Children and and youth Sign up for a watering shift during at least one week this summer to help our baby native plant garden establish their roots. Sign up here. Check out this video tutorial for more information.
Can you help assemble and install some playground equipment? We are getting some new equipment and need some energy to put it together. Email Dianne Upton, Facilities Manager, and lend your time (ages 11+) this summer.
Register for a free, three-day summer camp at East Shore with community partner Camp Kindness Counts and learn about how to develop your strengths through service to others. Ages 5-10 on August 8, 9, and 10th. Families welcome. Register here.
Save the Date: In Person RE Facilitator Training, September 10, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Volunteer members and friends facilitate and lead our programs with children and youth. If you haven’t experienced the power of mentorship, consider doing so this year. Parents are asked to contribute their time to our cooperative model of education.
Ministry programs for children and youth start Sunday, September 18. Come to a multiplatform, RE Info Session at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 14th (Zoom here). We’re excited to be with you next year and to keep growing our souls for peace and justice in this world. Stay tuned for registration and program details.
by amanda alice uluhan, Director of Religious Education
East Shore’s Community Mural Project is our main community action project for 2022. This project will help us explore collaboration and creativity, inclusion and agency across generations. This year we will complete the first phase: a mural in the hallway outside the preschool room and bathrooms in the Education Building. We’d like to express our gratitude to the Aesthetics Team and to East Shore’s wonderful staff who have been enthusiastically supporting the community mural.
This first phase of the mural will be painted during the Art In Community summer camp, which will run from 9am to 3pm on June 27 through July 1st. The camp is for 5-12 year olds, with teen counselors and adult leaders. The first-phase of the mural depicts our Pacific Northwest natural heritage, including our region’s land, mountain and water-scapes, and rich plant and animal diversity. The campers will be encouraged to depict their favorite PNW plants and animals.
Our own Wenda Collins has designed the overall mural, choosing very calming and beautiful colors and forms. We are so lucky to have such talented artists as Wenda in our community. Wenda has this to say about the project:
Long ago I heard the phrase “when you touch a flower you are touching star dust”
I tried to keep this phase in mind as I designed the mural
I think we live in a place where the sea, mountains, moist air and sun, the flora and fauna affects our life and our hearts.
Above is Wenda Collin’s design for phase one of the community mural.
We are eagerly seeking volunteers to be “muralists.” Volunteer positions are available June 20-July 1 in 3-hour shifts. Muralists will help with setup, painting and clean up. You can work with young people to translate their creative ideas onto the mural wall. All you need to bring is some work clothes you won’t mind getting splattered with paint. You can use this link to sign up for as many shifts as you can help us. Please contact the mural project manager, Doug Strombom ([email protected], 4259858587) if you have any questions about the mural or volunteering. Please volunteer… it will be fun!
On Sunday April 24, more than 40 people from East Shore attended the Religious Education Forum with the ministerial candidate. We had a diverse audience of kids, youth, young adults, parents, caregivers, Board member, OWL teachers and RE teachers and staff. We’re so grateful that the Ministerial Search Team and candidate reached out to this amazing group of people, and that such good feelings were shared on both sides. How we engage children, youth, and young adults in creating this next chapter of East Shore is integral to our vision and growth as a congregation. They are each unique with passions, interests, and skills as diverse as our own. Everyone looks forward to the next stages of partnership with the minister and congregation as we adapt to new and diverse needs. Here is some of what participants and the minister shared about our values:
supporting parents on the journey of parenthood
partnering with families to take UU into their homes and lives
support for transitioning to multigenerational worship services
caring for youth and families with pastoral concerns and crises
committed adult volunteers to help tend and rebuild a youth program for high schoolers
youth leadership development on the Board, service, music, and more
adapting congregational events and environments for neuro-diversity and different learning styles
youth involvement in music, outdoor, community service and social activities helps with their friendships and adult connections
young adult ministry from finishing high school through twenties and beyond.
by amanda alice uluhan, Director of Religious Education
Do you want to get a better understanding of what UU kids programs are offered at the church and how you can engage? Check out this brief video and reach out today. With more demands on families now than ever before – many households with two working parents, cost of living expenses and the requirements of capitalism, recovering and healing from the pandemic, and more – how we come together to care for parents and youth makes all the difference. The UU kids programs are such a vital and life-affirming ministry of the church and help to grow a stronger society. The UU faith raises kids who believe in respect, justice, and love, and who go out and do good in the world. Be a part of this meaningful community at East Shore by volunteering today!
by amanda alice uluhan, Director of Religious Education
Am I the only one looking forward to June already? When that sun comes up and we can kick into a little bit more relaxation. We’re still a little bit away, but rest assured, we are doing stuff this summer and we want you to come! We have programs lined up, two we’re putting on right here at East Shore.
Art in Community full day, in-person summer camp. Participants welcome in Grades K-5 and Youth Camp Counselors in Grades 6-12.
East Shore Unitarian Church teaches the wisdom of world religions and helps kids to create justice and peace in the world. And this year, we’re partnering with Camp Kindness Counts believes in the power of kindness to build a happier healthier world. And together, we imagine a world of empowered kids bringing their voices and visions for the greater good of our world! Bring a friend, or two, and have some fun!
We believe in each person’s voice and vision! You are never too young to make a difference! The week will be a unique mix of art, social-emotional learning, and community service in an empowering setting.
Throughout our week we:
learn more about how awesome diversity and justice are for everyone
imagine and create images for our common future through art and community mural work
collaborate and create action plans for change starting from our own interests and concerns with the world
learn mindfulness exercises focusing on social-emotional awareness
play games and let loose! Every day is inspiring, empowering and really…Really FUN!
Fees:
Children: $350
Youth Camp Counselor: $150
Adult Volunteer: $35
Multiple kids in the families? Take a $100 off each registration! NOTAFLOF
Youth camp counselor are trained to co-lead a small group of kids in activities and learning experiences throughout the camp week. There are also opportunities for them to spend time as a youth cohort!
With laws criminalizing trans-children and reproductive health care, now is the time to root ourselves more deeply in this calling. Unitarian Universalism has a long and proud history of creating sexually healthy congregations and communities. We carry that torch in part through OWL. OWL empowers adults and children across the lifespan to know themselves in a deep way. It provides language and skills to think and talk about consent, boundaries, gender, sexuality, relationships, and our values. There are new editions of K-2 curricula and 10-12 curricula. These editions include much needed updates on gender and race diversity. All curricula levels (children, youth, and adult) will be offered. This will be East Shore’s third time hosting a Labor Day weekend training. And this time, we’re partnering with the Pacific Western Region of the UUA and local PNW UUA congregations to do so.
Childcare may be available upon request. Volunteer support roles for congregants who are not enrolled in the weekend course are needed
Many children want to give gifts to express their love to others. For some, that is their love language. They know the joy or receiving and gift and want to offer that gift to others. How beautiful to let our children know that giving is not just a moral practice, it is a spiritual practice. When we give to others, we are making a visible sign of the relationship and interdependence that exists in our world. I would like you to spend some time as a family during March to work on your stewardship together at home. I envision a congregation where the wisdom of our children and youth is a guiding force so I would love to receive any feedback about how these activities go for your families.
Here are three reflective family activities around stewardship of a faith community:
Use a device to pull up the church website or one of our social media sites and click around. Check out the different parts of our website to recall the programs we are running together and the ways we are really living out our mission: we practice love, explore spirituality, build community, and promote justice. Does anything spark your interest? Did you notice something new as a family that you didn’t know about before?
Think back over the last year, or two if you’re pulling from the pandemic timeline, and remember some of the things that were your favorite. This could be done over a meal or on a walk. Maybe you have some pictures on your phone from beet picking or a Black Lives Matter flash stance, maybe it’s been getting reengaged with RE and OWL and Family Covenant Circle, maybe it was one of the Sunday worships that moved you, maybe it was just being on our campus amongst those tall and sometimes flowering trees. Find a memory of this community and then share it aloud with one another in a story format: “Tell me about a time when…”.
This is a visualization journey into your imagination. Close your eyes or sit comfortably and have one person read this aloud: First, place your hand on your heart. Next, imagine someone you care about at church, it could be a family member, a teacher, a friend, across from you. Reach out your hand now and offer it toward this person who reaches out to greet your hand halfway. Pause here. What do you see passing between your hands? Is it your heart? Is it some money? Perhaps it is water droplets, flowing and abundant. Now imagine that there are ten more people also doing the same thing. Place a string connecting each person and grow the web in a spiraling expansiveness. Close the exercise by placing now both hands on your heart and speaking aloud our mission: we practice love, explore spirituality, build community, and promote justice.
by amanda alice uluhan, Director of Religious Education
