Candee Cole, the Director of Religious Education, has been working with the congregation since 1991. She has a B.S. in Elementary Education, is a storyteller and "big group games" leader. With the help and support of the Religious Education Committee and a cadre of congregational volunteers, Candee organizes and develops the weekly classes and groups for children and youth from Infants through High School. She also is the advisor for the Young Adult groups. Candee and the RE Committee also create a full roster of additional community building activities for children, youth and adults. These include such favorite events as the Halloween party, Secret Pals, the Advent Garden, plus much more!

DRE REPORTS -

Director of Religious Education Report
April/May 2006

Youth and Young Adults Programming:
Coming of Age
Credos: The youth met with Carolyn to work more on the belief statements. Carolyn brought a worksheet for the youth to help them hash out what they believe about god, truth, life, death, etc…

Ropes Course: 11 youth and mentors participated in the Spencer Butte Challenge course. They worked on exercises of trust (trust falls from 4+ feet in the air!) and harnessed up to climb a 20+ foot pole. At the top of the pole, with their support team below helping to hold them up, the climber would stand on the narrow end of the pole and leap while yelling an intention for the future and would grab a rope to ring a bell. David Atkin, a mentor and COA support person, took the training as a facilitator and was there in training. It will be nice to have his knowledge and energies at future COA ropes course events!

Mentors and Projects: The youth are finishing up their mini-projects and hours with their mentors as they move towards completion of the program!

Middle School
Middle School Family Worship Service: Alex Phillips, Maya Phillips, Allison and Lydia Barger, Jackson Hays and Bailey Bernheine represented the middle school youth at the family worship in may. They le the service with the theme of earth stewardship. They read a story and led songs. This was the first time leading worship for many of them.

Youth
Kat Schmidt, Skye Rios, and past youth group member, Julian Michels attended the youth conference in late April. Dennis Reynolds sponsored the youth.

Three youth, Alexa Engelmann, Kat Schmidt and Nathan Heldt will be worship associates for the youth Sunday service on May 21. They are planning a thank you ceremony ofr the youth advisors.

Young Adults
Building Your Spiritual Home: This young adult workshop has been a fun and enriching experience. About 12 people have been participating and the group has been contemplating concepts external and internal spiritual home. The final meeting is May 15 and they will be planning a community service project as well as a fun get together.

Continental Leadership Training: 2 young adults from our congregation were chosen to represent the PNWD district at Radius, a young adult leadership development and networking conference. Sara Cowling and Amber Alexander flew to Denver, Co for this, and have brought back energy and ideas that will benefit the district and our local programming.

Events
Easter
Maureen Warman and Amy Samson were hugely helpful this year in both making the egg hunt happen and creating fun projects for the kids to do during class. We made up treat bags for Middle and High school youth and gave away eggs to all the younger kids. We gave out nearly 100 bags or eggs again this year! We are talking about changing Easter next year, as the paper mache egg workload is getting harder to manage each year. We will pose the question to the families next year to see if new ideas and new leaders will step forward to help.

Family Potluck A disappointing attendance this time with only two families showing up. The event was on a Tuesday night, which is difficult for some families. I am rethinking family potlucks, and am considering making Spring family gatherings at a park on nice days, with pizza provided for fee or some similar idea. This may help families getting off of work get to the events easier.

Our Whole Lives Parent Info Meeting: Peter Powers, Karen Austin and Judy Shaw led a parent meeting with about 8-10 families in attendance. They covered some of the program high lights, showed videos from the “Raising Healthy Kids” series that we borrowed from Planned Parenthood and the Corvallis congregation, and answered parents questions. The Owl program are scheduled for July and August and will be offered as 5 day summer camps.

Upcoming Events and Happenings
Coming of Age Council of Elders and Men’s/Women’s Circles: The 6 youth will meet on May 13 with Elders from our congregation (Kathy Dillon, Gil Osgood, Al Landy, and August Sabini) the council will ask the youth questions about their journey and offer words of wisdom and support as well as serving as witnesses to the youth’s experience.

The male youth will then meet in a men’s circle with UU men: Jake Walsh, David Atkin, Larry Cummings and Doug Hintz to have a ritual and talk about rights, responsibilities and respect. The one female youth will meet with me, Laura Admas and Jasmine Greene, a UU young adult and Wiccan. We will hold a special ritual and discussion around the three Rs and aspects of the feminine.

Youth Sunday: The Coming of Age youth will share about their experiences, will read their belief statements in front of their congregation. We will also honor the adults who have been supporting youth this year.

Teacher Appreciation Sunday: The teachers and assistants will be honored at the beginning of each service and we will hold a reception and family worship combo between services. We will serve cake and Rich Glauber will be playing music leading songs as all church members honor the RE volunteers. There will be an open mic time for children and youth to give praise.

Moving Up Ceremony: We will honor children entering Kindergarten, and youth entering Middle School and High School on June 11. Other children who will be moving into a new class group in the fall will be honored in their individual classrooms.

High School Group Rafting Trip: The youth will go rafting on June 23. They will be inviting incoming youth!

Summer Program: Chaira Ihnat is planning our Summer Sunday Funday program. “Heroic Kids” is the theme and she will do activities and games around empowering kids to be leaders and stewards.

Summer Daycamps: The Day Camp flier is finally completed and we are receiving registration for the Owl camps and the Wizard camp! I am very excited to offer this kind of programming for kids in the summer and to help kids stay connected to their UU community all year long!

Administration
RE Office! Having an office assistant is AWESOME. Do I need to say more? If he isn’t helping me sort ancient boxes of papers, he is doing other work to free me to sort and file. I am working on clearing a 2 square foot section per week. At this rate, I’ll have a real office by August!

Library materials moved to gallery: The assistant, Sean, helped me move the three shelf loads of library books and supplies out of the Re shed and upstairs to the gallery area. The shed is also now ready for sorting and organizing and that will get underway during the month of May.

Office Assistant one month review: With input from Kim and Carolyn, I put together the one month review of our assistant. Kim and I met with Sean to go over our needs, what was working, and what needs improvement. We were able to hear from Sean about what parts of the job are working for him and what frustration exists.

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Director of Religious Education Report
March/April 2006

Youth and Young Adult Programming

Coming of Age Program
• Coming of Age Community Service Project – Five of the COA youth served lunch to 90 men experiencing homelessness in Portland a fabulous spaghetti dinner with salad, bread and brownies. They were given a standing ovation in the end and all of the youth report that it felt very worthwhile. A million blessings to Bonnie Romane, Middle School advisor and Chris Nunes, co-advisor and COA planning team member for taking the youth up the night before and supporting them through the cooking process! One youth reported “Now I really understand what it is like being a chef! Suddenly you need an ingredient and you have to yell across the room…Hey I need the onions!”
• Coming of Age Vision Quest – The original plan was to take the youth out to the same site in Reedsport as the last time. But a new opportunity arose and we grabbed the opportunity. Two youth educators in town were referred to me. Darren Reilley and David Malone are experienced Vision Questers and David holds sweat lodge ceremonies on his property off of Fox Hollow. I met with them and we talked about our UU Vision Quest experience (as opposed to the traditional style). They offered to take the youth through a ceremonial sweat and talk with them about Rites of Passages, as well as assist us with a Men’s Society circle. This is such an exciting opportunity, and a bit of a stretching experience for the youth, as this will include a bit of fasting on top of their solitary time at their individual sites. We will also be offering a women’s circle for the one girl in the program, and a death-mask activity where the youth symbolize the death of their childhood and the rebirth into adulthood.

Middle School Group
• Middle School Trip to Portland –The Middle School tripto Portland was an amazing experinece, with18 youth in attendance. The highlight of the trip was the Hindu temple in Tigard. This 5 million dollar temple houses 13 Hindu gods as well as Buddha and the Madonna and Child! The youth visited the Oregon Buddhist Temple, the B’hai Temple, Temple Beth Israel, the large synagogue and 1st Unitarian church. We spent our evening play time at Lloyd Center ice skating and shopping.

Young Adult Programs
• Both Young Adults Groups have been very active! Ice cream socials, dessert potluck and games, milk and cookies, board game nights and movies. The groups are having a great time together and have a full line-up of activities planned for April. About 8(ish) people from Eugene attended the recent Young Adult conference in Washington.


Curriculum and Programs

Easter
• Paper Mache Eggs –Between last year’s leftovers and eggs made this year, we have 88 eggs to give away on Sunday the 16th and 30 youth treat bags. This may be the last year of the paper mache egg unless people come forward to resurrect it (no pun intended) next year. Egg hunt helpers Amy Samson and Maureen Warman worked with me to stuff eggs and will be the main coordinators on Easter. Amy has researched and come up with a plethora of Easter crafts for the kids to make. The teachers will be back in the classroom this week (after 2 weeks off) and will lead the kids in their morning rituals, and help them with craft making. Then after the service, the kids will be let loose to search for ONE paper mache egg filled with fun prizes.

Curriculum Highlights
• Preschool diversity awareness and body education – Three preschool classes were offered this term on body awareness for preschool. A special letter went out to parents regarding the content. One week was on body parts…nose, arms, sensory etc. The second week was on babies and where they come from (age appropriate), and the third week was on disability awareness. For this week Leslie Gilbert came in and read a story to the children and talked about her wheelchair. We borrowed a wheelchair from The Arc of Lane County for the children to sit in and try out.
• Model Passover Seder – Rich Glauber and I led two Model Seder programs on April 9 to connect the kids to their Judaism lessons and to provide a fun activity program for the kid’s since the teachers were off and to help draw families to the stewardship program upstairs. 72 children and youth attended representing 43 families. The kids sang songs with Rich, heard the story of Passover from Candee, went through the prayers and rituals and got to eat matzah ball soup.

Our Whole Lives
• OWL planning meeting – Judy Shaw, Peter Powers and Karen Austin met to plan the upcoming Owl summer camps, parent info meetings, and orientations.
• Young Adult OWL - I am considering applying to Field Test the Young Adult version of Our Whole Lives. We only need to have leaders who have been trained in Youth OWL to run this program. Still information gathering at this point.

Summer Planning
• Summer coordinator found! Chiara Ihnat, one of our childcare providers and a student in a teacher training program, will lead our summer program for K-5th grades. The topic is being developed, but she is working on a theme of Heroic Children (Kids who have made a difference)
• Summer Day Camps - Planning is under way for UU day camps this summer…a morning program on a theme topic and an afternoon activity program for kids whose parents are at work. These camps would be mostly self-sustaining by fees from the parents. Julia Fishwick and possibly Chiara Ihnat are on board so far for staff. One camp would be UU Hogwarts, and the other three will be partially volunteer led OWL camps for K-1 and 4-5 grade.

Religious Education Committee
• Spring Retreat at Reedsport – The group met April 1-2 at Lisi Agterberg’s family farm (125 years old) along the Smith and Umpqua rivers! The group worked hard on creating exciting curriculum themes for next year to spruce up our “UU Identity” year. We worked with feedback from families, and planned special community building events that will help support family connections during the interim year.

Upcoming Events and Happenings

• Teacher meetings – Teachers will be meeting at the end of April to plan the end of the church year and find support and check in with each other.

• Native American, Neo-Pagan and Wiccan speakers –Are being lined up to speak in the K-8th grade classes for May.

• Family potluck – May 2, For all RE families …will include crafts and karaoke for older kids and parents!

• COA Ropes Course and Credo Workshop – The Coming of Age youth will participate in the Credo workshop with Carolyn at the end of the month, and will be going to the ropes challenge course at Spencer Butte in the final stages of their program.

• Youth Conference – We will send two youth and one sponsor to the district conference for youth/

• Bridging – One youth will be Bridging this year! Maya Rios will be our only Bridger from youth group.

• Building Your Spiritual Home class – I will be co-leading this young adult class with Amber Alexander for 5 Mondays this term. Looking forward to the curriculum as it is filled with fun exercises and some hands-on activities as well! We will be offering it at the U of O campus most likely and some young adults with children will participate and we are offering childcare.

• Sunny Sunday and Potential changes in RE volunteer Organization – the RE committee will be making SUNNY Sunday (funny) announcements a few Sundays in May and will set up recruitment tables May 21 and in early June. We are looking at changing the structure of the volunteer program this year to give our regular teachers a break and to get other members of the congregation into Re for shorter commitment times. More info to come!

What Have I Been Up To?
• Voted as Co-President of Religious Directors Association on Campus
• Went to Vancouver, BC for Eliot Board Meeting and some friend catch-up time
• Created a weeks worth of meals for one Re family who welcomed their 5th child into the world last month!

Respectfully submitted,
Candee Cole, DRE

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Director of Religious Education Report
February/March 2006

Teachers and Program
• Had three assistant positions open through the entire month of February. They are finally filled as of March 1.
• RE Committee supported me in getting curriculum packets copied and in dividers. I wrote or rewrote over 20 lessons for this term.
• Held a teacher meeting and potluck as well as advisors meetings and an assistant training in late January to go over the new term’s curriculum. Individual orientations were schedule throughout February and March for people who missed the group meetings.
• Childcare list/instructions is finally complete and was given out at leadership council and sent out by email to committee heads.
• 2-5th grade classes were visited by two Buddhist presenters, Debra Savelle came in and spoke about Zen practice, and Jake Walsh presented on Tibetan Buddhism.
• RE Committee took February off since I was out of town for most of the month. They focused on supporting the program for the two Sundays that I was gone. They have planned a committee retreat for April1-2 where they will focus their energy on organizing an exciting program next year. Our intent is to prepare a dynamic theme program for the interim year and beyond!
• The World Religions Film Festival, created and organized by Judy Shaw and supported by RE Committee members and other church members, has been very successful with 20-30 people in attendance. The videos have been accompanied by a presenter, who answered questions and commented on the film.
• Our holiday celebrations have been a big success. Besides the amazing Chinese New Year with lion dancers, writing in Chinese, tasting CNY foods and crafts, as well as the dragon parade for the adults. On March 5, K-5th grade celebrated the Hindu holiday of Holi. The kids tastes Indian sweets, learned about the brightly colored joyful holiday, and K-1 got to splatter paint, while 2-5th grade painted each others white t-shirts with handprints.
• DRE Advisory Committee is currently preparing a new contract, completed a budget request for my package, and working on the evaluation form for me and the RE program. A lot is happening at once for that group!

Events
• RE Family Potluck was most attended by families with younger children. Chris Phillips and Kay Crider hosted the event in the sanctuary and Angie Pebworth led everyone in parachute games.
• Family Worship was led by Lynn Smith and the Spirit Choir in March. Since we are starting to learn about Judaism, they did the story of Moses and the 10 Commandments. They sang a song of the commandments and created a great skit. There will be no FW in April and the next one will be led by the Middle School.
• Stewardship Sunday on April 9 – I am putting together a Seder program with Rich Glauber (as well as another coordinator from the synagogue not yet chosen) for the children so there is fun and exciting things happening downstairs! We will be using a chunk of the childcare budget to pay several non-UUs to come in and create this program.
• Starting to gear up for Easter and I am putting together my planning team for the egg hunt.

Youth
• Youth advisors supported Kat Schmidt through the death of her grandmother.
• Middle School held a very well attended pizza and movie night at advisor’s Alicia Hays home.
• Middle School attendance is thriving. Kids seem to be bonded and the adults seem to be having a great time. The group has also welcomed Debra Savelle and Jake Walsh (Debra visited the High School group as well) as their Buddhist visitor. And had Joan Bayliss in to speak on Judaism.
• Created a large registration packet for the Middle School Field Trip. Plans are underway for taking 17 middle school youth to Portland mid-March to visit houses of worship. The group will visit a Hindu temple, Buddhist temple, a synagogue and 1st Church.
• Youth group attendance seems to be wavering a bit and I will be working with the advisors to see what can be done. We will be sending youth to the next conference and they have made some plans of sending one of their members off to a leadership development event (either Goldmine or GA or both).
• Coming of Age
- Youth have been matched with mentors and a mentor orientation and criminal checks have been completed
- Youth have completed two COA classes. The February class led by Laura Adams and Chris Nunes was on Values Development and Identity. The March class with Laura and Candee was to plan the meal they will serve in their community service project and to create plaster death masks, which they will further create at the Vision Quest.
- The Coming of Age project in Portland will be for “Transitions Projects, INC”. TPI has three shelters, two for men experiencing homelessness (90 each) and one for women. We will drive the youth to Portland Friday night March 17 and they will stay overnight. On Saturday morning, they will prepare a lunch to feed 90 men and will serve them. Afterwards they will join the rest of the Middle School field trip.

Young Adults
• Campus group held game nights and other activities but have been experiencing low attendance. They have planned two events for March and we are working on beefing up the phone tree and communication to see if more people come.

• More young adults than ever are in our congregation! There is a large amount of YA folks in the newcomers class and more and more are signing up to help in RE and inquiring about activities. So hopefully this new infusion of energy will help pick up attendance.

• TNT is having a dessert and “get-to-know-ya” night at the end of March to plan upcoming events. About 7 new people have expressed interest in making this happen!

Respectfully submitted,
Candee Cole, DRE

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Report of the Director of Religious Education
November/December 2005

Teachers
• Teachers and assistants seem to be having fun this year. The curriculum is rich and rewarding
•  There were a few bumps since the last report, with a few volunteers deciding not to be in the classroom and last minute deciding to finish the term. Finally, I had to only cover a preschool assistant in January. Everyone else was able to complete the term. Now we are back to recruitment and it looks like we need approximately 4 teachers and 5 assistants for next term.

Curriculum
• It was a very fun December. Highlights include the 2-5th grade groups working on props and backdrops for the pageant while learning about Las Posadas and Yule/Winter Solstice. The kids and teachers made beautiful backdrops, a giant dreidel, altars for the 4 directions and two Mexican star piñatas for the pageant.
•  Middle School visited an Episcopal church and had a Quaker visitor
• High school had a great conversation about holiday traditions and what parts of their current celebration they will take with them in their adulthood.

Events/Programs
• The Middle/High School Family Potluck was well attended. Alicia Hays brought in a cool World Religions poster project and the youth and adults grouped up to make them. We displayed them in the social hall for the month of December.
• The Advent Garden was as beautiful as ever. We served 107 participants that night. Amy Raven located two additional harpists who gave her a break and played duets. Very nice! Thanks to Matt McDonald and Daniel Blades for supplying us with greenery. Elizabeth Weber bought apples and candles, and several helpers showed up that afternoon to set up and take down!
• The Coming of Age program kicked off with a sleepover in December. The event, which was mostly social was well received by the youth and they bonded over the game “Silent Football”.
• The Celebrations of Light Pageant was a lot of work and a lot of fun. Lisi Agterberg, Bonnie Romane, Anndee Lloyd-Burchett and Linda Meyer worked with me to create this fun service. It was very well received and it was great fun working with Rich Glauber again. He gifted us with original Hanukkah songs and played other songs for Las Posadas and Yule. The kids and adults were awesome and learned their parts in two rehearsals (some of them in just one rehearsal!) Hali Burley added costumes to our bin! And Linda Meyer created awesome props. Lots of good feelings came out of this endeavor!
•  Family Yule Celebration – Vicky Scheuerell, Kara Knebel, Rachel Cummings and Pam Dillehay with many other helpers put on a great Yule celebration. There was a fun, interactive calling of the four directions, candle lighting in the dark, and then afterwards, some really fun craft projects and music from Michael Mattick. I love that we honor many people’s traditions at the holidays and this one was very appreciated with at least 30 people in attendance!
• Christmas Eve felt really great this year. I was more prepared than usual and Carolyn and I put together a fun service for the families.  I told the same story at each service, which was great for me (less stress) and we gave away a gift of a Christmas ornament at each service.
• Warm Wear Give-Away – We collected 10 bags and boxes of personal care products and over 20 coats, and a hundred pairs of mittens, gloves and hat/scarves sets. The LEAD group came and picked up donations of snow gear for their youth program.

Miscellaneous
• Office help – Many thanks to Suzanne Whaley for coming in and helping me get piles of files put away, work on mailings, and prep family packets. She definitely helped me keep my sanity in December. Looking forward to that new office assistant! Kim and I will be working on a job description this week.
• Room change – The K-1 grade class has been averaging 9-10 kids at each service and were set up in the smallest room downstairs. Our custodian Matt and I moved furniture around last weekend and switched them with the 2-3rd grade group, who have been getting 4-6 kids per week.

Young Adults
• November events were great fun.  Several TNT folks showed up for Sweets and Sweet Life, and we had a great Sushi class with the campus group. A smaller turn out at Cosmic Bowling, probably because of the holiday weekend.
• December Movie and Cookie Decorating – Campus group joined me at my home for a movie and decorating of holiday cookies. The masterpieces were delicious! 10 people cozied in to my living room and everyone stayed talking till midnight A great way to start the holidays before break! They planned a White Elephant gift exchange for January to exchange weird gifts they received over the holidays!

Upcoming Stuff
• Coming of Age “Beginning the Journey” retreat will be the 20th-21st. It will include challenge and deepening exercises as well as a “ceremony of separation” for the youth and parents.
• Warm Wear Give Away – Because of changes at First Place Family center, this is probably our last year collecting Warm Wear. I will work with a small group of youth to hold an event to disperse items that we collected out to families.
• Curriculum/teacher meetings – We are currently copying and writing lessons and putting together teacher packets. I will hold a series of check in meetings with the teacher this month to go over next term’s schedule.
• The Chinese New year celebration will be held on January 29. My planning team is coming up with lots of fun and cool visitors from the Chinese American Benevolent society.
• World Religions Film Festival starts the month of January. This festival, organized by Judy Shaw, co-chair of the religious education committee, will show feature films that touch on different religions, corresponding with the children and youth’s R.E. curriculum.

What have I been up to:
• Attending Eliot Camp as dean was fun and rewarding. I was able to lead a storytelling workshop, run a storytelling circle, play parachute games with kids, participate in tomfoolery with my co-dean, have my original young adult group of friends back together, and DJ the New year’s dance!

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Director of Religious Education Report
October/November 2005

Teachers and Recruitment
• Holly-Lou-Yuh! All the teachers and assistants have been recruited! Thanks to Amy Samson who stepped forward to teach in the preschool and Deb Messinger who volunteered to assist in the 4-5th grade class!

Curriculum
• Members of the RE committee stepped in to support curriculum needs. We held a meeting and the lessons that either needed to be written or spruced up were split up between the group Almost all of the lessons are finished for the rest of Fall term. World Religions year is a very labor intensive theme year, but oh so fun! It is also time to start organizing the Spring term lessons!
• The Muslim visitors we had the month of October were so generaous and wonderfully informative. It was impressive! We were gifted with many things, including two Qu’rans, 2 videos, and reference resources on Women in Islam.

Events
• 8 families attended the preschool/baby room potluck. Kids and parents had a great time! Parents exchanged numbers for childcare sharing, and I held a story time with the children at the end of the evening together. Many of the families are new to us this year.
• Coming of Age Parent Information Meeting – 4 families attended. 4 other interested families contacted me. We hope to hold the program with at least 8 youth this year. Deadline for applications are coming up and we will begin recruiting mentors from the congregation over the next month to start in January.
• Halloween Party – modified and simplified this year. Only a few glitches caused by the office phones getting changed over Thursday night and volunteer miscommunication while I was gone on my trip. Many new families jumped in and helped this year too, bringing a new, fun energy to the day. The Haunted Hike went smoothly and was a lot of fun. We shut down early however because the line was shorter this year. It was noted that more and more families with younger children attend this party. Often there are activity nights at elementary and middle schools the Friday before Halloween. We served about 80 children at the party according to the amount of game tickets handed out at the door. We gave away at least 17 cakes, and about 20 door prizes.
• Parent Class – Disappointedly had to be cancelled due to lack of enrollment. I will create an email poll to find out from families if a certain day/time works better for them. Carolyn and I are doubtful that we can find dates in the Spring to hold this, but we are looking into it.
• Family Worships – Family worships started back up in October with the first one being led by Susan Goes on the topic of Islam. I led the November on “The Loaves and The Fishes (abundance) and we took an offering to give to a local food charity. Several families were in attendance and it was quite fun! The December family service will be on Las Posadas and will be led by Judy Shaw and Pam Dillehay.
• Warm Wear Collection – Middle School will begin preparing for the Warm Wear Give-Away program. Collection begins on November 27 and ends Christmas Eve.

Middle/High School Youth
• Middle School trip to the local mosque went very well, although it went long. They were served milk and dates and were able to observe the prayer.
• Middle School youth went to the Haunted Corn maze on Sunday the 23, High School went on Saturday the 29th.
• Middle School will visit Resurrection Episcopal church in November for Holy Eucharist and interview with Father Parker.
• The district youth conference trip went smoothly and the conference was enjoyed and organized well! Thanks to Dennis Reynolds and David Pebworth for carting youth up north!
• High school group met with me to learn about their budget and accounts. They have also set a programming schedule. They will attend the first part of the service one the 1st Sunday, hold a worship on the 2nd Sunday, a discussion on the 3rd and a special event/outing on the 4th Sunday. They have also requested healthy breakfast food as their snack in the morning.

Young Adults
• Corn Maze – 6 people attended the Haunted Corn Maze
• TNT Movie night – 6 people gathered for dessert and the movie “Mystery Science Theatre 3000”
• November Campus Group plans include a Sushi night and a game night. TNT group is meeting for dessert at Sweet Life and going Cosmic Bowling.

Upcoming Stuff
• Middle/High School Family potluck – November 12
• Pageant – Committee has been formed for “The Celebrations of Light” pageant . Bonnie Romane, Lisi Agterberg, Anndee Lloyd-Burchett and Linda Meyer will work with me this year. I am very excited to have such a great committee!
• Advent Garden – Planning is underway. Two families have expressed interest in running this service.
• Teacher Meetings – Head Teachers will gather for a potluck on November 13 to talk about their experiences in the classroom and to do some planning for the winter holidays. Middle School advisors will gather the following Sunday, the 20th for a meeting to do the same.

Respectfully submitted,
Candee L. Cole, DRE

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June/July 2005

**Please note, this report is abbreviated due to time constraints. I have begun working on the annual report, reviewing curriculum and am preparing to head of to camp.

What have I been up to:

• Hogwarts summer Funday program has been successful and I have been working a lot with Julia Fishwick in developing fun activities and bringing in interesting visitors. We have been getting about 30 K-5th graders each week and another 10-15 babies and preschoolers. This has been the biggest year ever.
• I have spent a lot of time helping Julia prep for her activities.
• Created a promotional packet w/ registration information to mail out to visiting families (over the past year) that promoted the World Religions year as well as the other programs we will be offering this year.
• I have started the long arduous process of writing the annual report. I plan to have it to the board in August at some point.
• Planning for Coming of Age.
  
• Continue to work on organizing and cleaning up the classrooms.
  
• Have scheduled a filing party with Gail Ragsdale to work on organizing resources in the RE office.
  
• I am reading the World Religion Year curriculum, one age group at a time to evaluate and update as needed.
  
• Attended the wedding of Tandi Rogers (PNWD RE Consultant) and my long time friend Alex Koerger, in Tacoma, Wa. Many Eliot Institute and district/UU Church folks attended. It was a beautiful ceremony and site.

Teacher Recruitment: I will begin recruiting teachers and assistants at the end of July upon my return from Eliot Institute.

Room 6: Awaiting the completion of room 6 so I can begin to prepare for the Fall. It is my hope to get it painted and floors updated if possible (carpet and tile?)

Teacher Training: Is scheduled for the last weekend of August. I am planning a separate youth and middle school leader retreat for possibly early September.

Peace Pole: The Peace Pole class will be a small group, but plans are moving forward and we still intend to complete the pole in August. The class will run 2 hours on August 6 and 3 hours on August 20. The class will most likely be glazing and watching their pieces fired out at the artist’ property on the 20th.

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May/June 2005

Events and Services

• Dr. Seuss Bridging ceremony was wonderful with heartfelt words from our 9 Bridging youth. The group spent some of their coffee store earnings to go out to lunch afterwards. 20 people attended the lunch at Chapalas. It was a perfect day.
• Peace Pole Pre-Dedication – a short ceremony with Rich Glauber and the Spirit Choir, singing and the story of the playground…how it came to be. We doused it with holy water…and “prepared it” for transformation!
• Teacher Appreciation – Honored the teachers on June 5 with gifts and a cook out. Mindy Carmichael of “The Art of Recycling”, a Saturday Market vendor, designed a recycled can night light with a chalice and gave us a huge discount! Also, Jaguar Glass made up glass gems with etched chalices and gave them to us at wholesale! We will be able to order any glass item with that chalice on it in the future!
• Church Cook-out – We fed people 70 beef dogs and 23 _ vegie dogs! Weather was sketchy, but it was nice hanging out and visiting. Some people brought cards or good words for the teachers and of there was cake!

Teachers

• SUNNY Sundays and Sign ups – We held three SUNNY Sunday sign up days and got several interested people to say they would help in the classroom next year.
• Room clean up – To Do lists have been hung in the major classrooms for the teachers to work on. Whatever they don’t get done, will be worked on this summer at another RE work party.
• Teacher Meeting – A teacher dinner meeting was held to go over how things went on the sabbatical, to give feedback on the curriculum and to fill out an evaluation. People seemed to really enjoy the extended amount of time that we had to go over issues and I think I will go to this format next year. It is really difficult to cram a meeting in between service.

Summer Update

• Peace Pole Class – Lucy McIver has agreed to hold the Peace Pole class this summer and we have set dates for August 6 and 20. The children will create clay tiles with Peace Symbols and words and they will be attached to our peace pole. It will be dedicated in the Fall.
• Hogwarts UU School of Wisdom and Wizardry – Julia Fishwick has agreed to be the paid leader of this program. This is going to be fun, people! Each Sunday this Summer will be a different Hogwarts class! Potions, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures. This will be for K-5th grade. Preschool and under will have activities and play time.
• Curriculum Development – The World Religions Curriculum is basically ready to go and I will working on it more this summer. I will be focussing on how to make the K-1 grade curriculum a little more age appropriate. I will also be rescheduling speakers and visits to other faith communities for the kids. The WW year is a very rich year that requires a lot of conducting on my part!
• Reinventory of the shed and office filing -- This WILL get done this summer. IT WILL!!!!

Youth

• Goldmine Leadership School – We will be sending 1-3 youth to leadership school this summer!
• Middle School Advisor dinner meeting – We had a great conversation about ideas for next year, behavior issues, and planning a final party for MS and incoming youth. The leaders will be holding a “Capture the Flag” party and picnic for the families of Middle School youth. This will take place in June.
• OWL – OWL had its final party and meeting and will be honored at the June 12 service.

UU Young Adults

• Campus Group – Nothing has happened with Campus Group since my return, We will be hitting a reset button on that program in the Fall. I have heard that there are some incoming Corvallis youth coming to U of O, and some of our own staying in town as well.
• TNT has been organized by Angie and David Pebworth over the year. Their last event for a while is this weekend. They will be going on a hike. A game night and potluck will be planned for later in the summer/early Fall.

Things to Do:

• Recruit summer program helpers
• Write the annual report
• Find book sale helpers for the kids book section
• Meet with YAC to redesign youth program for next year.
• Begin reviewing next year’s curriculum
• Getting the youth room redecorated and back in shape.
• Organize an RE work party
• Hold the Peace Pole class
• Recruit and meet with Coming of Age team for next year.
• Recruiting teachers for the World Religions year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
• Meet with Senior High and Elementary OWL leaders to plan next year.
• Meet with Young Adults to plan next year
  
• Hold a Teacher orientation
  
  Respectfully submitted,
  Candee Cole
  

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April/May 2005

Debrief Meetings
Since my return, I met with the RE committee, DRE Advisory Committee, Youth advisors, Jennifer Sorenson regarding childcare, Angie Pebworth regarding young adults, the Stream Team planners, Judy Shaw on curriculum and OWL, Daniel Blades regarding OWL, and Jane Wagner regarding the Stewardship Dinner Childcare.

Bridging Ceremony/Worship Planning
Amber Alexander, Aubree Johnson and Nick Carlson will be working with me to create the Bridging service this year. We have about 8 youth participating, and many are long time attendees of our community. It will be a very moving and fun service. We will be using the wit and wisdom of Theodore Geisel…or Dr. Seuss.

Youth Advisor Meeting
Met with the youth advisors to get an update on how the youth program faired over my sabbatical. Both advisors are very tired and burnt out having served the youth for 3-4 years! The group attendance dropped a bit, mostly due to “senior-itis”, many of the group members are graduating this year. There have been about 6 steady attendees.

They also reported that the last conference was a little bumpy because of last minute registration process and confusion about the youth budget. The YAC assisted as they could, but the process was still very stressful for Patti.

Plans have been made to honor the two advisors at the May 15 ceremony. Such a long and deep commitment deserves great kudos from the whole congregation!

Update on UU Young Adults group
Angie Pebworth and Aubree Johnson report that the campus based “UU Young Adults” group has kind of fizzled since the sabbatical and meetings have been cancelled. Local young adults will meet with me this summer to figure out how to proceed in the Fall. It is possible that a young adult leader and I will be offering a course for 18-25 year olds on “Finding your Spiritual Path” in the Fall.

Stream Team Success
With great organizational skills, Verna Tuesday, Terry Duffy and Lorna Baldwin created an amazing opportunity for our congregation to reach out to our community! 85 adults and children attended a very rainy workday at Alton Baker Park, where we transplanted baby plants, cleared non-native plants from the river areas, built raised beds and spread bark. It was an amazing feat we should all be proud of! Can’t wait till next year!

OWL Update
The OWL class is an exuberant group of youth! They have been meeting with Daniel Blades and Karen Austin since February. I stepped in to assist Daniel with a class while Karen was away. They are planning a sleepover in May where they will cover several lessons. I am recruiting chaperones to step in and be with the youth overnight so that Karen and Daniel can get their rest for the next day. Judy Shaw is coordinating parents to bring in breakfast items the next day and serve the kids.

Unfortunately, one participant had to be asked to leave the group last month because of behavior issues. Half of the fee has been reimbursed. The group seems to be very bonded and has fun together. The only major issue seems to be some lack of respect during check in that goes beyond regular middle school stuff. I have asked the leaders to raise expectations of the group and work on a more respectful atmosphere. Other than that, it seems a great success and Karen and Daniel also deserve great kudos for the amount of time and energy that it takes to offer a 26-28 week class.

Stewardship Dinner
Jane Wagner handled the children’s childcare and program this year. (Yay Jkane!) We had 6 providers come in and be with our 30-some kids. They also were visited by professional storyteller, Jeff Defty, who told stories on stewardship and community development…like “Stone Soup” and “Palm Wine” (this story will come to the congregation sometime in the future, and then you will know what it is). The kids worked on banners in separate groups and then connected them together before marching in at the end to sing Spirit of Life with the adults. Four youth assisted with parking as well.

Stories and Worship
April 30-May 1 was a huge weekend for me! I led two songs Saturday night, told a story and led a song on Sunday morning at each service and co-led the Family Worship service with local musician, Rob Tobias. I told another story for that service and helped Rob lead a few of his original tunes!

Youth Room
The youth room has been quarantined until the wall and mold issues have been dealt with. When the FC took down the bookshelves in the Library/Youth room, they found a patched up area that used to be a door. The wall had rotted and there was an amazing amount of mold. The room is now closed to groups and I am requesting that the door not be left open between that room and the next. After the repairs and removal of books and shelves, we will be having the room cleaned in detail, including carpets and couches. We will also be removing the very old (and still loved) but very moldy pillows. I will be contacting Rob Bokich who made and donated the pillows YEARS AGO (1980s), about the state of the pillows and to let him know how much his donation has been appreciated.

Teacher/Assistant challenges
There are still huge holes in the preschool and baby rooms. A great sign up sheet was created by Elaine E., but recently, parents have not been directed to it, so there were uncovered days. This is happening also in the baby room. This is serious because during early drop off, it has meant the teachers have found themselves alone with kids in the room. I sent out an alert to a few people last week and got last Sunday covered easily, but still have big slots open for the rest of May. Also, one teacher from the 1100 got a job that has prevented her form coming to class. Vickie Scheuerell has stepped in to assist and I now need to find an assistant to cover Vickie’s shifts. All four Middle School advisors may be MIA on the Bring Recycling Day on May 15. So a few helpers are needed there. Hopefully people will continue to step in and assist to help us get to the end of this church school year!

Upcoming Teacher Appreciation and All Church Cook-Out
We will appreciate the teachers and hold an all church cook out on June 5. A short appreciation ceremony will happen as part of the service and then after the second service, we will hold a picnic in their honor, with open mic opportunities to honor them with toasts.

Graduation – “Moving Up”
Children/Middle School youth entering the next grouping will be honored at a “Moving Up” ceremony on June 12. The teachers will hand out certificates and small gifts.

Peace Pole Update
Lucy McIver, the artist who was scheduled to offer our Peace Pole class is back in town from her family emergency. She has expressed interest in offering the Peace Pole class this summer, probably in July/August. We will dedicate the Peace Pole in May, transform it over the summer, and re-dedicate it in its new state in the Fall.

Things to Do: (A little list of what has been on my mind lately! I’m baaaccckkk!) These are the things I will be working on from now till the end of summer…

By end of June:
• Find assistants for Babies and Preschool for the next 4 Sundays
• Finish meeting with youth for Bridging
• Look for photos of Bridgers for memory books
• Organize a teacher meeting
• Plan the Peace Pole ceremony
• Plan teacher appreciation ceremony
• Plan graduation ceremony/make certificates
• Buy gifts for teachers and graduates
• Recruit All Church Picnic planners and coordinators
• Schedule the Peace Pole summer class.
• Find a summer program coordinator
• Recruit summer program helpers
• Write the annual report
• Find book sale helpers for the kids book section
• Make a mailing to families about upcoming happenings
• Plan final family service with Rich Glauber
• Meet with YAC to redesign youth program for next year.

By the end of summer
• Begin reviewing next year’s curriculum
• Getting the youth room redecorated and back in shape.
• Organize an RE work party
• Hold the Peace Pole class
• Recruit and meet with Coming of Age team for next year.
• Recruiting teachers for the World Religions year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Meet with Senior High and Elementary OWL leaders to plan next year.
• Meet with Young Adults to plan next year
• Hold a Teacher orientation

Respectfully submitted,
Candee Cole