The present Council provides opportunity for political and social involvement by providing the congregation with information on activities and programs in the community and sponsoring specific programs. Members of the Society continue to support SICM (Schenectady Inner City Ministry) with generous donations of food, money, and children’s books to the Food Pantry. FUSS is a partner in the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen program; Society volunteers have prepared and served lunch every seventh Tuesday since 1983. FUSS and the Friendship Baptist Church, through the Whitney Young Program, are partners in sponsoring the Adopt-A-School Program, a commitment to support an inner-city school and its students and parents. This past year both congregations provided tutors and money for summer camp scholarships and school instruments. The Social Action Council was successful in raising funds and social awareness through participation in the Martin Luther King Day March, the Crop Walk, and the AIDS Walk. Members of the Social Action Council organized the first meeting of the Schenectady Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. In 2002, we completed our first Habitat for Humanity construction project on Albany Street (click the photo for more views of the action at the site).
Three Bosnian refugee families have also been sponsored. Through donations, the Society provided rent, household goods (enough to completely furnish an apartment), transportation, English lessons, and much support. The families feel they have experienced a "life miracle," being able to leave difficult life situations in Europe and come to new lives and permanent homes in this country.
Our Latest Bosnian Family
In 2006, The Board of Trustees authorized the work of a new committee, the FUSS Green Sanctuary Committee. Its mission is to facilitate and support the work of our congregation toward affirming and promoting “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,” and to fulfill the goal of being recognized as a Green Sanctuary by the UU Ministry for Earth through programs within the congregation and in the larger community. Our Green Sanctuary efforts are sponsored by the Board of Trustees, not the Social Action Council.
Another major initiative from 2006 was a service trip to Guatemala by the senior youth group. They raised $10,000 through a year-long effort, and delivered the money along with a week's worth of effort helping the families and teachers of Camino Seguro, Guatemala City. Later, in the Fall of 2006, a group of adults from FUSS spent a week working in New Orleans, helping Katrina victims rebuild. And again, at Spring Break of 2007 our youth group traveled to New Orleans to work for a week helping the courageous people of New Orleans.
Many members of the congregation have also contributed knitted and crocheted squares to be made into afghans. To date, four have been donated to residents at a local women’s shelter.
The Social Action Council also sponsors pot luck supper discussions around important contemporary issues. Topics in the past have included globalization and distributive justice.
Members of the Social Action Council take turns staffing a table at the coffee hour after the Sunday service. There, congregation members and visitors can talk to someone about the social and political issues of the day. Fair-trade coffee, coffee for which the grower receives a fair share of the proceeds, is sold after the service. Funds raised from sales of coffee support Social Action Council efforts around issues of globalization. At selected times throughout the year, fair-trade chocolate is sold to provide funding for the operation of the Soup Kitchen.
Society members donate time and money
through many other avenues. Their personal efforts also define their
commitment to Unitarian Universalism's principles. |
