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
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.
On Sunday, January 19, we will celebrate 75 years at East Shore Unitarian Church! Here is a brief history of East Shore.
The Beginning
East Shore began in 1948 when the Eddys, the Wensbergs and the Farners decided it was easier to establish a Unitarian Sunday School of their own than to pack up their young children on a Sunday morning and drive to University Church in Seattle. The parents soon felt the need to have a program of their own while Sunday school was in progress and in January of 1949, the Mercer Island Fellowship was begun.
The fledgling group soon needed more meeting space and leased the Chapel of Flowers, a funeral home in Bellevue. Meanwhile, a former Baptist minister named Lon Ray Call convinced the Unitarian staff in Boston that the post-war period was ripe for church expansion. They agreed and sent Rev. Call out west.
On the third Sunday in January, 1950, the official organization of East Shore Unitarian Church was celebrated. The 99 charter members representing 54 families signed the register. By the spring of that year, East Shore had called its first minister, Chadbourne Spring (the namesake of Spring Hall).
The congregation longed for a church home, and acquired property for a church. On October 20, 1955, the church was dedicated, even though there was no glass in the big front windows!
East Shore Growth
From the beginning, East Shore members were determined to learn about and affect the world around them. Well-publicized debates and forums on such controversial subjects as the admission of “Red China” to the United Nations earned the new church the name, “The Little Red Church on the Hill.”
In 1961, East Shore helped found Northlake Unitarian Fellowship in Kirkland, while at the same time expanding their building to make room for the children and youth. They continued to expand adding more storage and the North Room.
In 1990, representatives from the University, Northlake, and Edmonds Unitarian Churches, met together to plan a new congregation in Woodinville. East Shore was the covenanting congregation. The Woodinville Church began as a congregation in February, 1991.
Supporting Social Justice
After months of study and deliberation, the East Shore congregation voted in May, 1984 to participate in the Sanctuary Movement. This Movement began in 1981 at a church in Arizona which provided help to refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala who feared persecution for their political beliefs if returned by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to their countries of origin. East Shore became one of about 300 churches across the US offering “sanctuary” on church property to such persons.
In 1991, East Shore began a partner relationship with a Unitarian church in Transylvania. The Khasi Hills of India partner church relationship began at East Shore during the summer of 2007.
East Shore became a Welcoming Congregation for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender people in March of 2001.
by Nicole Duff, Director of Membership Development (edited from the Archives report, October 2015)
Have you noticed a new addition to East Shore? We have a new Little Free Library! Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to be a catalyst for building community, inspiring readers, and expanding book access for all through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Library book-exchange boxes.
A few months ago, a youth in our neighborhood, Aadithya Prabhath, asked if there were any opportunities for an Eagle Scout project. After some thought, the staff came up with a Little Free Library!
Aadithya and his troop helped put the library together and working with the Grounds Ministry team, found a place next to the Education Building (east of the building next to the parking lot).
The library will hold books for all ages, added by ESUC members, friends, and the larger community. Our library will be registered with littlefreelibrary.org where anyone can find it. What a wonderful way to bring more people to campus!
Stay tuned for details on a ribbon cutting ceremony!
by Nicole Duff, Director of Membership Development
We Are a Bridge
We celebrate our desires to stretch our wings towards where we wish to fly and soar free. And thus, we make a bridge.
We affirm our commitment to remain connected to those who are still earth-bound and captive, remembering that a bridge may be a footpath or an umbrella. And thus, we offer a bridge.
We acknowledge our own desires and also our interconnections with one another. And thus, we build stronger bridges.
We honor our own hearts and also the hearts of our neighbors, friends, and fellow inhabitants of this ever-perplexing world. And thus, we are a bridge.
– By Leslie Takahashi
Dear Beloved East Shore Community,
As we begin our third year with Rev. María Cristina, I am filled with hope for the future. I can see how each time we meet, talk, work together, welcome someone new, we are building a bridge to our future. I see new babies, a growing choir, new millennials and young adults, and events growing in size and excitement. I see the increase in justice work from the amazing experience of being in the Pride Parade to hosting Porchlight next month. I only see this trend continuing far into the future as long as we are strong enough bridges to get there.
For years, East Shore has been busy managing changes that at times have felt non-stop… but that time is over. We instead need to begin making a path for our future. That is why at the August Board Retreat, we made making a long-term plan one of our goals for the year. We have already been working with Financial Stewardship and the Finance Team to look at the dollar and cents aspect. We are working with staff and the UUA as we continue to live into our values as we look at the long-term sustainability of East Shore.
In 2027, we will have paid off the mortgage of the Education Building, freeing up more than $100,000 a year. We also hope the sale of the Holly House property will be complete, allowing us to reimburse our Endowment, make needed improvements, and flourish with opportunity.
We are looking at 2025 and 2026 and know we have some budget tightening years ahead of us. As we told you a few months ago, our Operating Budget has taken some large hits and the need to dip into our rainy-day fund (Endowment), has been more than we had hoped. We are also looking ahead and not wanting to make rash decisions with permanent outcomes when it comes to making any budget cuts. We are asking you to help us build a bridge to the future.
For us to reach our goal, we would need each household to increase their pledge by 15%. We know that is not possible for everyone, so we are asking you to reach deep inside your heart and ask yourself if you have faith in East Shore’s future. As Elanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Will you dream with me and help us build a bridge to the future?
Did you know you can listen to sermons from anywhere? You can listen to almost* any worship service we have. Each week (usually by Tuesday) the Sermon is available via podcast. You can listen and subscribe easily:
