Hockessin UMC receives

CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION
2026 Laity Impact Award

Hockessin United Methodist Church’s Clothes Closet ministry was recently recognized with the Lay Ministry Impact Award at the 242nd Annual Session of the Peninsula-Delaware Conference of The United Methodist Church in Ocean City, Maryland. The award celebrates ministries that embody the Conference’s shared call to “Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, and Lead Courageously.”

Presented during the Conference’s Celebration of Ministries Worship Service, the award highlighted congregations and outreach programs across Maryland and Delaware that are transforming lives through compassionate service and faithful connectional ministry. Rooted in Romans 12:4–13, the service emphasized that while the church is made up of many members with different gifts, all are united as one body in Christ.

For HUMC, the recognition shines a light on a ministry that has quietly and faithfully served the surrounding community for years. The Clothes Closet provides clothing, household items, prayer, encouragement, and ongoing support to individuals and families in need. More than simply distributing donated items, the ministry strives to build meaningful relationships and remind every visitor that they are seen, valued, and loved.

Today, the Clothes Closet is led by Lisa Bollinger and supported by approximately a dozen regular volunteers who faithfully sort, organize, and stage donations each week. The ministry operates primarily through generous community clothing donations and financial gifts to the HUMC Missions Fund. In recent years, the ministry has also expanded its community impact through meaningful partnerships, including collaborations with a local community school that organized a drive to collect new socks and assemble toiletry bags, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, the Hockessin Athletic Club, and the Hockessin Business Association.

The award is especially meaningful given the ministry’s recent history. Like many outreach programs, the Clothes Closet was forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its successful reopening in 2024 was made possible in large part through memorial gifts given in honor of former HUMC member and Clothes Closet director Kay Vollmar. Kay’s compassion and commitment to serving others helped shape the heart of the ministry, and the generosity shown in her memory allowed that mission to continue.

Through the faithful work of volunteers, donors, and supporters, the Vollmars’ vision of boldly loving the surrounding community lives on each week through the Clothes Closet’s ministry.

The Conference celebration concluded with a reminder that continues to resonate with the work being done at HUMC: “We go grounded. We go rooted, not in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ, that we may give this world what it so desperately needs, and that is love. And we’re not going to love timidly. We’re going to love boldly.”