Director of Religious Education Monthly Report
January/February 2004

Program and Teachers
Teacher Recruitment –
9:00 Teachers: Am having a bit of a crisis with the 9:00 grouping because of a few people leaving, having babies etc… Amber Alexander will be having her baby soon and will be out of the picture for at least a month and a half. Doug Hintz has signed on to take Barb Berry’s advisor role in there, but we need a Sub for Amber and a female assistant. A preschool teacher is needing to change to an assistant role due to stress, and Jessica Kuehn, head teacher in the K-2 class is leaving the end of February due to being accepted into the Peace Corp. So we are down 4 major positions at 9:00. The good news is that the Infant/toddler room at 9:00 now seems to be covered!

At 11:00, things are good…I still need helpers in the Infant/Toddler room

Our Whole Live for K-1 and 4-5:
The Orientation and first classes were very successful. On Tuesday nights, we have a class of 8 4-5th graders, a parent support group and childcare for siblings! Judy Shaw is leading the Parent Group and Karen Austin and Peter Powers are leading the kids. When we offer the K-1 Owl this Spring, Judy and Karen will switch roles. We should be really proud of this Religious Education offering and for the awesome people that lead it!

Coming of Age:
An initial information meeting was held on February 8 after the service and was attended by 10 adults and 7 youth. Two other families couldn’t make it but expressed interest. We hope that we will have a group of 8 or more who would like to participate. Application deadlines are Feb. 15. The first retreat begins February 27-28. Laura Adams is very excited by the interest and we are both currently recruiting mentors and facilitators for the program!

Service Projects:
The kids have been learning about different agencies in Eugene that help animals. The Cascade Raptor center brought in beautiful birds of prey for us to see and shared a lot of great information. The 3-5th grade are sponsoring a donation drive and have set up a table on Feb. 8 and 15 to pass out wish lists for the center.

The Chalicelighters group continue to document RE Life and Activity in their 2004 Scrapbook. Some of the pages will be designed on the 15th. A 5th grade member of the group is also interested in sponsoring a fund raiser to raise money for something the church needs. I will help her design a proposal for the board.

Upcoming plans include for the RE, a “Beautifying Our Church Grounds” day on Feb.15, as well as a visit to Middle School from United Way Youth Volunteerism program. The Earthkeepers plan to rake leaves and clean toys if the weather permits, and also create a beautiful new worship cloth for their worship table. The United Way volunteer will be bringing in small projects for the kids to work on that day.

Special Events
Field Trip to Cascade Raptor Center – We hope to organize a field trip for the Firekeeper and Chalice Lighter groups to deliver donations to Cascade on March 21. Large group programs are taking the most energy right now, so no big events are planned till the spring time sleepovers for K-5th grade and Easter.

Youth
Middle School Conference – we sent 8 Middle School Youth, 3 high school youth, 2 adults and 2 extra drivers to Portland for the annual Middle School conference. The event for 40 kids was held at Atkinson Memorial in Oregon City and the theme this year was “Pirates!” The youth learned pirate language, went on a scavenger hunt, and was visited by pirates! They all came home from the one night event a little sleep deprived, but definitely enthralled! Huge kudos to my colleagues Annie Scott and Sara Cloe for this creative and fabulous event!

Youth Programming – the youth held a planning meeting and sleepover at the end of January. They spent the day helping David Gilmartin move…(David generously gave the group $225 for their Special Fund). They made plans for a monthly worship that individual youth plan and bring to the group. They will be participating in the project with United Way on the 15th and will be helping out with the Coffee project that begins in March.

High School Service Hours – Eric Faulk, a member of the youth group, has begun work on a brochure for the youth group that will be available to give to new people. Eric used more of his hours to learn a little about Microsoft Publisher here at the office, and made a draft copy to show the group. A task force has been formed to work on the content for the brochure.

Middle School Warm Wear Give-Away – This event was held in January, and several members of the group participated in the set up, organizing and delivery of the biggest pile of donations we ever gathered. Along with a donation of coats and clothes from McKenzie Outfitters, we offered over 200 items. We served about 25 families and put the rest of the items into First Place Family Center’s clothing room. This year’s success is due to better advertising of the event (we sent fliers to case managers and agencies that serve the homeless) and a longer donation drive at church. The youth emptied their huge 5 foot box in the lobby 4 times over the holidays!

Tubing Trip – We are gearing up (literally) to haul the Middle School group off to the slopes to snow tube! We will be going out on a Saturday in March! Kids and adults are excited! I know I’ll be there!

Campus Ministry
Worship – Many thanks to Amber Alexander for her help with the campus group in putting together such an amazing service “Sermon to the Sun” on February 1. It was well received and the group put a huge amount of work into it! Kudos to them all!

More people signing on and great leadership I continue to get emails and calls from young adults interested in the group. With the amazing leadership of Rian Heriot and Jan Dubofsky, the group is making it! They are planning events and hopefully will bring their great worship skills to the Bridging Ceremony in May.

Respectfully submitted,

Candee Cole
Director or Religious Education
UU Church in Eugene