2007-2008 Finished Social Action projects: 

A different type of Easter basket!

All children (and adults) were invited to bring supplies on Easter Sunday and the two Sundays after that to make an Easter basket for an animal shelter!  Food, toys, leashes, collars, blankets and towels for dogs and cats were needed.  This is a great first service project for young children and perfect for animal lovers!  For more details about the shelter, check out www.buddydoghs.com

A different type of Easter basket!

All children (and adults) were invited to bring supplies on Easter Sunday and the two Sundays after that to make an Easter basket for an animal shelter!  Food, toys, leashes, collars, blankets and towels for dogs and cats were needed.  This is a great first service project for young children and perfect for animal lovers!  For more details about the shelter, check out www.buddydoghs.com

A screening of Dottie’s Magic Pockets!
We hosted a FREE screening of "Dottie's Magic Pockets" in March - it was Super-riffic Gay Family Fun! What a great way to celebrate family diversity and UU values with our young children!!  "Dottie's Magic Pockets" is filled with lovable puppets, fun cartoons, and catchy songs and dances your kids will love. This program is for younger kids (ages 3 to 7), but older kids helped with refreshments.  For more info, check out www.dottiesmagicpockets.com

 Youth Group fundraiser for Invisible Children

The Youth Group hosted a Pasta Dinner to benefit Invisible Children.  Thanks to many people's generosity and their hard work, we collected $240 for this grassroots, youth-led organization that helps children victimized by the 20 year genocide in Uganda.  To learn more about this group, check out www.invisiblechildren.com.

Children's Annual Meeting

We held our Children's annual meeting in February.  Activities included making "green" pledges of what we will do to help save the earth this year, creating contribution "quotes" for a book being published about saving our earth, doing a project asking First Parish kids and adults what they love about being in our community, and making invitations for the Dottie's Magic Pockets screening in March.   

Social Action Fair

At our second annual Children Social Action Fair in January, our kids sold some of their own toys, books, and other items to benefit the charities of their choice.  The kids did a great job raising money for Rosies Place, Project Bread, Horizons for Homeless Children, several local Animal Shelters, Endangered Pandas, and the Food Project!

Holiday Caroling

After the Winter Solstice Service, we went to a nearby home where adults with disabilities live and shared some holiday carols with them.  It was a nice treat and they really seemed to enjoy our visit!!

Collecting Halloween candy for charity

In early November, we collected excess Halloween candy on to donate to Birthday Wishes to use in goodie bags and pinatas for birthday parties for children who are homeless.

Buy a bowl, plate, or spoon to benefit charity

People purchased a spoon, bowl, or plate that one of our children decorated during Social Hour in November.  The profits of over $100 were donated to Project Bread to feed local people who are hungry.

Thanksgiving Baskets

We again worked with Miller Tracy Children's Foundation in November to create 24 Thanksgiving baskets for local families in need.  Our Youth Group shopped for supplies and our children packaged the food into bags they decorated for the families. 

Thanks and Congratulations to our Youth Group

Our Youth Group collected wood generously donated by Chris Johnson and Ken Repp for a charitable project.  The youth sold the wood to First Parish folks and ended up raising $221 for their chosen charity ... Invisible Children, a grassroots youth-run organization that helps children in the Darfur area.  To learn more aobut this work, check out www.invisiblechildren.com

In October, our Youth Group also worked with World in Watertown to collect over 100 bicycles for Bikes Not Bombs to send to people in under-developed areas.  For more information about this work, check out www.bikesnotbombs.org.

General information about Social Action work at First Parish  

During the coming year, we will introduce our children to many different types of community service projects. From fundraising for a worthwhile organization to doing good deeds that help local people, our activities include a variety of ways to help others. We also try to empower our children to respond to immediate needs as they come up (such as from unfortunate disasters or social justice issues). We do this because community service and social action are important parts of our UU faith. Our children can make a postive difference in our world! We want our children to know that "helping others" can be easy, enjoyable and enriching.

If you discover that your child has a particular interest in a project we did at church, please consider supporting him or her in continuing the important work. Our introductory projects are simple enough to do in one morning and varied enough to engage many different interests. Picking a favorite project and continuing with more depth and commitment can be very satisfying and rewarding.

Some of our projects extend home with activities your family can do. Let us be clear that you are not "required" to do them. Consider these projects to be quality "helping" opportunities for you and your children to consider. Your job is to choose the ones that are right for you. By selecting the projects that match your family’s interests, philosophies, and resources, your children will discover that community service can be an enjoyable experience.

Offerings and donations

This year, we will have a group "piggy bank" in each room available for children to make an offering. Children can chose to use this in one of two ways. They could make a small change donation each week in honor of giving to the group community (as adults do during their offering). Or they can use it when they are inspired to donate, such as after a yard sale or lemonade stand. What is important about these offerings is that our children will decide as a group what to do with their collected money at the end of the year. They can buy a gift for First Parish, they can donate the money to charity, or they can use the money as seed money to do something nice.