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E-Octagram January 24, 2020

*~*~*UUC HAPPENINGS*~*~*

This Sunday Upcoming Rev. Kathy Schmitz January 26, 2020 10:30-11:45 am (Sanctuary) Message : Not All Who Wander Are Lost Rev. Kathy Schmitz is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. She has served congregations in Massachusetts, Texas, Miami and Orlando.            Request pastoral care: 727-531-7704, ext. 5

We look forward  to  seeing you!

THANK YOU!! Many thanks to all those who volunteered in helping make last Saturday night’s One City Chorus Concert a rousing success.  While it raised more than $ 3,000 for UUC, more significantly, it was an enriching and uplifting community celebration of words, video, and music that included our own UUC Chorale , who were magnificent.  Special thanks go to Susan Allen and Soledad Loba for their work with me that began back in the Autumn in helping create the vision for this event that dovetailed with the Rev. Dr. MLK Jr holiday.  From parking lot attendants and ticket takers to those who helped market the event to the folks washing dishes during the “ Afterglow Reception ,” UUC’s volunteers and staff really stepped up to make last Saturday Night one to remember.   Mark Kanuck

Upcoming Sunday Service Speakers: February 2 - Rev. Robert Murphey February 9 - Rev. Kenn Hurto February 16 - Ron Vierling February 23 - Rev. David Franks

Open Issues for January 26: "Jungle Jay" Hardeman - The Future of the Beacon Garden at UUC Open Issues for February 2: Elizabeth "Sea Turtle" Drayer - Rights for Nature

UUC'S ANNUAL SILENT AUCTION!!!

SHARE THE PLATE   This week’s Share the Plate will be to assist the residents of Puerto Rico in dealing with the back-to- back earthquakes suffered on January 7. A 6.4 magnitude earthquake, followed by several other strong tremors has killed one person and crumbled dozens of homes and structures. 300,000 people have been left without power and some without water. People are sleeping outside in fear of more structural collapses and aftershocks. Residents were still struggling with the devastation left by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Donations are desperately needed. Funds will be given to organizations working on the ground to make sure they go to people most in need. Please be generous! For more information, go to: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/08/us/help-puerto-rico-earthquake-victims-iyw/index.html

SOCIAL JUSTICE NEWS and EVENTS

MLK Day A big thank you to Carol Hamilton, Larilyn Pittman, Peggy Tanney, Jess Parish and her four wonderful children who got up early on Monday to serve at the NAACP breakfast honoring Martin Luther King,Jr. Yours, Susan Hegner

OWL (Our Whole Lives) 2020 High School Program

UU Tampa, St. Pete, and Clearwater are joining together to offer an OWL (Our Whole Lives) retreat for high school students during spring break. The retreat will be Thursday, March 19th - Friday, March 20th at UU Tampa . Any high school student is welcome to attend, so feel free to invite friends/neighbors/etc. The cost is $50/student who registers by March 1st, and $60/student after March 1st. Space is limited, and we have students interested from all over Pinellas, Pasco, and Hillsborough counties - so register soon! Adult volunteers are needed to help cook a meal . Could your covenant group, or you and a few friends, get together to make pasta or taco salads or soup or some other simple meal to offer to the participants and the adult facilitators? Please let Julie know ASAP if you're able to help on one of these days. We're also collecting scholarship money for students with tight finances. We're asking for $50/student. If you're able to sponsor a student, please let Julie know, or leave a check in her mailbox written out to UUC with "High School OWL" in the memo line. Contact Julie Daysa (dfm@uuc.org) with questions or to get involved in this wonderful program!

BELOVED CONVERSATIONS Beloved Conversations has commenced. Please contact Susan Allen ( sallen915@aol.com ) if you have any questions. There will be two groups for this course: Weds. afternoon 1-3 [note time change] and Sunday afternoon 12:30-2:30.  This course was designed by the Meadville-Lombard Theological School out of a need for an effective UU curriculum that would help adult UU members individually and congregations as a whole increase awareness of and confront their part in the white supremacy culture and to build more unified and mutually-nurturing multicultural congregations.

RCS Food Bank Needs Donations   The Social Justice Council encourages congregants to bring in staple foods for the RCS Food Bank in Clearwater. This is a good time to donate food you had for hurricane season but fortunately didn’t need. Please place donations in the box in the Narthex. For over 50 years, the RCS mission has been to support our neighbors facing hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, or a lack of basic needs. UUC was one of the founding congregations.  https://rcspinellas.org/

Save the Date !!! CAMPUS BEAUTIFICATION DAY Saturday, February 15, 2020 8:00 am - 12:00 pm Fun and Fellowship for All!! What a better way for you to show your love for our beloved community but on the day after Valentine's Day! Details will follow as we move through the preparation needed for making the day a roaring success. For this, WE NEED YOU ! Please don't let concerns about whether you will be physically able to be to stay the entire time, or do outdoor physical work daunt you - COME AS YOU ARE and help make the property of our spiritual home as BEAUTIFUL as OUR BELOVED COMMUNITY is! There will be indoor work and light (seated) duties, too! As we affirmed at a recent Sunday service, "ALL OF US NEED ALL OF US TO MAKE IT"! Can't wait to see you there! Please get with a member of the Property Committee if you have any questions.

Kitchen Connection Because the UUC does not have a staff member assigned to kitchen management, everyone interacting with the kitchen (and I think this is most of us at one time or another), has some level of responsibility. So, this new entry in the E-Octagram is aimed at raising awareness on kitchen management at UUC. This week, we are focusing on UUC's continuing progress in eliminating disposable tableware. Because we are under the control of the County Health Department, we must conform to their rules, some of which apply to dishwashing. If you need a how-to on the approved dishwashing procedure and/or other rules, please get with me. If you are planning to donate food to Sunday Snack that requires the use of tableware, if your group is presenting a sheet cake, or if you're planning on hosting any other food event after Sunday Service, please contact me ahead of time so that we can determine what additional assistance will be needed (including the need for you to provide two additional dishwashers to assist our extremely hardworking kitchen volunteers). Basically, if there is any deviation to the normal Sunday Snack routine, please contact me so we can make the necessary arrangements to eliminate excess work and confusion. Please keep in mind that our Sunday Snack volunteers' shift ends at 1pm, which gives them enough time to wash coffee mugs, drinking glasses, serving-ware and tidy-up. Many Thanks to All , Carol Hamilton (my contact information can be found in the membership directory)

To All UUC Members: We are doing our yearly organizing of the kitchen, and discovered a shocking site! UUC Mugs have gone missing ! We discovered that we only have one shelf of  UUC Coffee Mugs, and we are asking for your help in recovering them. If you see any mugs on campus (or accidentally brought one home), please  return them to the Community Center. Reclaim Table in the Main Hall of Community Center  Please reclaim your dishware glassware or any serving item being displayed on tables on the Community Center. These items will be on display for the next two weeks. Any unclaimed items will be donated by the first week in February.

EXTRA TOOLS NEEDED Do you have any surplus tools that need a good home? The UUC would love to take them off your hands! Please get with a member of the Property Committee to rehome your gently used tools. They will be put to good use, maintaining the building and property.

COMPASSION AND CHOICES Tuesday, February 18 1 - 2:30 pm Surti Center Just over five years ago Brittany Maynard made national news when she and her husband, Dan Diaz, moved to Oregon so she could exercise her right to die a gentle death. Now Dan is coming to UUC to speak about that experience:  A Conversation with Brittany Maynard’s Husband, Dan Diaz; Five Years After Her Death, Her Advocacy for Medical Aid in Dying Lives On.  Please join us. Refreshments will be provided.

EARTH DAY April 22 The 50th Earth Day is coming this April, 22! As Unitarians, our 7th principal calls us to stewardship of the Earth. In the run up to the 50th Anniversary Celebrations, the Environmental Justice Committee will offer weekly Green Goals and actionable methods to put our values into practice. What happens to FOOD WASTE? Composting is a Green Goal. Kathryn Kellogg, author of "101 Ways to go Zero Waste": "You think food would break down since it's dumped in a giant hole n the ground, but it doesn't because landfills aren't aerated for proper decomposition. Instead, all of that oxygen deprived organic matter releases methane, and methane is 30 times more powerful than CO2." Diverting food waste from the trash stream into compost is something we can all do. Our UUC Kitchen and Community Garden are partners in this effort. We hope to upgrade our current system and welcome all interest and support. Contact the Environmental Justice Committee (or Jay) with any questions. https://www.makesoil.org/ and https://sharewaste.com/ have information on local sites where you can bring food waste.

New Website for Events Rentals at UUC After many months, we now have a live website for events rentals at UUC. For the events side of UUC life, we will be called 2470 Events Center . Our new website is www.2470eventscenter.com and it's the perfect way to show your friends all that UUC has to offer as a marvelous venue for weddings, conferences, birthday parties, family reunions, etc... We also have a dedicated phone number for inquiries: 727-776-2472. Please share with everyone you know! We want UUC To become everyone's favorite Events Center!

UPCOMING FAMILY MINISTRY EVENTS: This month our worship and education theme is "INTEGRITY." C.S. Lewis calls integrity “Doing the right thing when no one is watching.” We'll be exploring what it means to be a community with INTEGRITY as we look at this topic in a new way each week: Session 1: Jan. 5 - "Walking the Talk" Session 2: Jan. 12 - "Finding our Deep Joy/Finding our Inner Voice" Session 3: Jan. 19 - "Integrity of the 'We'" Session 4: Jan. 26 - "Finding Courage" In February, we'll turn our attention to the theme of "RESILIENCE." Stay tuned for more info! Sunday, Jan. 26th : Following worship, there will be an RE Task Force Meeting in Surti Hall . Many of you have heard that the Board approved a leave of absence for Julie Daysa this spring. Julie's wife, Rev. Jennifer Daysa, received a grant to fully fund a sabbatical. The Daysa family will be taking the trip of a lifetime over to Europe for 3 months! With young Jacob's health issues, this is a trip the family never thought to be able to take. Julie will be working limited hours remotely, but will need extra volunteer support in the RE program on Sunday mornings from March-May. Can you help? Friday, Jan. 31st: Parents Night Out ! D rop off your kids for a night of safe, fun activities while you get some adult time in. Drop off/pick up anytime between 5:30-8:30pm. A light dinner will be served. Background-checked adults and RE staff members will chaperone and guide events. $5/child or $10/family. Friday, Feb. 7th : Family Movie Night, 5:30pm in the Community Center. We'll provide the pizza and popcorn, feel free to bring a salad or sweet to share. Suggested donation of $4/person or $10/family to cover food costs, but please come whether you have cash on you or not - all are welcome! Wednesday, Feb. 19th : Waffles + Worship, 5:30pm. Join us for a short, family friendly worship experience, and then a make-your-own waffles bar! We have gluten free waffles available. High School Students: Sign up NOW through March 1st for OWL (Our Whole Lives) 2020! Space is limited to the first 20 students who apply. There is a $50 registration fee to cover the cost of food and materials. The OWL retreat runs from 9:30am on Thursday, March 19th through 8pm on Friday, March 20th. Coming this Summer : Chalice Camp 2020 ! Mark your calendars for the week of July 27-31 . Camp will run from 9am-5pm again this year. The cost will be $60/student, and a simple lunch will be included each day. A planning meeting will be scheduled for February for all interested volunteers. Questions or concerns about any Family Ministries events? Contact Julie Daysa at dfm@uuc.org.

UUC Needs You! Have you ever been interested in assisting on Sunday? We are looking for Chalice Lighters, please contact Mary Thornon ( tmarykate@gmail.com)

Exhale!! Weekly on Wednesday 6:00-6:45pm In the Maxwell Library.   Come sit or walk with us in a simple format that focuses on breath. Our large sanctuary has room for both sitting and walking meditation. We meditate for 20 minutes or so, stretch, then meditate again. Late-comers welcome enter softly. Stay for hearty appetizers (we love your offerings too!) and conversation afterward. Contact Kathy Krohn at:  uuc.kathykrohn@gmail.com .

‌	Ladies Lunch When: Thursday, February 6, 2020 @ noon Where: TBD 678 N. Belcher Road Clearwater (On the corner of Belcher & NE Coachman Roads).   Contact Marie Chapman to R.S.V.P. or with questions.

FRIDAY BOOK CLUB On Friday mornings, Book Club meets at UUC from 10:30 - 11:30 in the Chorale Room. Today (1/24/20) and next Friday (1/31/20), we will be discussing "The Nickel Boys " by Colson Whitehead, who has been called one of the most gifted novelists in America today. It is a work of fiction that was inspired by a series of stories in the Tampa Bay times called "For Their Own Good", which documented the decades of abuse of children at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. New members are welcome!

UUC's Care Circle UUC officially now has a Care Circle. We met last Friday afternoon and selected the UUC Care Circle as the new name.  The goal is to provide short term care for members and UUC supporters who need assistance.   Susan Hegner and Eloise Hardman were appointed as contact persons. An email has been sent to those attending the meeting, asking for a response as to what kind of care they can provide so that we can compile a list of helpers.  If you would like to join the UUC Care Circle as a helper OR you need some short term help, please contact Susan or Eloise. More news will be forth coming as we organize.

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