I leave this afternoon for California to visit my husband's family, but I did want to check in with you to draw your attention to the VERY many things that are going on this summer at Christ Church! First, we heard from Bill Fowler on Sunday about our work for B Safe, the Bishops' Summer Fun Enrichment program. B Safe is a great program, and we had a lot of fun last year. We'll be visiting St Augustine and St Martin's in Boston, as we did then, so hopefully we'll see some familiar faces. On Wednesday and Thursday nights we meet to make lunch, on Thursday we go into the city for serving lunch and "Drop Everything and Read" (DEAR) time. Friday, we'll go to Houghton's Pond with the kids (and their counselors-we just get to have fun, we don't have to organize anything). We did receive some deanery grant funds for our work and will also get donations from local grocery stores, but if you'd like to make a donation for lunches or for the bus (an expense of over 400.00), please make your check out to Christ Church with B Safe in the memo line.
Our second major project is the summer lunch program. This has been in the works since way back in March, when we had an interest meeting with members of several Waltham congregations and many Christ Churchers. We will be volunteering at the McDonald spray part to serve bagged lunches Monday through Friday from June 29th to August 28th. Each weekday 3 volunteers are needed from 11:15 am to 12:45 pm which includes set up, handing out meals from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, and clean up. First Parish UU and First Lutheran are our major partners in the project, but we're hoping that some of the other Waltham churches will also pitch in. The program is in partnership with Project Bread (who funds it), the Boys and Girls Club of Waltham (who are the major coordinators of this lunch site and several others in the city), and the Waltham schools, who prepare the lunch. The great thing about this project is that our work makes possible an additional open site, so anyone under 18 who is in need of a meal can get lunch, no questions asked, no signing up (several other of the free lunch sites require pre-registration). Many children receive free or subsidized lunches during the year, so it is really important to be able to offer it over the summer. We need to get ourselves organized SOON (the program starts in a little over 2 weeks), so Mike Balulescu is marshaling the first part of our scheduling. Yesterday a group of us including Becky Phillips Dezalia met at First Parish, so she can also answer any questions you might have. To try to simplify organizing many lunches and many volunteers, we've put together a simple form you can download at the outreach page on the Christ Church site. If you were at the March meeting, Mike will be in touch with you shortly.
Also coming up is our summer book group! With the votes counted, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan's book took the lead. I will order ten copies of the book, which you can pick up from Marcia Luce this Sunday. Unfortunately it's not in paperback yet, so the cost for the book is 19.50, cash or check made out to Sara Irwin (if you need a "scholarship" Marcia can just give you the book and we arrange something). For our first meeting on June 21, read Part One, "Paul: Appealing or Appalling?"
In July, Saturday, July 18 Christ Church will be participating in Waltham History Month. At 9:00, Historic Morning Prayer according to the 1792 BCP; tours of stained glass windows follow. Let me know if you'd like to help host and prepare.
I look forward to all the great things we will do together this summer.
Peace,
Sara+
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