PAY IT FORWARD

Janet Seeley, wife of St. James priest Walt Seeley, models a wristband bought to promote the church’s Aug. 9 giveaway of envelopes containing $100 to community members. The church asks only that recipients return a card detailing use of the money. Sara Millhouse photo.

When the Episcopal Foundation of Wyoming got a windfall donation, they passed it on, giving $12,000 to each of the 48 Episcopal congregations in Wyoming.

When Kemmerer’s St. James Episcopal church got their check, they brainstormed how they could pass it on to their Kemmerer-Diamondville community.

“It’s like that movie, Pay It Forward,” somebody piped up. In the 2004 film, a 12-year-old boy answers a social studies assignment by helping people and asking them to reverse “payback,” paying the favor forward by helping three new people.

The idea caught the imagination of the small church, and after the flip charts were finished and the votes tallied, the winning idea was to pay the money forward to the community in the most direct way possible.

At 7 p.m. on Aug. 9 at the church, the congregation will give out 100 envelopes to community members present. Each envelope will contain about $100.

The church will also be distributing 50 copies of the movie that inspired their project.

Those who take an envelope can pass it on to others or use it themselves. St. James does ask that people send back a short explanation of how the money was used, in a stamped envelope provided with the donation.

It’s an original idea, and not knowing of other “Pay It Forward” programs, the event is a bit of an experiment. Some other congregations are using their foundation-distributed money for community centers, events or starting assistance funds for people with cancer.

The state distribution is known as a “mustard seed” mission. “I imagine a Kingdom tree growing out of this small mustard seed, a Kingdom tree so large that the poor, the lonely, the old, the young, the sick and the hungry can find within it a place of refuge and peace,” said Bruce Caldwell, bishop of the Diocese of Wyoming.

Since deciding, the idea has “snowballed,” with members of the congregation promoting the event by walking in the Fossilfest parade and making a banner that currently hangs on the fence by the football field.

Members of St. James seemed more worried about having too few participants than too many. “I’m just hoping that we have a big turnout,” said priest Walt Seeley. “My biggest fear is that we have this money to give out, and not that many people to show up.”

Member Lynn Schaffarzich echoed Seeley. “We’re hopeful that we get a good turnout,” she said. “I don’t think we’re going to fill the church even if we’re handing out free money.”

If too many people show up, that would be a “delightful problem,” Janet Seeley said. Then she grew more serious. “But if we have 100 people in need in our community, that’s sad.”

With the possibility of anonymous giving and only a self-report, the church could be taken advantage of. “We’ve talked about the fact that there could be abuses,” Janet Seeley said. “What we’re counting on is that… if the gift is given in generosity, it will cause something good, no matter what.”

Bob Tyrrell will preach on “paying it forward” at the event. “He’s a great speaker,” said Schaffarzick. “That’ll be a great plus.”

Walt Seeley will preside over a regular service following the distribution. “We want to see it go as far as it can,” he said. “Twelve thousand dollars sounds like a lot until we thought about what we could do with it. We couldn’t find something that $12,000 was enough to make a really big impact, but we could have a smaller impact on a bunch of people where we know there’s some need. There’s a lot of need in the community.”

Janet Seeley hopes the community will continue to “pay it forward” long after the Aug. 9 event. “Hopefully the community will join together as a way to help each other,” she said. “Then hopefully they’ll continue to have that mindset of helping each other.”