Kitty’s lesson this Sunday spoke of leadership and about being of service. And she asked to let her know if you are willing to step up to the plate for your Unity community. Serving our community is fulfilling and we need folks to step up – even for just a moment or two, and help our community to be the best we can be. And she really wants to hear from YOU.
And speaking of service, the Northern Illinois Food Bank volunteer day on Saturday was such a fulfilling experience for the 8 of us who participated. I suspect we got as much out of the experience of servicing others as the recipients will get from the food we made possible for them to receive. 5 Unity Peeps(3 of us are on the Events Team) & 3 family members. Yes, we threw away a lot of dented cans of corn, but we also cleaned a lot of cans, put labels on them, and loaded 70 trays totaling 1960 pounds- YEP! Almost a ton!! Providing 1633 meals for hungry neighbors in Northern Illinois. (I guess if they only ate corn – LOL 😉 ) And even though this conflicted with my Brick Bodies exercise class at my fitness center, I got a fair amount of exercise, carrying bins and trays full of canned corn. The 8 mighty volunteers from Unity in Naperville made this contribution – being of service to those who are food insecure – and we had a great time doing it. Just think how much more we could have done with more volunteers. Perhaps next time, we can contribute 2 TONS of food. And I suspect the volunteer who enjoyed this experience the most was my 8 year old granddaughter Parker Buehring. After 3 hours, she asked our volunteer supervisor Bob if we could stay longer!! She said it felt like we had only been there for 30 minutes. Ah, the zest and enthusiasm of youth. And I am a proud grandma, aka Mimi.
So where did this idea come from? We’ve done some in person volunteer events in the past around food for the community, and we wanted to get back to in person volunteering. The Events Team organized it. For the past 2 + years, most of our donations have been monetary or item donations, and with the lifting of restrictions secondary to Covid, it was time to do live volunteering. (By the way, remember, new ideas and new folks are always welcome- even if you just have an idea for an event you would like to share, or if you only attend one meeting, we want you.)
We got to know each other a little better through shared service in the greater community. So this fits so well with our Mission Statement “We are a vibrant, inclusive community for personal growing and joyful knowing of our oneness with Spirit and each other.”
In closing, won’t you be a leader? Won’t you be of service? Rev. Kitty is waiting to hear from you. Unity needs you, and you will get back more than you contributed – just ask my granddaughter.
With love to all,
Melinda Buehring
