ORUUC In the Community

Packing School Supply Backpacks

From Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties (ADFAC): Thank you to the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary and members of the Unitarian Universalist Church who helped us get over 200 backpacks out the door to Dutch Valley Elementary and Grand Oaks Elementary School in July 2023! For more information on this annual effort, visit https://www.adfac.org/.

Stone Soup Monthly FREE Community Meal

For more than a decade, this free community meal has been made possible through the partnership between volunteers from ORUUC, the Jewish Congregation of Oak Ridge (JCOR), and Kroger Marketplace. Volunteers meal plan, shop, cook, bake and pack 150 meals the final Friday of each month, delivering many to local senior housing residents. Making community connections, fostering relationships among volunteers, and sharing meals together are at the heart of this ongoing effort.

During the Christmas season of 2019, Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church (ORUUC) raised enough money to erase over $4.2 million of medical debt held by thousands of low-income households in Anderson, Roane, and Cocke counties.

Several years ago, former debt collectors formed a nonprofit organization called RIP Medical Debt. Using their knowledge of the industry, instead of profiting off the debt, they decided to erase people’s debt. About two-thirds of all U.S. bankruptcies are from medical debt. Over half a million American households each year suffer this fate. RIP Medical Debt said that getting sick shouldn’t mean going broke. Because they’re able to buy medical debt at a rate of $1-to-$100, for every $100 raised, they can erase $10,000 of medical debt. Efforts around the country have been featured in the news and even on the television show, “Last Week Tonight,” featuring John Oliver. But there’s never been such a campaign in East Tennessee. Until now.

ORUUC is known in Oak Ridge for its many community ministries — including free community meals, ministries with homeless families, and giving away half of its offering to the community every week. Since its founding in 1949, ORUUC has focused its mission on loving its neighbors. But the congregation had never tried something as big in such a short time-frame.

Around Thanksgiving, the Rev. Jake Morrill introduced the idea to the church's board and executive team. Hearing their approval, he shared the idea with the congregation.

“I was just floating the idea to see if people were interested,” Morrill said. “But what happened was they started to write checks and to tell all their friends.”

The church initially set a goal of raising $15,000. That’s the minimum amount RIP Medical Debt requires for a local campaign. It allows them to buy medical debt at a favorable rate. Within a week, the church heard from people with a regional campaign, seeking to eliminate medical debt throughout Appalachia. That regional fund pledged to match every dollar that ORUUC raised. So, now, if ORUUC met their goal of $15,000, matching funds meant they’d send $30,000 to RIP Medical Debt, to erase their neighbors' debt. That meant that the impact of each gift was doubled. Now, each $100 given would erase $20,000.

After the first burst of energy, donations slowed. But word got out and members of the wider community of Oak Ridge started to give. When the dust settled, the campaign had exceeded the goal of raising $15,000. It had raised over $21,000. Because of matching funds, a total of $42,000 will erase at least $4.2 million in medical debt.

RIP Medical Debt will purchase the bundled debt in the coming weeks. So, by the end of February, hundreds of lower-income households in Anderson, Roane, and Cocke counties will receive letters informing them that the burden of debt that may have seemed impossible now has been erased.

On Sunday, Jan. 12, after worship, the congregation celebrated with a “thank you” note writing event.

“The only way we know how to respond to all of this, and especially to the outpouring of generosity from the wider community, is to give thanks,” Morrill said. “We do nothing alone. Any success here is because of the love that moves throughout our community, which we are blessed to be part of.”

For more information about the RIP Medical Debt, visit https://ripmedicaldebt.org/.