Lunch Fundraiser an Overwhelming Success!
This past Sunday, January 27th, the Explorers Children’s Religious Education class coordinated an opportunity to support fellow Explorer, Bella. As all likely know, Bella has been diagnosed with cancer. She is actively fighting it through medical ingenuity, family and community support, and her own brute strength and determination. To affirm her strength and further actualize community support, the Explorers hosted the congregation lunch.
The children prepared and served the food, while congregants gave heartily to the Bella family fund. Together, we raised $450 for Bella! Way to go GNUUC!
In the weeks leading up to the lunch, Explorers teachers and children created a supportive space to discuss what Bella's challenge means to them. Together teachers and students made posters and acknowledged both the sadness and hope in the situation. As a community they channeled their curiosity, fear, hope and the unknown into a concrete action.
On the day, Explorers arrived with plates of food. There was rice and beans, homemade chicken salad sandwiches, both vegan and traditional mac and cheese, tofu and vegetable rice noodles, sweets and much more! The Explorers set up with great care; aligning dressings they way they had observed previous organizers do it, setting out serving ware, and labeling dishes. All beamed with pride as they offered portions of each dish to the many members and visitors who attended lunch. We even had a special digital visit from Bella!
The fiscal support is amazing and so is the show of community joy. The children were proud not only of their signs, but of their food, the events intent, and their own physical participation as servers to a community. They were able to tap into an existing and established congregation initiative (Sunday lunches), model individual agency, and build bridges between youth and older congregants, congregants in need and congregants able to give support. We hope to do more of these events in the future!!
The next organized opportunity to support Bella will be the February 10th bake sale. Bring your sweet tooth!!