Consider leading a small group of kids or youth in our upcoming school-year programs. We start September 10 and run through the end of May. Small groups with kids consist of hour-long sessions, three times a month, during worship. We have fun, talk about building up our characters and community, practice mindfulness and gratitude, and learn all about Unitarian Universalist values. In Kids RE, small group leaders mentor children and youth, modeling kind communication, problem solving, and cooperation. Small group leaders work in teaching teams, and it’s a great way to live out our UU mission and build a legacy for East Shore’s future. What these leaders do in our classes is plant seeds for our collective future. We also have opportunities to support families by volunteering during holiday events, leading multigenerational activities, and offering administrative support. Will you join us? Write to Amanda Alice [email protected] for an application and introduction to the 2023-24 curricula. There’s space for you!
by Amanda Alice Uluhan, Director of Religious Education
Hi! My name is Nilla, and I am interning at East Shore this summer through the TIPS Program. So far, I have worked at East Shore for two weeks and am loving it! This past year, I have been going to school in Sammamish. At East Shore, I will work in the RE department, working with Amanda Alice on different tasks. This has included Sunday School attendance sheets, helping catalog the RE Library, designing graphics for RE, and many other tasks. This past week, I have been helping with the Art and Community Summer Camp. I worked on the behind-the-scenes aspects last week, and this week I am working with the campers to make different crafts and work on mindfulness activities. I have enjoyed getting to know the campers and their parents and am so excited to do more with East Shore!
by Amanda Alice Uluhan, Director of Religious Education
Many of you may not be aware of the annual Memorial Day UU retreat that roughly 200 East Shore and other local UUs attend each year. This is a special invitation to you, the East Shore families with youth. You and your youth are so vital to our community — you transform us all — so please know that we all will be grateful for your presence this and any year.
What is there for kids to do at the Seabeck UU Retreat?
The Seabeck UU Retreat is an intentionally inclusive and multi-generational annual church retreat over Memorial Day weekend at the Seabeck Conference Center overlooking the Olympic mountains on the Hood Canal The retreat offers Something for Everyone and is a wonderful way to get involved and more connected with members of East Shore, University Unitarian and the Northlake UU congregations.
Seabeck is made for kids, with three playgrounds, a treehouse, a beach, and kid-friendly meals. The location is very safe, and many parents feel comfortable letting their kids roam the grounds – giving many kids an experience of adventure and freedom they may not be used to in the city. Friendships are made and renewed each year during the retreat.
Mornings
Saturday and Sunday mornings include children and youth programming from 9 am to noon. Each classroom has a lead teacher with parent volunteers to assist. Classes have typically been about 4-8 children and the planned age breakdown for the groups are:
Pre-K – 2grade
3– 5 Grade
Middle School
High School
Activities vary depending on the age of the group and in the past have included drawing, puppet making, other arts and crafts activities, nature hikes on the trails on Seabeck Grounds, or a visit to the civil war era cemetery behind Seabeck. The High School Group has a chaperoned sleepover on Saturday night and this year may participate in the featured speaker program which is exercises in improv.
Afternoons
Afternoons are for families to come together for play and relaxation – or for older kids to do some independent exploring.
Outdoor activities: boating in the lagoon (with a parent), playing on the playground, tetherball, ping pong, tennis, beach combing, nature hikes, UU “Olympics”, and hanging with their new friends.
Family activities: Participating in workshops with their parents, campfire sing along, Smores, all ages talent show and board games.
Here is a sample retreat schedule so that you can see how our days are filled with so many fun opportunities. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]and we’ll forward your question to the relevant retreat leadership team member.
Making Seabeck affordable for all
This year we have lowered our Tier 3 housing prices in order to make Seabeck more accessible to everyone. Additionally, partial and full scholarships are available according to need. Please contact Nicole Denman or me with any questions. We don’t want lack of access to financial resources to be a barrier to anyone coming to Seabeck.
Sincerely,
David Langrock
Seabeck Memorial Day Weekend Retreat Dean 2023
This Spring, our house is busy! Easter, Passover and Ramadan are all converging, and we’re learning what it means to raise our children in a multi-faith household. Being able to hold and unfold the unique treasures each of these lineages offers is truly a blessing, and a mystery!
On March 22, the new moon – the first crescent or sliver of the moon – appeared. This was the start of the month-long daytime fast of Ramadan in Islam. Muslim holidays are on a lunar calendar, and so, Ramadan “moves” around the calendar, all through the seasons over time. Our family observes Ramadan by fasting, prayer, meals to break the fast at sundown and before sunrise, and special stories. Ramadan is a time to learn hunger, to focus the mind and the body, and to direct one’s energy toward sacrifice and letting go. It is also a time to gather with friends and be generous with gifts of food and good will. The Ramadan fast lasts for one lunar month, as is celebrated with a three day holiday, Eid where we visit family, prayer, share gifts, and eat!
Then, on Sundown on April 5 to April 12, we observe Passover/Pesach. Passover takes place in the Jewish month of Nisan, the month of liberation. Nisan relates to the word “nitzan” meaning bud, and also to “nees” meaning miracle. At Passover, in the month of Nisan, we enact a long ritual feast, the sedar, in which we tell the story of the Exodus – the journey of the Jewish people from Mitzrayim “the narrow place,” to freedom. When we observe Passover, we call on our ancestors to help us make whatever bold movements we must make to get free. In fact, it is the oft forgotten prophetess of Miriam in the desert who is central to the story of the Exodus and in our retelling of the Pesach story, we reclaim the role of Miriam in the river of Liberation that moves our Jewish ancestors of enslavement to freedom. We observe Passover with special seder meals, songs, and the ritual Haggadah, the retelling of the ancient story.
On April 9, Easter, Christian traditions commemorate the Resurrection of Jesus. We often tell the story of his last supper, a Pesach meal in fact, with his kin, and the story of his persecution. We observe Easter with fertility images, the birth of new life, such as bunnies and eggs. The story of Jesus and his life is a powerful one. Jesus was a beloved teacher, and his teachings went on to form the basis of the Christian religion, and that is why many Unitarian Universalist congregations remember Jesus. Jesus’ life was all about transformation; about taking what seemed hopeless and transforming it into abundance. Only five loaves of bread—but somehow five thousand people had enough to eat. His death and resurrection also brought about abundance and miracles, and when we observe Easter, we can recall his beautiful teachings and be inspired to live and help others.
Whether your family is innovating new traditions, learning more about your ancestries, or connecting with a community like East Shore to make meaning, traditions can help spirituality come alive, and when repeated year after year, can help mark time and create cycles and routine in profoundly nourishing ways. I hope you take some time to share with your children and families, and with us, the traditions in your lineages.
February 12, there was an all-ages worship with many hands tending! Thank you to Cecelia Hayes for turning us toward our ancestors and black history; thank you Eric Lane Barnes and the Mighty Choir for leading song and shimmy; LeAnne Struble for shepherding families. Rev. Maria Cristina for leading in love. and to all the back-stage tech, usher, greeter folk. We were so fortunate to welcome 20 children into our community!
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
-“On Children” by Kahlil Gibran
by Amanda Alice Uluhan, Director of Religious Education
Thirteen children gathered with one of our teen volunteers, one adult volunteer, and two religious education staff for a fun holiday camp on Monday January 16, 2023. We made new friends, learned some new songs, talked about love, peace, and Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday camps are a great way to spend some more time at church, provide free childcare to parents, and reach out to neighbors of East Shore. We’d love to have you join or volunteer with us at our other upcoming events!
Snowshoeing Reflection
East Shore high school youth ventured up to Snoqualmie Pass and the Pacific Crest Trailhead for an afternoon of snowshoeing, fire, and winter shelter building. We loved extra time outdoors and had fun getting to know each other more. Thank you chaperones Mark Norelius and Taya Montgomery!
Thirteen children gathered with one of our teen volunteers, one adult volunteer, and two religious education staff for a fun holiday camp on Monday January 16, 2023. We made new friends, learned some new songs, talked about love, peace, and Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday camps are a great way to spend some more time at church, provide free childcare to parents, and reach out to neighbors of East Shore. We’d love to have you join or volunteer with us at our other upcoming events!
East Shore high school youth ventured up to Snoqualmie Pass and the Pacific Crest Trailhead for an afternoon of snowshoeing, fire, and winter shelter building. We loved extra time outdoors and had fun getting to know each other more. Thank you chaperones Mark Norelius and Taya Montgomery!