Thursday, May 30, 2013

June Shared Offering: Compassion & Choices

During the month of June, we will share our offertory collection with Compassion & Choices. Half of all cash and any designated checks collected during the Sunday service will go to this nonprofit organization that supports individuals and families facing important end-of-life decisions. Compassion & Choices educates the public, health care professionals, lawmakers and the media on end-of-life issues, and advocates for compassionate end-of-life care in legislatures, courtrooms and at bedsides. Compassion & Choices spearheads initiatives across the country to secure rights to make important end-of-life decisions based on individual values and views. Their state and national litigation solidifies rights to excellent end-of-life care including aggressive pain and symptom management and palliative sedation. Compassion & Choices asserts your right to choose aid in dying under constitutional protections. The Compassion & Choices Action Network fights for aid-in-dying laws for terminally ill, mentally competent adults; builds coalitions to defeat bills that would force patients to endure feeding tubes against their wishes; strengthens advance directives; and mandates pain and palliative care training for health care providers. Compassion & Choices has supported the Death-with Dignity Laws that have been enacted in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont. More information about Compassion & Choices can be found at their website: www.compassionandchoices.org. After the Sunday service on June 30, Jana Edge, who is a nurse in Bloomington, IL and a volunteer with Compassion & Choices, will be at church to talk with us about the organization, the importance of having advance directives, and the need to know your rights and responsibilities when dealing with doctors and hospitals concerning end-of-life issues. If you are interested, we hope you will join us on the 30th. We will have a light lunch, and can provide childcare if needed. Karen Retzer & Nancy Dietrich

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

May Shared Offering: Prairie Rivers Network

During the month of May, half of all cash and designated checks collected at the Sunday offering will go to Prairie Rivers Network, a non-profit organization based in Champaign that advocates for clean water and healthy rivers in Illinois. Prairie Rivers Network champions clean, healthy rivers and safe drinking water to benefit the people and wildlife of Illinois. Drawing upon sound science and working cooperatively with others, we advocate public policies and cultural values that sustain the health and diversity of Illinois’ water resources. Started in 1967 as the Committee on Allerton Park to stop a dam that would have flooded the beloved park, Prairie Rivers Network has a 45-year record of making a difference in Illinois. Prairie Rivers Network is an Illinois’ registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and the independent Illinois affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation. Prairie Rivers Network aims to address the most pressing clean water issues: industrial pollution, polluted runoff from cropland, and the unwise destruction of wetlands and other riverside natural areas that slow floodwaters and provide homes for wildlife and plants. One of PRN’s local projects is to press for responsible closure of the Vermilion Power Plant, an aging coal-fired power plant that was recently retired. The land will likely end up in the hands of the state, enlarging the oasis of natural areas along the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River that is anchored by Kickapoo State Park and Kennekuk County Park. So that taxpayers aren’t left with a mess on our hands, Prairie Rivers Network is asking state regulators to require a thorough cleanup of the site, especially of toxic coal ash dumps in the Middle Fork’s floodplain. This is our state’s only National Scenic River! We must do this right and set a standard for responsible coal plant retirement for the rest of Illinois. From helping to organize the first Boneyard Creek clean-up in Champaign-Urbana, to restoration efforts along the great Mississippi River, to working on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp - Prairie Rivers Network is making Illinois a better place to live. For more information about Prairie Rivers Network, check out their website at prairierivers.org.