We are all about summertime joy! Our camp thrives on fun, storytelling, games, hands-on creativity, and summer adventures. Campers will engage in both collaborative and individual projects. We believe in empowering kids to make their own choices while providing structure and guidance. Whether we’re running around, creating, experimenting, or cooling off, our camps offer a space where kids and adults feel safe, welcome, and connected and where we work on growing in body, mind and spirit. Camp includes mindfulness, art, music, games, time outdoors, hands on learning and fun with friends. Your family does not need to be active at East Shore Unitarian for your child attend.
Week 1 July 21-25, 2025: Zines, Books, and Graphic Novels
Campers will learn how to make zines and books – designing, creating, and story telling through illustration and writing. Campers will also enjoy outdoor sketching and play breaks at a nearby park and collaborate on a community zine by interviewing and capturing local stories. We’ll learn essential storytelling techniques, basic writing and illustration skills and how to get creative on the page. At the end of the week, each student goes home with a book, graduation certificate and skills to use for a lifetime.
What to Expect:
The art of comics
Non-linear storytelling
Designing posters about topics we care about
Making a collective zine about people in our neighborhood
Life drawing and outdoor sketching
Exploring various zine formats and bookbinding techniques
Week 2 July 28 – August 1, 2025: Food, Cooking, and Fun
Campers will gain confidence in the kitchen and discover how food gets from farm to table, and how to make delicious, healthy meals from scratch. We’ll learn essential baking techniques, basic food prep skills and best practices for kitchen safety. At the end of the week, each student goes home with a printed menu, graduation certificate and skills to use for a lifetime.
What to Expect:
Cooking and baking delicious recipes
Learning kitchen safety and food preparation skills
Scholarships and tuition discounts/waivers available. No one will be turned away! Email [email protected].
Camp Details
Camp Hours: 9 AM – 4 PM
Mask Policy: Masking is optional.
Limited Spaces: Only 25 spots per week – Register today!
Policies and Procedures
General Information:
Drop off begins at 8:45 am. Program begins at 9:00 am.
Pick up is at 4:00 pm. Please make arrangements if you are going to be late. You are responsible for paying a late fee of $20 if you arrive after 4:15 pm.
Please check your child in at the kiosk when you arrive to Camp and sign them out on the clipboard at the check-in table.
Please let us know of any changes to attendance or drop off / pick up times in advance.
We are organizing a camp field trip and will provide transportation details in our welcome letter.
Summer Camp keeps a fully equipped first aid backpack and all of the children’s emergency forms on site at all times. There will be a CPR/First-Aid certified staff member on hand at all times.
Things to Bring:
Send a lunch, along with a bottle of water labeled with their name. We expect to be nut free and will update you once we know our attendees. We will provide mid-morning and afternoon snacks.
This is an indoor/outdoor camp, so consider sending clothes you don’t mind getting dirt and/or paint in, along with sturdy shoes and a sun hat for outdoors.
Your child is welcome to bring a book to read during open choice time or lunch. They are also welcome to bring a favorite stuffy, or a creative activity (origami, puzzle, etc – should all be labeled with their name).
Leave all electronic devices such as video games, MP3 players, and tablets at home. This is to help children connect with one another and be fully present. ESUC cannot take responsibility for loss or damage of items brought to camp.
Contact information:
Amanda Alice Uluhan, Director of Religious Education Email:[email protected] Office Phone: (425) 747-3780 x 104 Cell: (206) 403-0071
We’re excited to announce that registration is now open for East Shore’s Auction! Online bidding will open on Saturday March 8. With 115 items to choose from, including everything from book bags to art works, themed dinners to Mariners and Seahawks tickets, and local hikes to vacation home stays, there’s something for every budget and preference. Anyone can participate in the bidding so encourage your friends and family to participate.
Live In-Person Event: Saturday March 15, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Part of East Shore’s mission is to build community. On Saturday March 15, 5:00-8:00 p.m., there’s a wonderful opportunity to participate in the auction and socialize with members and friends of East Shore. Register Now!
The “Live Auction” will be held in East Shore’s Sanctuary, with two professional auctioneers, Jennifer Sill and Arik Korman.
East Shore member Christian Dimaano will be our Executive Chef again this year, and will be cooking up some fantastic dishes for the event, along with a team of volunteer helpers. Vegan and gluten-free options will be offered, so there’ll be something for everyone and it’s sure to be delicious.
This event will be a lot of fun! We encourage you to purchase tickets early to help us know how many people are coming. Tickets are only $15 each for adults to help us offset the costs of the food and wine, with free tickets available for children and those for whom $15 is a hardship. We want everyone to participate, even if you don’t plan on bidding. Free childcare is available so please let us know the ages of your children and your preferences for how long they stay with you, if you’d like to bring them.
This year, we will close the “Silent” online bidding in two sections before and right after the dinner. The “live” bidding will be done at 7:00 p.m. the traditional way, with bid cards. Those online can place their bid numbers in the chat to bid on live items.
Be sure to bring a phone or tablet to use for the online bidding. We recommend that if you still have the Auctria app on your phone from last year, you delete it and then download it again to register for this year’s auction more effectively.
Join Us Online!
If you’re not able to participate in person, be sure to join in the fun online via Zoom. You’ll be able to bid for the “silent auction” items on the Auctria app. For the live auction, you can enter your bid number for the live items in the chat while watching the festivities on zoom. Zoom ID: 845 4905 8981, Passcode: auction
Fund-A-Need: A More Inclusive Welcome
This year’s Fund a Need includes several items which will make the experience of being at church more welcoming and inclusive to all who enter, from first-time visitors to long-time congregants, as well as staff, volunteers, and rental users. These items will refresh and upgrade, showing who we are, our values, and enhance our ability to provide hospitality at church. The Package Includes:
New UU values banners for the foyer ~$500
New accessibility shelving for the items currently in the back corner of the Sanctuary ~$750
New modern, reusable name badges for all members ~$3000 for 500 badges
Refurbished badge holder board, with metal panels to affix magnetic badges ~$800-1,000
New coffee making machines for both the North Room and the Spring Hall kitchens ~$8,000
New coffee service cart on wheels for the foyer ~$1,000
These are all items which have long been needed, but for which we haven’t had the budget in the Operating Fund. Please give generously to support this upgrade!
Volunteer
To help make this event a success, we need lots of volunteers to help, both before and during the live event. We have roles for set up, decorating, cooking, serving food and drinks, tech support, and clean up. If you can help on Saturday March 15, please choose the tasks you can help with on our Signup Genius.
We hope you’re able to help us Lift our Light, and participate in the Auction. Please contact auction chair, [email protected], C: 425-351-6171 if you have any questions about registering or the auction.
This was the sermon prepared for Sunday, February 16, 2025.
I have always considered myself a spiritual person. I may not have always attended church, but prayer has always been a part of my everyday life. During the most hectic time in my life, which coincided with being a single mom, living in New York City and juggling three part time jobs while attending school, getting home, making dinner, doing homework, bathtime, storytime, and prayers before sleep were our rituals. Before becoming a mother I would go on spiritual retreats, spend an entire week in silent prayer by the ocean, in contemplation, or chanting for hours and hours, allowing my spirit to soar and feel connected to the big mystery of the universe, holding prayer beads, or lighting candles. Or praying the rosary every day for the entire month of May to honor Mother Mary, building beautiful and fragrant altars filled with roses . After becoming a mother, my prayers were said while riding the subway, holding my son’s little hand, carrying a backpack with books, groceries, toys, extra clothes, always praying that we wouldn’t be late for daycare, at the supermarket counting every penny and having to put things back, or when opening a pile of bills with big red letters “OVERDUE” sending me into a panic, I prayed: “Help!” “Please” “I can’t” “show me the way” “have mercy on us”
Most books on parenting are filled with advice on how to raise children and most religious, theological texts, leave out children and parenting as a source of the holy. Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg author of Nurture the WOW: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder and Radical Amazement of Parenting writes: “Let’s face it for thousands of years books on Jewish law were written by men mostly talking to other men. These guys were not involved in the intimate care of small children. Somewhere else far from the house of study, other people, women, mothers, were wrangling tantrumy toddlers and explaining to six year olds that they really had to eat what was on their plates. This means that a lot of the dazzling ideas found in our sacred texts about becoming a person about how to fully experience awe and wonder, how to navigate hard painful feelings, how service to others fits into the larger transcendent picture was never really explicitly connected to the work of parenting. It just didn’t occur to these guys building entire theological worldviews around love and relationships to extend their idea to the children probably because the work of raising children wasn’t on their radar.” and she asks: “What if parenting were considered a spiritual practice in its own right? What if engaging in the intimate care of our children was understood as a legitimate path to understanding the universe, the transcendent, and our place in it?” Parents and parenting look like a lot of things these days. With all sorts of family configurations, gender identities and biological and nonbiological connections…a person is a parent if they parent. Love is what makes this kid your kid. We’re all in this together. One big chaotic village of people trying to figure out where that other tiny shoe went, kissing a knee that just got scraped, taking a deep breath when the screaming starts and hoping to remember to pick up milk on the way home. The acts of care are our work, our offering. They are our holy office, a liturgy of love.”
I wish I had this book when I was a new mother. Yet looking back, I can say that despite the chaos, there were plenty of moments when I experienced the awe of being the parent of this tiny person, growing up, developing language, asking amazing questions, making me laugh through the tears, teaching me about generosity of spirit by being quick to forgive and never holding a grudge, reminding me that we belonged to each other, that home was sacred space where we could breathe in peace and breathe out love, where church was watching Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, learning all about friendship, kindness, and listening to Daniel tiger singing “what do you do with the mad that you feel?”. Home was a refuge where we could feel strong, tired, grumpy, silly, magical, and connected by a holy bond that can only be explained as a miracle. But there were hard times too. Scary times when I feared losing custody of my child just because I had come out as queer when my son was six. I have experienced fear as an immigrant but for me nothing compares to the fear of having your child taken away, being separated from them for being who you are. It was then that I reached out and found community, other mothers who had gone through similar situations and were supportive and loving. We founded the First Latina Lesbian Mothers Support Group in Boston. Together, we felt strong and helped each other to restore hope. Those mothers were my church. Our meetings and public advocacy actions were my spiritual practice. Right now so many families with trans children or families with mixed immigration status are scared. Scared to be separated. Scared to go to school, to go to the hospital, to go to church. Scared to say their name.
I can’t help but think about how hard parenting is in these terrible times. Right now there are parents of trans children and youth and trans parents being hit by waves after wave of hatred, hatred directed towards their children, towards their community. Did you know that it was trangender people who started the Stonewall uprising in 1969 that gave birth to the gay liberation and civil rights movement? The first ones to risk their lives by confronting the police were trans women of color: Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson who were pioneers in creating the first shelter for homeless trans kids. In 2016, the Stonewall Inn was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama — becoming the first U.S. landmark dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history. A couple of days ago, the US Parks Service has erased the “T” representing transgender people from the Stonewall Memorial. And we know that the erasure is not only meant for monuments, it is meant for people, for children, for youth. Now more than ever, let us recommit ourselves to support immigrants and trans parents, trans children, trans youth. Let us make our solidarity and allyship with the immigrant and trans community our spiritual practice. Let us remember that immigrant parents and trans parents are our siblings in spirit. Let us remember that immigrant children and trans children and youth are our children. We are a community and a family of choice. We choose Love. Unconditional love. Only love can keep us grounded in the middle of this chaos. Only love can save us. Amen and Blessed Be!
Prayer by the Transforming Hearts Collective
“Spirit of life and love that resides within and among us, we enter this moment with all that we are, with an open heart, and with a love for justice. We hold in love and prayer all transgender people, so many of whom live under the weight of violence, fear, and intolerance. We hold in love and prayer all the ways that transgender people have survived and thrived in a hostile world. We hold in love and prayer all who recognize the significance of gender justice for all people. We who believe in freedom will not rest until it comes. We pray for the dawn of a new day when the very humanity of trans people is no longer called into question or ignored. We pray that physical, emotional, and spiritual violence will come to an end. We pray that a spirit of compassion and care will fill us to overflowing, that we may have the capacity to listen, learn, and grow not only in our awareness but also in our willingness to act. We pray for teachers, spiritual leaders, social workers, lawyers, and all people who heed the call to support trans liberation, trans leadership, and trans visibility.” Amen and Blessed Be!
The Seabeck Memorial Day Weekend retreat overlooking the Olympic Peninsula, happens from 4pm Friday May 23 to 11am Monday May 26, 2025. We encourage everyone to participate in this inspiring community event. Registrations are already underway and are filling up fast. Let’s hear from our Deans, Amanda and Doug Strombom, about what is going to make Seabeck so wonderful this year:
Doug: First, I want to thank Amanda for agreeing to be Co-Dean with me. We are filling the very capable shoes of David Langrock, which is no small challenge. Teamwork will get us there!
Amanda: Yes, Doug and I together have found out how much organizing the Dean must do. Luckily our leadership team includes some very seasoned pros like Jeanne Lamont, Sheridan Botts, Becky Andrews, Beth Wilson and others. Nicole Duff is our multi-talented staff sponsor. Teamwork will get us there!
Doug: The Seabeck Memorial Day Weekend Retreat is a 50-year-long tradition for East Shore and University Unitarian Churches. Amanda and I have been attending for a dozen years or so, and it has never failed to deliver! At Seabeck we step out of our busy lives into this awesome community life and really appreciate meeting people, learning new things, doing fun activities, or just relaxing and rocking on the front porch.
Amanda: When we chose this year’s theme of “Invoking Joy”, we saw the need to help everyone find more joy in their lives, especially as we all struggle with what our American culture is serving up right now. We chose Reverend Justin Almeida as the keynote presenter because we knew he has the gift of leading us to appreciate joy. Rev Justin, his wife Heather and child Tobias are really excited to be coming back to Seabeck, and we’re overjoyed to have them. We hope that the pursuit of joy will appeal to all, in whatever form that takes for each person.
Doug: Here are a few changes we’re making at Seabeck this year. We are moving the music program back to the Meeting House from the small building it was in last year. We’re going to reinstate Open Mic hour and have lots of musical performances to enjoy. One thing that I’m really excited about is the Freedom Jamboree, a new inclusive event for everyone to make joyous music together. We’ll explore vocal protest music, UU hymns, and other songs that move you. Join Cecelia Hayes, John Chmaj and a host of Seabeck musicians. Bring your voice, your instruments, or just come “clap your hands, paws or anything ya’ got now” with us on the Saturday evening.
Amanda: Seabeck is a great getaway for families with children and youth. There are organized programs for each age-group every morning. Last year, our Children and Youth coordinator Becky Andrews led a team to help boost the safety and support for all children. This year we’ll be introducing a camp-wide Covenant to help us further define what it means to bring our best selves into the Seabeck community.
Doug: So that’s some highlights of this year’s event, and we hope you feel inspired to come join us.
Did you know that if you clean and dry your Starbucks cup and lid that they can both be put in the blue recycle bin? I didn’t. I also thought that I could put my clean empty bread loaf bag in the blue recycle bin. Not so!! It jams up the sorting machine which they then have to stop and manually pull out of the mechanism. That’s If it hadn’t been pulled off the conveyor belt by human hands prior to mechanical sorting.
I learned this and a lot more during our ECAM (East Shore’s Earth Climate Action Ministry) organized class at the Republic Services Learning Center in Seattle on January 31st. Republic is the company that picks up all the items that East Shore members and staff put in the gray, blue and green bins for weekly pick up.
Eight of us car-pooled to the Learning Center for a 90 minute, very informative class taught by Kaylie Wallin our Republic Sustainability Ambassador.
We also learned about some new technology that is coming on line. Here’s a link describing the Polymer Center in Las Vegas: https://youtu.be/qPlgCrK8gZs. Interested in future tours of recycling facilities in the Seattle area? Contact me by text at 425-830-1266.
by Mark Norelius, Earth & Climate Action Ministry Team
“”Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” -Walt Whitman
We need your contributions by February 12!
Some fabulous offerings we want to lift up include a handmade quilt made especially for you, delicious dinners at the homes of members including two with Rev. Maria Cristina, a special case of wine and handmade sausage, a trip to an early 20th century NW art gallery, and so much more.
We invite every member and friend of East Shore to lift up their talents and resources, and participate in whatever way you can. We’re especially looking for dinners and events we can do together to build community, but artwork, gift certificates, gift baskets and homemade food are also always popular. Can your Covenant Circle or Book Group come up with a shared item to contribute?
We need your contributions no later than February 12.
To contribute an item to the auction, fill out our Contribution Form
OR if you want to offer an item you’ve offered before, just email Trevor Hall, our catalog coordinator, or Auction Chair Amanda Strombom.
“Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.” – Dalai Lama
