Plans Reported to Program Council

                At the Program Council meeting on February 21, Caroline Barnhart and Charles Coley volunteered to co-chair the yearly Committee/Activity Fair sponsored by Program Council.

                Planning for the spring picnic and all church retreat was started. The suggestion of implementing a monthly church community activity was proposed and discussed.

                Greeting and Membership reported the upcoming New UU & You class on the last two Sundays of March and beginning two Sundays of April. A new format has been created to conduct these classes.

                 Holding a service auction for the current year was discussed and planning is now in progress.

                 The next Program Council meeting will be on March 21 at 6:30PM  in the Sanctuary.

All are welcome, please direct comments/questions to Alanna Steffen:

alanna_steffen@uufolks.org.

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Outdoor Group to Plant and Paddle

 

Tree Plantings

               

On the Saturdays of April 15 and 22 The Outdoor Group will help the Wildcat Creek Foundation, which is sponsoring two tree plantings along the creek.  We will plant 800 to 900 seedlings, obtained from the IDNR (Indiana Department of Natural Resources) nurseries, along the creek to create a riparian buffer between the stream and farmland.  The buffer will filter sediment and farm chemicals out of the runoff before it reaches the stream.  The buffer will also serve as a wildlife corridor and a visual buffer between paddlers and farmland.

 

We will be ready to start work about 8:30 am on April 15 and 22.  Bring shovels, buckets, and rakes (label them). 

 

If you want to help, call Tandy Easler. 

 

UU Canoe Trip

          

We are planning that "rain check" for the canoe trip that was canceled last October due to creek levels.  We will canoe the Wildcat Creek on Sunday, April 30th.  We'll have a quick picnic after the congregational meeting at Wildcat Creek Park and canoe the creek following the picnic. 

 

All ages welcome and we're going to try to provide as many canoes as possible for everyone.  Please bring your own and maybe your neighbors if you can borrow one.  Also if you have extra life jackets, please bring them along.

 

For more information, see Tandy Easler or Mark Krivchenia.

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Sunday Morning Forum

 

The Sunday Morning Forum meets at 9 a.m. at the Red Cross Building across the parking lot from the church. Everyone is welcome! Childcare is provided.

 

For the past two weeks, we have heard inspiring reports of community building through accounts of revitalizing the Centennial Neighborhood in Lafayette and  restoring the old works of the Wabash & Erie Canal in Delphi. We continue this with a look at what is happening on Ninth Street just a few blocks from us.

 

Next we turn to a closer look at Education. The nation continues to march behind the "no child left behind" banner, spending enormous amounts for testing, repeating demands for teacher "accountability" and labeling as "failing schools" those sites where large numbers of students fall below the state averages. But how does all this look to school principals serving children whose parents are themselves under educated and struggling to make ends meet on minimum wage incomes?

 

March 12 "The 9th Street Hill Association-An Example of Neighborhood Building." Sandy and David Lahr, Charter Members.

 

March 19 "Report From the Trenches…Teaching Underserved Students." Dianna Chalk, Principal, Murdock Elementary School.

 

                                                                                ~Ernest McDaniel

Boa

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Journey Toward Wholeness Report

from Susan Leslie, Director for Congregational Advocacy and Witness, UUA, Boston

 

New coalitions are emerging to end the war in Iraq, prevent climate change, stop the genocide in Darfur, defeat the anti-gay same-sex marriage bans, hold corporations accountable for their actions, and address the ongoing neglect in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  UUs are rising to the challenge of living out our faith and working to solve these huge problems and create a just society.  Here is a list of current activities. 

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(1)  A Season of Prayer and Action for Justice      after Katrina - March 1-April 15

(2)  Shareholder Advocacy Teleconference            Workshop-March 4

(4)  Earth Sunday Services & Earth Day Events - April 22-23

(5)  A Million Voices for Darfur Campaign -         Now - May 1

(6)  (6) Update on Marriage Protection Amendment - June 5

(7)  (7) Lasermonks! - Office Supplies that Fund     Charitable Giving

 

 

See www.uua.org/justice for more information.

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Ways to Help Our Church Secretary

                This past fall, we found and hired Karin Bergman as our church secretary.  Karin has been doing a great job for us and we hope that she'll stay for a long time. (Thanks, Karin!)  Although we'd like to have her with us full-time, we can't currently afford that.  Karin has limited hours in which to take care of all our secretarial needs and a second job to help take care of hers.  Therefore, we must be careful about what we ask her to do and do what we can to get her the information she needs in a timely manner.

 

                Anyone who has put together a service knows that sometimes we just can't get all the information in by the deadline.  We're going to ask Karin, when that happens, to leave things blank.  For instance, if one or two hymns have not been chosen by the time the Order of Service is being set up, we may just see "Hymn" in the O of S and the Worship Associate will have to announce to the congregation what that hymn is.   If an announcement or calendar item is not complete, we may see "talk to so-and-so" rather than full information.

 

                If you are sending something for inclusion in the Order of Service, please add your name and contact information so that she can reach you if she has questions. 

 

                Please get any information for the Order of Service to Karin by the end of her workday, 1 pm, on Wednesday. 

 

                Thank you for your cooperation.     

 

                                ~Noemi Ybarra

                                   Past Board Chair/Personnel Committee

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Movie Group

Saturday, March 25 7:00 pm: "Lemony Snicket:  A Series of Unfortunate Events 2004.  107 Minutes.  VHS.  Directed by Brad Silberling. Jim Carrey, Jude Law, Liam Aiken.  Inspired by an unconventional children's book, this movie is not filled with singing rabbits, exploding spaceships, or cheerleaders. Offbeat.

                                                                                                                                                                ~Keith Brown

 

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The Heartland District 2006 Spring Conference and Annual Meeting is April 7-9 in Indianapolis. Contact Dianna Poindexter if you’d like to attend; see www.heartlanduu.org for information.

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Homeward Bound Walk

      Join the Social Action committee and the Unitarian Universalist Symposium (UUS) as we participate in the Lafayette Homeward Bound Walk on Sunday,  April 23rd at 2 PM at Riehle Plaza. The Homeward Bound Walk is a 5K walk-a-thon that benefits nine local homelessness prevention and affordable housing agencies.  Assist UUS and the Social Action committee

in our goal of raising $1,000 for this very worthy event. To make a donation, please contact Charles Coley

      Checks may be made payable to "Homeward Bound" and all contributions are tax deductible. Thank you for your support of the Homeward Bound Walk!

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Meals for the Homeless

On Saturday, March 25, the UU Social Responsibility Committee will be providing dinner at the LUM homeless shelter. This is a great opportunity for us to brighten the evening for about 50 community members who are struggling with day-to-day life.

Our theme this month will be chicken dishes. And we are seeking about 7 main dishes, each serving about 8 people. We would also like to offer one or two vegetarian alternatives, as well as a variety of salads, side dishes and desserts. We will be placing a sign-up sheet in the back of the sanctuary, with food to be delivered to the UU building on the evening of the 25^th of this month. Thanks in advance for your help. There is nothing better than going to bed with a full stomach! 

For more information, contact Sue Render Thomas, Sarah Hertel or Tom Hertel

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Spring Congregational Meeting Scheduled

The spring congregational meeting has been scheduled for Sunday April 30, following the service.  The agenda will include brief presentations about the 2005 Congregational Self Assessment recommendations along with information and discussion about the newsletter publishing schedule. 

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Religious Education Happenings 
 

RE Director Michele Tomarelli

 

R.E. Happenings

As a welcoming congregation, we want to include all of our children in religious education.  For some of our special needs children that has meant that we have made a real effort to ensure that they receive the extra attention they need by asking members of the congregation to accompany them, one-on-one, to their classes.  When we can, we try to have a “Minder” scheduled to come to class, but very often, we have had to ask for volunteers at the last minute.  Steadfast volunteers like Kyler Laird, Charles Coley, Mark French and others, have jumped into the role of Minder when asked, without training or preparation.

This effort, while very worthy, has resulted in our RE teachers, aides and our last minute volunteers being worn out by the job, as some of our special needs children are remarkably energetic, very intelligent, and often unpredictable.  We are looking for ways to be more systematic in our handling of special needs children, and we hope that you will be patient as we get started on our new arrangements. 

Starting in May, Sidney Zental, Ph.D., of the Special Education Department at Purdue, will be coming to observe our special needs children to confirm their diagnoses, and to plot out ways we can make the RE experience more meaningful to them, and easier on the RE teachers and aides.  Parents of our special needs children will be able to coordinate their children’s observation times with us, and Dr. Zental will give the parents her findings, with information for managing children that will be tailored to each child.  In the fall, she will then be sending us college students to work with our special needs children.  These students are specializing in special needs education, and our children offer them an opportunity for them to practice the skills they have been learning in their programs of study.  Dr. Zental and I will be supervising them, and they will get a grade for their work with us.   Thus, having the students come to church looks like a win-win situation: we get minders and information on how to best work with our children, and the students have an opportunity to start their lives’ work. 

Until then, we have asked some of the parents of the more energetic children to help us by supplying their own minders for them, and to let us know in advance when they are coming.  We are also carrying forward Sarah Boulac’s effort to try to find some public assistance in that regard.  There may be some public programs that will help us out enormously, so cross your fingers!

Meanwhile, we are shorthanded in our RE classrooms.  We need teachers, classroom aides, and yes, one regularly scheduled minder for a quieter student who simply gets off-track at times.  RE teaching is great fun at every level, and I hope that if you have thought of volunteering, you will

 “just do it.”

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Change for Change

March's collection will be for CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates.  We have 3 CASAs in our congregation! Thank you!

At this time there are still 77 children without a CASA. For more information, see the bulletin board in the back of the Sanctuary, or call the  CASA office 423-9210  or Lynn Richardson  .

                                                                ~Lynn Richardson, Social Action

                                                                                                Committee member, Social Action                                                                                                                     Family and Children Subcommittee, chair