiDs Beach Club® on September 17 will allow us to continue on our amazing growth path that helped us grow by more than 15 percent last year. With your help, we distributed nearly 11,000 Bibles last year alone. In our first 10 years, a total of 6,359 children have made Jesus their Forever Friend. God is paving the way for KiDs Beach Club® and we need your continued support to assist with the cost to equip, screen and train thousands of volunteers.

Every gift made through NorthTexasGivingDay.org on September 17 will help our chances of winning prizes given throughout the day, ranging from $500 to $5,000! With more than 70 total prizes being awarded on Giving Day, our chances to maximize your gift are great.

Even if you do not make your home in North Texas, please consider making a gift that will directly benefit all of KiDs Beach Club®, which makes its corporate home the area. 

Click here for more information about North Texas Giving Day.

Make sure you get Saturday, April 16, 2016 on your calendar for the annual Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction. The 10th anniversary celebration of KiDs Beach Club® will take place at the Hurst Conference Center in Hurst, Texas and we want you to be a part of it. It’s the primary fundraiser for Bibles for Beach Club program and its success is vital to our mission of connecting kids to Christ, putting Bibles in their hands.

The event was originally scheduled for this September so if you had planned to make your 2015 gift to KiDs Beach Club® at that time, please participate in North Texas Giving Day on September 17. All gifts up to $10,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to the generosity of one enthusiastic KBC donor.

The 2016 Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction will be a celebration of KiDs Beach Club® where we will share several success stories that night from young adults who benefited from our ministry.

Volunteers, please be on the lookout for young people who would be willing to share their testimony about how KiDs Beach Club® impacted their life and drew them closer to Jesus. It would be great if they can join us in April, but if they can’t make it we would still be interested in hearing their story. Please contact KBC Vice President for Marketing and Communications Dave Crome at dcrome@beachclubs.org.

Click here for more information about the Bibles for Beach Club Benefit Dinner & Auction.

On the day of Great Treasure Day last spring, one Beach Club in North Texas had a new third-grade student attend for the first time.

The club leader had just the right number of Bibles on hand for the students who were previously enrolled. Since every child in every Beach Club gets a Bible, club leaders have to submit their Bible order two weeks in advance so they will have the right number of Bibles on hand for Great Treasure Day. This club leader was sad to realize that she didn’t have an extra Bible to give to the young boy and that he would have to wait two weeks to get his own Bible.

As she contemplated how to solve this dilemma, one of the Beach Club members stepped forward and solved the problem. The student, who had been a part of the club for two years, already had a Bible at home. He took his new Bible and scratched through his own name on the label his club leader had placed inside, wrote the name of the new boy and handed it to his friend. “You need this more than I do,” he said so his friend could have a Bible that day.

The boy’s generosity was certainly a touching moment, but what made it even more special was what happened in club later that semester. The recipient of that KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bible continued to attend club in the weeks that followed, and just before Easter, made Jesus his Forever Friend.

God used the kindness of a friend and the power of His Word to draw that young boy into a relationship.

Certainly the heart of that child had a lot to do with that moment, but his gesture would not have been possible without your support of our Bibles for Beach Club program and our mission to connect kids to Christ.

Growing up in Houston at age 16, I found my self-driving the 38 miles to the Gulf of Mexico to sit on the Galveston sea wall to watch people. There you would see the occasional surfer trying to surf. All the locals knew that if you really wished to catch a wave to surf you would go off West Beach. Soon I found myself searching surf shops for a good inexpensive board. Not long I was paddling out to the open Gulf to experience the thrill of catching a wave and surfing. The most critical point in surfing is looking back to where the waves are first forming to catch a wave. Now it’s paddle, paddle, paddle and pop-up to begin enjoying the ride.

I discovered there are four very important elements to riding a wave. First, you have to determine to get off the sea wall. This is the moment when you purpose in your mind to make a difference no matter the cost. Second, you have to find a surfboard. This is when you discover your God-given talent and the tools He has for you. Third is taking your surfboard and learning to surf. It’s at this moment when you begin looking for God’s place like a Beach Club in order to begin using your new tools. Finally, once you have spotted your wave you jump onboard and enjoy the ride. Finding your spot in a Beach Club allows you to ride the wave the Lord has for you. With each wave you ride, I pray you become more skilled, joyfully fulfilled and personally committed to riding waves with excellence.

Blessings,

Jack Terrell
Founder & President

KiDs Beach Club® has been gearing up for a big fall by hiring some of the best and brightest people in Dallas-Fort Worth. Todd Lamb joins the corporate office staff as communications director, while Kelley Crow has been added as strategic growth director. Additionally, Kristen Forejt, Michelle Henderson, Amy Merritt and Beckey Traylor have joined the team as club relations directors.

Todd, who began his role June 29, will oversee communications activities and work in conjunction with Dave Crome, the VP of marketing/communications, to maintain and enhance the branding, marketing and public relations strategy to allow KiDs Beach Club® to cultivate and enhance its meaningful relationships with a variety of external audiences and key influencers. 

With more than 21 years of strategic communications experience, Todd will focus on electronic communications, including the KBC website and social media channels, as well as electronic newsletters and other correspondence while maintaining alignment with the organization’s strategic communications plan.

Todd has worked primarily in college athletics and professional sports, handling communications efforts in athletic departments at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Rice University, Clemson University and The Ohio State University. He also enjoyed stints with the Texas Rangers Baseball Club and at the national office of Delta Delta Delta Fraternity, both located in Arlington. Most recently he managed communications and media services for the Southland Conference in Frisco.

A native of Marion, Ohio, Todd graduated from McCullough High School in The Woodlands, Texas. He originally attended Baylor University before transferring to Ohio State, where he earned a bachelor’s of arts degree in journalism. Todd and his wife Melissa have a son Brady (9) and reside in Allen, Texas. They attend Chase Oaks Church-Legacy Campus in Plano.

Area directors have now been split into three distinct groups – club relations directors, independent area directors and strategic growth directors – to facilitate the rapid growth of this ministry.

Kelley Crow has joined KBC as a strategic growth director. She has called the DFW-Metroplex home for 34 years and lives in Bedford with her son Luke. Her adult daughter Jordyn Swingle is married to Dillon and they are expecting their first child in August. Kelley attends First Baptist Church-Euless, where she completed a two-year leadership program called SALT, learning about servant hood and leadership.

Kristen Forejt, Michelle Henderson, Amy Merritt and Beckey Traylor are the newest club relations directors at KBC.

Kristen has been a volunteer with KiDs Beach Club® for the last three years after serving seven years as an elementary school teacher. She resides in Richardson, Texas with her husband Brett and their three children Cooper (9), Brady (6) and Katelyn (3). They attend Trinity Bible Church in Richardson.

Michelle brings more than 20 years serving in the ministry, including seven years focused on children’s ministry. She started at Pine Cove Christian camps in college and still serves today teaching third and fourth graders with her husband Shawn at Trinity Bible Church in Richardson, Texas. The couple has two daughters, Abby (16) and Avery (13).

Amy joins KiDs Beach Club® after teaching fifth graders in Dallas-Fort Worth, most recently having taught in North Garland. She and her husband Chris live in McKinney, Texas with their 9-year-old daughter Caelyn. They attend Providence Church in Frisco.

Beckey has volunteered with KiDs Beach Club® for the last two years and has served other ministries, including Sunday school, vacation bible school, AWANA, Team Kid and her church’s women’s ministry. She and her husband Bill live in Mabank, Texas, where they attend First Baptist Church. The couple has three grown children, Michael, Katherine and Amanda.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” – Psalm 119:105

Every month we share with you a story about how children are using their KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bibles. We know the Bibles are being used throughout the school year, but what happens when the Beach Clubs break for the summer? This month we wanted to share two stories about the impact the KBC Bibles are having on children this time of the year.

It was the last day of Beach Club and it had been a good year. The volunteers and students felt that bittersweet feeling that comes with the last day

That same day, when a volunteer walked in to the school office to sign in, a parent there recognized the KBC t-shirt and began to apologize. She was filling out a KBC permission form for her child who stood beside her.

With a bewildered look on her face she asked, “Is it ok if he comes today? I mean, it’s the last day and all of a sudden he wants to come to KBC. I have tried all year long to get him to go and he decided today that he wanted to go.”

With a huge smile on her face and a chuckle in her voice the volunteer assured the mom that they would love for him to enroll and come even if it was the last day. The young man had a great time and even had his ticket drawn for a t-shirt. Most importantly, he left with a KBC Bible to carry the Word of God with him until he rejoins the group in the fall.

The other story is about a young woman who is armed with her KBC Bible as she moves to a new state, motivated to learn scripture.

When students in one Surf Team began reciting John 3:16 from memory earlier this year, one girl was feeling left out. 

She later went to her Surf Team leader and expressed that she seemed to be the only one that didn’t know that scripture. Realizing that it must be important and that she, too, wanted to be able to recite it, she asked her Surf Team leader to find and highlight the verse in her KBC Bible.

She shared that she was moving to California and would not be able to attend Beach Club anymore; but that once she got to California she would work to learn that verse so that she too could recite it like her classmates. 

These children, on two very different paths, can rely on their KBC Bibles to help illuminate their journeys. Thank you for your continued support as we connect KiDs to Christ and put Bibles in their hands.