Volunteers Needed for Habitat for Humanity Build

Join other UUs in helping build a Habitat for Humanity house this summer. We are staffing work crews for August 3rd from about 8:00am to 3:00pm with lunch provided. You don't need any knowledge of building construction nor do you need to be particularly strong. There are always tasks to do for people of all skill levels! If you are 16 or 17 years old you are welcome to participate as long as your legal guardian is on the build site with you. This is a great way to meet fellow UU's and help a good cause at the same time! If interested please contact Nancy Dietrich (nancydietrich01@gmail.com) to sign up or look for the sign-up sheets in Fellowship Hall after the Sunday morning Service.



 
(Photo is of 2012 Habitat for Humanity Build)

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

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.

Immigration Reform Rally A Success!

Light the Path to Citizenship Rally at UUCUC held April 10th as part of a National Immigration Reform Vigil endorsed by the Standing on the Side of Love campaign.

2013 Auction Donation Catalog Available here

Join us on Saturday, April 13th in the Fellowship Hall for the 30th Annual Service Auction. The event starts at 4:30 pm with a reception in the sanctuary, with silent auction bidding and fixed price items. Dinner is family style at 5:30, followed by a live auction at 6:30. Desserts and coffee will be served after the live auction. Tickets are available after services this Sunday, or you may buy them at the door but RSVP to wchilder57@gmail.com! Tickets are $10 per adult, $5 per child. $30 max for a family and $12 at the door for adults. There is still time to donate an item for the auction. If you would like to make a donation, please contact Jody Hanger at jody@hannauer.net or 351-6756. See you there! The list of items available for bidding are found by clicking Here

More Details about the Crop Walk: April 14th at the UU Church in Urbana

The big day is coming soon! On April 14 our church is hosting the community-wide CROP Hunger Walk. As you know, the six-mile walk will start and end here at the UU Church. Following are a few more details about the event that you may not know. On the day of the walk we will be collecting non-perishable food items to be donated to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank. This is an additional way of donating to the walk that is recommended by the organizers of CROP Walk. In addition to people from our own congregation, walkers from other organizations may be bringing food items as well. We will have a table set up to collect these donations. The UU Walkers are busy collecting donations and/or pledges at this time! A few of us have registered on the C-U CROP Hunger Walk 2013 website, since donations can be made directly online by credit card or Pay-pal. You may want to try this because it is an easy way to collect donations. It is a good idea to collect your pledges as soon as you can. However, don’t worry if you don’t have everything by April 14. You will actually have another 2 weeks to get your donations in to Sandy Hannum and Nancy Dietrich. We appreciate having your envelopes as soon after the walk as you can comfortably manage. The snack providers can bring any kind of hand-held food. Walkers from the entire community will end up here, so we need many, many snacks. We know that this is an area of great expertise in this congregation, and we appreciate your help tremendously!! Snacks can be taken to the church kitchen on the morning of the walk, and must be clearly labeled for CROP Walk so that they are not mistaken for Sunday morning hospitality. The building hosts will be sort of super-welcomers. This important role involves making the walkers from the community feel welcome, directing them to Fellowship Hall where they will find the snacks and drinks, and also the bathrooms. If they should happen to show an interest in our church, then you can take advantage of the opportunity to engage them in a discussion. We will make sure the literature racks are well-stocked! If you signed up to direct traffic we will put you in touch with Esther Portnoy, who will assign you a spot and give you instructions. The Hunger Initiative team thanks everyone for participating in all these different ways!

April Shared Offering: Illini Fighting Hunger

Illini Fighting Hunger is a Registered Student Organization at the University of Illinois, a program of the Wesley United Methodist Church and Foundation, and a Kids Against Hunger satellite organization. The mission of IFH is to address local and international hunger issues by making meal-packaging events more frequent, more accessible, and more effective in Champaign-Urbana. IFH is run entirely by student volunteers. They match trained student leaders with community partners to organize food or meal-packaging events of all sizes. IFH provides the expertise and equipment for packaging, and the networks for purchasing raw food products and supplies and for distributing the final product. The organization putting on the event is then able to focus on fundraising for their event, recruiting volunteers, and educating participants about hunger issues in our community and abroad. Together the partners are able to work very effectively to achieve great things. One example of a successful IFH community project is the rice re-pack in our own church, which was so efficient that we finished it in half the expected time!