SFIC ONLINE BRIEFING FOR FAITH LEADERS
A WAY TO DO MORE: SEW & DISTRIBUTE MASKS
FOR ESSENTIAL & VULNERABLE SECTORS
Thursday, January 7, 2021
8:30 am - 9:45 am
ZOOM REGISTRATION
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this extra step to model best practices for holding virtual meetings).
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A mantra we hear daily is the necessity to stay home, wear a mask, socially distance and wash our hands to stem the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic. Isolation accentuates feelings of anxiety and helplessness. A natural instinct is to want to do more. Congregations from our neighboring Eden Area Interfaith Council (serving the Hayward-Castro Valley-San Leandro area) have undertaken an initiative to sew and distribute masks for thousands of health care and other essential workers, homeless shelter residents and hard-to-fit children and youth from vulnerable sectors. This week's Online Briefing for Faith Leaders, hosted by the San Francisco Interfaith Council and supported by the COVID Command Center's Joint Information Center Virtual Outreach Team, will shine a light on this innovative grassroots effort in the hope of replicating their project in our City and other counties in our region.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY ONLINE BRIEFING MODERATOR
Michael G. Pappas, M.Div.
WELCOME & READING OF SFIC STATEMENT
Kaushik Roy
REFLECTIVE MOMENT
Rev. Scott Quinn
(Introduction of Guest Presenters and Presentation
by SFIC Executive Director Michael Pappas)
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Julie Greenfield
Co-Founder and Past President
Julie Greenfield is the co-founder and past President of the Eden Area Interfaith Council, serving the Hayward-Castro Valley-San Leandro area. She is a Public Health Nurse and Nursing instructor by profession, and is a longtime member of Congregation Shir Ami in Castro Valley. Raised in New York, she came to California as a teenager, working with the United Farm Workers, from which she learned a lot about interfaith, cross cultural cooperation. She now lives in Castro Valley; has two grown children and a rotating menagerie of pets.
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Juli Perez
Children & Youth Masks Seamstress
Juli Perez is a native of Zacatecas, Mexico, where she trained and worked as a professional seamstress. She and her husband, Miguel, live in unincorporated south Alameda County and are the parents of five children. Their two adult sons, Sergio and Eric, are local business owners. Their two adult daughters, Sandra and Selena, have worked for Eden Church. Sandra holds degrees in film from UC Berkeley and USC, and works in film production in LA. Selena is a senior at UC Berkeley majoring in geography, and an employee of Eden United Church of Christ. Juli and Miguel’s youngest, Christopher, is a high school student and helps his mom with the mask-making project. Thus far, Juli has made over 1,000 masks, mostly in children and youth sizes for students who frequent the Eden Church food pantry, Comida Para Cherryland. Juli realized early in the pandemic that it was difficult to find masks in children and youth sizes, and that the expense was a burden for families already being severely challenged by the pandemic. The $1,000 EAIC grant to Eden United Church of Christ in support of the COVID response included funding for a stipend for local seamstresses, but Juli declined the stipend preferring that all funds cover the cost of fabric and supplies so that more families could be served. To date, about half of the grant funds have been expended. Juli was recently presented with a community service award by the Alameda County Board of Education for her service to students in unincorporated south Alameda County.
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Selena Perez
Interpreter
Selena is Juli’s younger daughter. She is finishing her last classes for her major in geography at UC Berkeley and now has three jobs at Eden Church: Padres Unidos organizer (neighborhood parent advocacy organization), Newcomer Coordinator for the Eden Church Newcomer Navigation Center, and healthcare navigator at Eden Church’s contracted COVID-19 testing site. Selena has volunteered at Eden and began working for Eden in spring 2020 when Eden Church expanded community ministries to include COVID response, such as support to unaccompanied minors and families seeking asylum and others affected by COVID who had lost employment because of the pandemic.
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Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Senior Minister
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring has served as Senior Minister at Eden United Church of Christ since November 2002. She was born and raised in rural Iowa and ordained at her home church in Reinbeck in 1988. She holds degrees in theology and philosophy, and has studied organizational design, public and nonprofit leadership, and diakonal ministry in Sheboygan, WI; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL, Northern Europe; the Philippines, and Central Mexico. She is honored to have known and served with the Perez family for over 10 years.
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COMMUNITY PANELIST
John A. McKnight
COVID Command Center
Joint Information Center, SF DEM
CLOSING REMARKS
SFIC Executive Director Michael Pappas
The SFIC extends special thanks to the COVID Command Center's Joint Information Center Virtual Outreach Team for facilitating technology support
for this weekly series of Online Briefings for Faith Leaders.
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