Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

Here’s your chance to get out there and make a difference! The Social Action Committee is
starting a “Spruce Up” campaign: hands-on projects which will allow our members to contribute to individuals and service organizations in our community. Our first Spruce-Up project will be at the Ashland Senior Center, located at 1699 Holmes Avenue. The Center, in addition to all of its other services, provides lunch Monday through Friday and the food for “Meals on Wheels.” Director Chris Dodson says that the dining room needs painting. Also, all the surfaces in the dining room are hard, which makes it difficult for the hearing impaired to hear. Acoustical screens—fabric-covered Styrofoam—would decrease the noise. As seniors with arthritis find the folding chairs uncomfortable, we would also like to make cushions for the backs of 32 chairs.

The plan is that the Senior Center will provide the supplies, and RVUUF the labor. Hopefully we can get local newspaper to take our photo for some free publicity. The project needs 10 volunteers to sew the cushions and make the acoustical screens and six volunteers to paint the dining room. Contact Delores Nims if you are interested in helping. [Oct 2008]

RVUUF will have a booth at the 2008 Talent Harvest Festival Saturday, Sept. 13 (10-4:30 pm). Here is your chance to really enjoy this event. We have several volunteers and need several more. We need help to set up at 9 am, people in the booth for 1, 2 or 3 hours and help to take down the booth. If you can help, contact Anne Taylor. It's fun. During the event all you have to do is be friendly, give information about UU or play with kids!!

All genres are welcome. Members read their stories and give and receive critique. $6 per session donation to cover materials. Thu & Sat. Contact Ruth Wire, 482-7742.

All genres are welcome. Members read their stories and give and receive critique. $6 per session donation to cover materials. Thu & Sat. Contact Ruth Wire, 482-7742.

All Artists and Crafters (and those who enjoy looking and buying) plan to attend the 2nd Annual Holiday Bazaar at the Unitarian Center the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This is a community event and will be advertised as such.

30+ spaces in our building are available for rent. If you are interested in selling your handmade items please contact Dorothy Considine for more information. Spaces went quickly last year so reserve your space now. Dorothy can give you booth sizes and costs.

RVUUF will be sponsoring a Bake Sale that day. Proceeds from the Bake Sale and the rentals will be donated to our General Fund. It was a successful event last year; over $1,300 was raised for RVUUF.

Office Closed

RVUUF's youth have created a Peace Day panel (click to enlarge) as part of Mother's Day celebration this Sunday. You can easily find the Peace Fence in Ashland's Railroad District: head down Fourth Street to A Street; you'll see the fence just across the railroad tracks. A group of artists, writers, poets, children and others have created a fence of artistic panels expressing each contributor's thoughts about peace and the well-being of the planet. Music, poetry, bagpiper, Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Peace Day Proclamation, and more! Come and join the celebration!

The Peace Fence Project honors the historical origins of Mother's Day in this country. Unitarian Universalist participation honors the great Unitarian social reformer and suffragette Julia Ward Howe who, in 1870 as the horrors of the Civil War waged on, conceived the idea of a Mother's Peace Day. As our UU youth participate in this project they grow and learn together building their skills for leadership so that they can claim a space as leaders of future generations. Through this project the youth gave expression to their understanding of the relationship between creating peace and caring for the earth. Their hand prints remind them and us that Earth Peace: It's In Our Hands

Slideshow

Rich Lang will be offering a four week follow-up discussion to the presentation on Apr 20. These four discussion group sessions will be entitled "The Middle Way: Finding Happiness in a World of Extremes." In particular, we will talk about “being Aristotelian in our unrelenting commitment to improving the mind; being Buddhist in our unstinting effort to deepening the heart; and being Confucian in our unselfish devotion to serving our fellow human beings. These principles will be applied to some of the most polarizing and divisive issues of our time. The sessions are scheduled for Friday, April 25, May 2, May 9, and May 16, 10 a.m. to 11:30 am. You may sign up after the Apr 20 service.

Featuring presenters from many faith traditions and music by the Peace Choir Ensemble and Children’s Peace Choir. Congregational Church, 717 Siskiyou Blvd. (corner of Morton) More info: 488-9639