Social Justice News

THIS MONTH'S LOOSE CHANGE OFFERING: Our recipient in February will be COMMON GROUND FREE STORE, 193 E. Central Avenue, Delaware, OH 43015. Common Ground Free Store Ministries is a partnership between Delaware County churches, business, civic organizations and caring citizens. In addition to our Loose Change, NUUC will also be collecting material items to donate during the month of February.   What Exactly is a Free Store? It's a place where everything is free-clothing, shoes, diapers and linens, to small appliances, books and toys. There are no income requirements, no questions and no scrutiny; only the support of people who care. God's mercy does not come with a price tag.   Why is a Free Store so Important? The need is great. Nearly 2,200 residents of Delaware live below the poverty line; many are under age 18 or over age 65. In a single six-month period, 74 families were identified as homeless.    Common Ground's help doesn't stop with free clothing and household items. Common Ground partners with other local service agencies to provide new hope and new starts through referrals to other agencies in the community.   Common Ground Free Store Ministries gladly accepts clothing and household items. Clothing must be SEASONAL. All clothing and linens should be clean and in good shape with no holes, stains or odors. Small appliances need to be in good working order. You can also donate unopened personal care items including sample sizes of shampoo, toothpaste, etc. For a complete list of needed material donations, go to the Common Ground website or look on the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall.    Leave your donations in the designated box in Fellowship Hall during the month of February.

PROJECT LINUS IN FEBRUARY AND MARCH: Project Linus began in 1995 after Karen Loucks saw an article in Parade Magazine about a little girl who was comforted through her chemotherapy treatment by her blanket. Karen and some of her friends began making blankets and donating them to children at the local cancer care center. Since then, Project Linus has given over 6,300,000 blankets to children worldwide in a variety of stressful situations. Their name is taken from the Peanuts character that is never without a blanket of his own. During February and March, Brad Bushman will coordinate an effort by NUUC "blanketeers." You will have the opportunity to provide new, handmade, washable blankets to be given as gifts to seriously ill and traumatized children, ages 0-18. All blanket styles are welcome, including quilts, tied comforters, fleece blankets, crocheted or knitted afghans, and receiving blankets in child-friendly colors. This year, some of the Horizon women at the Ohio Reformatory for Women will be making blankets to add to those made by our congregation. For more information, see the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall, visit the Project Linus website Project Linus or contact Brad Bushman at [email protected] or 740-548-0278.

UU JUSTICE OHIO: Looking for ways you can get involved in social justice actions? Join UU Justice Ohio, subscribe to the newsletter, or visit the website http://www.uujo.org/ and Facebook page. Find out about regional workshops, contacting your legislators, and local actions to support issues related to our UU values. See the bulletin board for recent UUJO newsletters and alerts.

INTERFAITH ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL OHIO: The Turkish American Society of Ohio (TASO) Women's Club cordially invites you to another Ladies Coffee Night event on Saturday, February 4th , between 5pm - 7pm. In this event, you will get to hear about Muslim's daily prayer; why we do it, how we do it, the wisdom behind it, what some challenges are in our daily lives, etc. Questions will be answered as always. We will have wonderful Turkish dishes, tea and Turkish coffee served in traditional cups. The event is free of charge, but rsvp is needed for planning purposes. Please send your rsvp to [email protected]. We are also offering Turkish Cooking Classes. See flyers on the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall.

REPURPOSING PLASTIC BAGS: Sometimes we forget to bring our reusable bags to the store and end up with plastic bags. Now you can donate your plastic bags to the Ohio Reformatory for Women where inmates are making sleeping mats for homeless people. To make the mats, inmates cut the bags into strips, link those strips into circles, then roll them into a yarn-like ball. They knit the strips into chains, and then link all the chains together. It can take up to 90 hours and 600 to 800 bags to complete a mat. The Vineyard, a Columbus church, distributes the mats to homeless people living in camps through its urban ministry program. Crocheting the mats gives the women purpose and meaningful activity by teaching them they can take care of someone else and the Earth. You can leave your plastic bags in the designated bin next to the office in Fellowship Hall.

DONATING YARN AND SCRAPS OF MATERIAL FOR PROJECT LINUS: Some of the women in Horizon are working on service projects including knitting or crocheting items for charitable groups or making quilts. One of their projects will be to make blankets for NUUC's Project Linus. They greatly appreciate donations of yarn, scraps of material, or patterns that you no longer need.

UUSC FAIR TRADE COFFEE: Shop for delicious Fair Trade coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate after the service on February 12, 2017. Your purchase of Fair Trade products means that workers along the supply chain are provided a living wage. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) supports a number of worker-owned, local producers who are in danger of being replaced with multinational corporations that have little respect for workers' rights. Making consumer choices that are aligned with our UU Principles is one way to help create a more just world community.

 

Adult Enrichment Programs

We are in the midst of winter, but Adult Enrichment will be warming up February with new and continued opportunities.

I (Marty Keith) am excited to report that our congregation's new Women's Group plans to meet Monday, January 30, at 6:30 in Fellowship Hall, not only to get acquainted via "Thick Stories" (meaningful tales and memories about ourselves), but also to organize as we move into February and beyond. For example, because Monday evenings are not ideal for everybody who is interested, we'll look at the practicality of shifting the meeting times a bit. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday evenings are the favored times, I found. Some months we may gather on the third or fourth Friday...or Tuesday instead of Monday...OR (this idea already has met with approval) we will pick a Sunday during the month and head out to lunch after coffee hour! We will have a topic to discuss, of course. I simply want everyone identifying as a woman to have the chance to attend as often as possible. Please make sure I have your email address/phone number so I can keep you up to date, especially if you cannot come January 30. I'll let you know the date of February's get-together-most likely during the third or fourth week of the month-as soon as I can after it is decided.

As for format and future topics, to begin with, the structure will resemble that of a covenant group, probably becoming less formal over time. I'm suggesting the concept of "Shadow" for our second meeting. Joseph Campbell wrote: "The Shadow is the landfill of the self. Yet it is also a sort of vault. It holds great, unrealized potentialities within you." What undeveloped aspects of your personality have been relegated to your shadow? Who or what helped to put those qualities in shadow? March's subject could be "Sanctuary" or "Resilience." At present, my source books are the Christine Robinson and Alicia Hawkins series "for reflection and sharing": Heart to Heart, Soul to Soul, and Listening Hearts; and Sue Monk Kidd's books, notably The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, The Secret Life of Bees, and The Mermaid's Chair. Parts of Gregg Braden's The Divine Matrix have been enlightening, and I've enjoyed a book about the history of the treatment of women in films. It's all interesting! I have many ideas for topics, and I know other women also will have some and can suggest additional books for us.

The on-going Adult Enrichment activity, "Mindful Writing" is doing well. Interest in the group continues to expand, and we have been having a good turn-out: enough so that we can enjoy different writing styles and not so many that everyone's thoughts cannot be heard. For the past few months we've taken a "potluck" approach to topics. We all bring in writings on whatever subjects appeal to us. Some people are putting together collections of themed prose and poetry and memoirs, or are exploring new genres. We're doing another such literary potluck for our February meeting, which will be on February 15. Mindful Writing meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 in Fellowship Hall. All are welcome!