[Fuusm-l] BRIDGES Program Council Annual Report

[Chris at FUUSM]

I'm Sorry, I missed this one...please add it to your packet.   Thank you.  Chris

BPC 2016 Annual Report

 

BRIDGES  (Building Religion Into our Daily Growth, Experience and Service) encompasses religious education for adults and youth.   The BRIDGES Program Council members are: Robin Bozian, Rev. Kat Hawbaker, Diane McMichael, Jay Phillips, Brenda Stetson, and Darryl Ting.

 

Over the past year, BRIDGES celebrated the following accomplishments:

* Close coordination with the Worship Committee on non-class events that were 

 associated with Extended Openings or All Ages services.

            * Monthly activities schedule for children and youth is submitted to the                             Confluence, mailed out to the BRIDGES Families distribution list and posted on the     Facebook pages for the three classes (K-12).

            * Addition of a new council member, Diane McMichael, who coordinates the Non-           Class Activities which occur usually monthly.

* Completion of one additional afghan by the Gr. 4-8 class to be given to the Caring Committee for gifting as they see fit.  (This ongoing social action project is a cumulative effort collecting donated panels that have been knitted or crocheted by congregation members, and are then assembled by Brenda Stetson and the class participants.)   

* A very successful summer-long project of creation of painting depicting the Seven UU Principles, seven of which were mounted on a window of the RE Building.  The kids enjoyed it and so did the adults.

 

The adult religious education program is primarily through the Religious Explorations at 10AM each Sunday.  Topics in 2015-16 included: The New UU (fall). Low Carbon Diet (fall/winter), Building Your Own Theology (winter) and the Green Sanctuary group starts a series in April.  Attendance at most sessions was usually 4-8. 

 

There is also TODAYS ISSUES, an adult discussion group (not under BRIDGES coordination) which focuses on topics from the New York Review of Books, which meets at 9:30AM each Sunday.  Typical attendance is 7-10.

 

Nursery

The Nursery is staffed by at least 2 attendants and cares for kids from infants through 5 year olds.    Typical attendance is 3-4.  

 

K-3

The K-3 teacher team is Cindy Burton and Katy McDaniel.  This year they are using the UUA's curriculum called Moral Tales, built around stories that draw upon many UU sources to portray moral dilemmas and paths to goodness and justice, presented through a variety of cultural and religious lenses.  Though attendance has continued to be an issue, with anywhere from 0 -4.

 

4-8

Teachers for this class were Brenda Stetson and Dawn Weidner.  The curriculum chosen was Traditions with a wink! (UU Identity Curriculum for Middle Schoolers) designed to help children of this age connect with their UU experience.  Unfortunately, we only managed to cover 2-3 sessions due to extremely low attendance in this age group.  There has typically only been 1 pupil (fairly often 0), so we either joined with the Youth Group on those Sundays or worked creating the design for another afghan to be sewn together as we have kids to work on it.

 

Teens

The Sr. Hi. youth have had a busy year since last year's annual meeting.   In the fall, the youth group put on their annual haunted house with the theme of zombie pirates.   They prepared and performed a skit in the holiday service in December and stuffed and hid eggs for Easter Sunday.   The youth have been sorting through Neva Rees' match book collection, created a shadow-box of the match boxes and presented it to Neva Reese.  The youth assisted in preparation for the Chocolate at the Betsey event benefitting EVE.  Several of them have attended district-wide conferences.  The youth are busily working on a skit to present to the congregation during the service on May 8. 

 Summer Program

This past summer, our project was painting the Kids' UU Principles on 12"x16" plywood pieces.  The kids selected and painted whichever Principle appealed to them.  They got lots of coaching and encouragement, primarily from Lee Ann Gallucci, and created 17 colorful and imaginative visions of the UU Principles.  An initial selection is on display a wall of the RE Building (the bank parking lot side).  We plan to take turns so all 17 will be displayed.

 

Non-class Events

Non-class events occurred monthly.  Among the activities included were sidewalk chalk art for the church plant sale, a Day of the Dead celebration and traditional craft, participation in the holiday pageant, Rosa Parks story promoting dignity of every person, card making for use by the Caring Committee, decorating Christmas mugs for holiday deliveries and planting sunflowers in honor of Earth Day. 

 

Coordination and Planning

This year we have had regular contact with the Worship Committee about which services would be All Ages or would have extra youth participation.  This has greatly helped our planning of class schedules, non-class events and our summer program.

 

Appreciation

BRIDGES thanks all those who have contributed to our adult and youth religious education program.  Your involvement as teachers, discussion facilitators, topic speakers, activity leaders, class helpers, and participants is what makes our religious education program work and demonstrates our commitment to make our congregation a place to learn.  Thank you to all.       Submitted by Jay Phillips.

 
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