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!

Standing on the Side of Love Coffeehouse

From puppet skits and thoughtful readings to family bands, youth performances, and solo acts. What a creative mix of entertainment we had at the March 9 UU Coffeehouse! The Standing on the Side of Love coffeehouse was dedicated to social justice issues, including marriage equality to immigration reform. But performers covered many other topics as well, such as the whimsical evil genius of Skullcrusher Mountain and the puppet who was afraid of being buried in a box ("Just stop it!"). A large and enthusiastic audience cheered over 20 performing groups!

Auction Donation Catalog is 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 (older post) Join all your luucky friends at the annual UUCUC Service auction on Saturday April 13. This year we will have a reception featuring hors d'oeuvres, music by the Ken Smith trio, and beer, wine and soft drinks at the luucky dog saloon. After the reception we will have wonderful Greek dinner and then the main event. At the intermission of the auction we will have drawing for several prizes including a chance to win $20,000 a week for 20 years. If you win, Sam will immediately appear at your side with a pledge form! Remember, if you want to be entered in the drawing you need to buy your auction ticket in March! Also anyone that makes a donation to the auction during March will receive an extra entry in the raffle so get those donations in early!

March Shared Offering: We DREAM, We Act Scholarship Fund

This scholarship fund was established in an effort to provide financial relief to successful undocumented students at the University of Illinois. It is sponsored by La Colectiva, a non-profit student-run organization affiliated with the University Y. The organization was founded to address the various issues that undocumented students face on campus. Aware of the changing demographics in Champaign County, La Colectiva then made a philosophical change to move out of the “campus bubble” and engage with the immigrant community in Champaign-Urbana. Toward this end, La Colectiva has provided mentoring programs for Latino high school students and helped to establish La Linea Latina, a local immigrant helpline. La Colectiva is a collaborative partner with other immigration rights groups in the CU community. Although a national DREAM Act (Developmental, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) did not make it through the U.S. Congress, Illinois did pass its own version in 2011, recognizing the rights of undocumented youth to invest in their education. The goal of the We DREAM, We Act Scholarship is to award financial assistance to worthy students at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University.

Standing on the Side of Love Coffeehouse: UU Church, March 9 at 7p.m.

Come and hear some good music, stories, and other entertainment while you support marriage equality and justice for LGBTQ people, and immigration reform. Do all of this by coming to and helping with the Standing on the Side of Love Coffeehouse on Saturday March 9 at 7 pm in Fellowship Hall. We encourage you to come and perform in the spirit of our theme of social justice, or just in the spirit of socialness. In addition to performers we need helpers who can set up, clean up, and bring desserts. You can sign up by contacting Sandy or Jim Hannum by email (hannum1 at illinois.edu; jwhannum at gmail.com). Childcare will be available at the event, please contact the church at 384-8862 for more information. Or just come and enjoy.

CROP Walk Rally March 7, 7:30 p.m. at UU Church in Urbana

Our church will host a rally for all interested religious groups on March 7 in Fellowship Hall at 7:30 pm. This is basically an informational meeting. If your organization wishes to participate in this important event, you must be present/represented at this informational meeting. If you need more information, please contact the church at 384-8862. The Hunger Initiative Team is happy to announce that the UU Church is the host for this year’s CROP Walk. We were invited to host largely because of the tremendous effort so many of you made last year which enabled us to turn in the third highest donation of all the religious groups in the community that took part in CROP Walk 2012. CROP Hunger Walks are sponsored by Church World Service all over the country. Each walk is organized locally, and involves an interfaith effort throughout the community. Funds that are raised are used to fight hunger both locally and internationally. Founded in 1947, CROP was an acronym for Christian Rural Overseas Program. Its mission was to allow Midwest farms to share their grain with hungry folks in post WW II Europe and Asia. Now the emphasis has shifted somewhat, but the acronym has stuck. Some of the funding still goes overseas to help developing countries obtain seeds, fresh water, and technical expertise. The rest of the funding goes to local agencies that will be designated at the beginning of the campaign. Everyone in the congregation who is interested in participating in the walk will receive a packet of information and forms. Each one will talk to friends and family about the event, and try to collect donations for the cause. The CROP walk will take place on the afternoon of April 14 from 1:30 to around 5pm. Walkers should gather in the sanctuary, then everyone will set off on a 6-mile walk, looping through town and back to the church. We will provide drinks and snacks for the walkers in Fellowship Hall during the afternoon. Watch for more details soon!