Our Food Bank delivery for this month was 97# - thanks to all who contributed. Our previous months have been more in the 60s. Maybe next time we can hit 100#! A special thanks to the Covenant Circle which has taken the Food Bank on as their service project - keep up the good work!
We are trying to get more involved as a church with the Tidewater Gardens homes. These are NRHA (Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority) homes, between Tidewater Drive and St. Paul's Blvd. We have assisted in setting up a Clothes Closet there and also had a Story Hour twice a month this summer. A few of us attend their monthly Community meetings and are trying to find how we can best address their needs. Empower Hampton Roads has worked with them previously and are now trying to get all residents there registered to vote.
You may have noticed some empty water or soda bottles around in the Social Hall. These are for collecting pennies for the Hunton YMCA which serves the Tidewater Gardens area. We have more bottles at the Fair Trade booth if anyone would like to to take one home or to their place of business. Do you have pennies wearing a hole in your pocket? Here's a good place to put them.
Our Social Justice September meeting was full of active discussion, with 8 people attending and a few of our regulars unable to attend for various reasons. We're a friendly group and would welcome new bodies. We have several projects going and can always use help.
And don't forget to visit the Fair Trade booth at the sanctuary end of the Social Hall - we have coffee, tea, hot chocolate, chocolate bars, bumper stickers and Tshirts (a bargain @ only $10). Someone asked recently how many bumper stickers a UU should have. The answer - can you still see out your windows? Then you need some more. :-) This is our main source for earning money for our projects - we need your purchases!
Oh, speaking of earning money - we are sponsoring a great concert with the Catholic Worker at UCN on November 4th. Charlie King and Karen Brandow are returning to entertain and enlighten us. They will play for the Sunday service and then have a concert that evening. If you missed them last time, you REALLY missed something - they are great social activist song writers and performers. Suggested donation $10 (or more) and we'll have Child Care.
On March 5th, Sandy Ogletree and I will travel to India to visit with the Unitarians in the Khasi Hills of northeast India. UCN sponsors a young man at the Unitarian school there, and we will get to meet him. There are many needs in the area, and we want to help with some of them. We are going to take some school supplies along to distribute. We also want to be able to buy blankets, which we understand are in short supply in that area. Not all of India is very hot. Several people have asked us how they could help with this. Of course, we will accept cash donations, but if you would like to get tax credit, you could make a check to UCN, with Soc Just - India in the Memo. We will then take the money from that account. It would be most helpful if you could send or donate your money by Feb. 26th, but if you need to donate later, we will still make sure the money is well used.
(Editor's note: More information about the Khasi Hills Unitarians is available in UUA President Peter Morales's blog.)
Thank you in advance, from our Unitarian friends in India,
Marcia Slosser