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Parish Volunteers
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From the Rector Dear Friends, When I first came to this parish almost 22 years ago, I noticed a sign in the parish office: "This parish runs on love." That certainly continues to be true and is manifest in numerous ways. One of the most obvious we want to recognize in this issue is the generous and faithful work of the administrative volunteers, without whose efforts, for example, you would not be reading this newsletter. Those who answer our phones, count and record financial contributions, proofread publications, put mailing labels on Cross Roads and other bulk mailings, manage our website, and keep the kitchen stocked with clean linens are among many parish volunteers in many other areas who help this parish run on love. You will read about these administrative volunteers in the ensuing pages. I want to say a special word of thanks to several of these volunteers, all of whom give significant hours supporting and strengthening our parish's ministry. Soon to retire from her work as "head teller" is Marty Ensign. Marty has expertly supervised the group on Monday mornings who count and keep track of financial offerings. Before her many years of fulfilling that responsibility, Marty served on our paid staff as the (six hours a week!) bookkeeper (now a fulltime position called parish accountant). I am most grateful to Marty for her decades of service. Euva Meyer has provided wonderful stability and continuity at our front desk for over a decade. Every weekday afternoon she spends four hours greeting visitors, answering the phone, distributing the mail, stuffing and setting out bulletins, and any other task that is needed. I feel most fortunate to continue to have the gift of Euva's gracious and dependable presence. Barney Varner serves as the senior associate treasurer. After terms on the vestry and as treasurer, he has been an invaluable resource and assistant to the parish accountant and the treasurer on a daily basis. He has often stepped in when the parish accountant position has been vacant, and he has taken special responsibility for separate budgets that run through our office, such as for the Episcopal Church of the Advocate or our Habitat for Humanity partnership. Barney's early retirement in his professional life and his dedication to, and experience with, the financial administration of our parish's ministry continue to be great gifts for which I am very thankful. Vivian Varner serves a dual role. She not only has served for years now as our vestment curator, keeping the clergy and lay Eucharistic ministers in appropriate, clean, and well-fitting vestments, but she serves as communications coordinator. In that capacity, she oversees the planning and implementation of the monthly issues of Cross Roads, each with a specific theme, any parish advertising, the yearly publications of the Directory of Parish Ministries and the Annual Report, the parish website, various signs and bulletin boards, etc. I am indebted to Vivian for her creativity, dedication, and organization in helping to tell the parish's story. "For these and all thy many blessings [of loving people], O Lord, we give thee thanks." - Stephen Vestry Actions - March 18, 2004 At its March meeting, the vestry:
Parish Volunteers Bunnie Collura, Vestry Member Stewardship is not just about money, it is also about our time and our talents. I have heard stewardship described as a 24/7 lifestyle, extending well beyond our giving of tithes and offerings during a church service. Volunteerism is part of that 24/7 lifestyle and it is alive and well here at the Chapel of the Cross. The 2003 Directory of Parish Ministries lists 76 separate ministries. And this is only a portion of the volunteer efforts performed by our parishioners. We volunteer here at our home parish, in the diocese, in our towns and cities, our state, and our nation. The list is never complete because volunteerism is everywhere, and new opportunities arise while some others may conclude. The Chapel of the Cross offers a number of ministries where you can volunteer to keep our church 'working.' Some examples are: office guild - assistance in the day-to-day running of the office, Cross Roads labelers - who help with the monthly mail labeling, tellers - who gather to count the monetary offerings and prepare deposits or reports, and the vestry - our parish's lay governing body. In addition there are volunteer opportunities in the worship life of our parish such as: acolytes -students who assist during services, Altar Guild -whose members prepare the altar for all worship services and maintain the elements, greeters -who welcome worshippers and assist newcomers, lay Eucharistic ministers - who administer Holy Communion on Sundays as well as to the homebound, choirs and organists - who provide the wonderful musical presentations for which our parish is well-known... and the list goes on. Our parish offers numerous opportunities for service in the teaching ministry (Church school, book table, Bible study, parish library, vacation Church school to name a few) as well as the service ministry (examples: care teams, elder ministry, campus ministry, Episcopal Youth Community, foyer dinner groups, Loaves & Fishes, men's breakfast group, parish visitors, etc). These opportunities impact our parish, our parishioners, the community, and beyond. Ministries that serve those in need and/or strive for justice and peace both inside and outside our parish also number among the far-reaching opportunities offered here. Some of these ministries are: Cross of Nails, AIDS care team, prison ministry, Habitat for Humanity, Inter-Faith Council, and the ABC Sale. You may recall that, back in October, the vestry asked leaders of the ministries listed in our Directory of Parish Ministries to count the volunteer hours provided to each ministry for a one-month period. We felt it important, while planning the annual stewardship of money campaign, to look also at parishioners' contributions in time and talents. An exact count is something we cannot realistically achieve, but you will be heartened to know that, from the responses received, we tallied 2,819 hours contributed by 532 people in one month. This computes to nearly 34,000 hours a year, which would take over 16 people working 40 hours a week to achieve. It boggles the mind to think what the total might be if we could account for everyone's total volunteer hours. God continues to bless the Chapel of the Cross with numbers upon numbers of volunteer commitments. We are good stewards of our time and talents as well as our financial resources. Volunteer Spotlight - Marty Ensign Retires as Head Teller after 22 Years Ted Pratt, Teller One of the little known but important behind-the-scenes volunteer activities at the Chapel of the Cross is the teller function. The primary responsibilities of this volunteer-based group are to count, classify, document, and deposit monies collected on a weekly basis. The monies come in from a variety of sources that include plate collections, pledge envelopes, capital campaigns, discretionary fund contributions, special gifts, etc. All these monies need to be accounted for and classified each week under a strict set of checks and balances guidelines. The unsung hero heading up the ever- changing group of tellers over the past 20+ years is Marty Ensign, who is just now deciding to hang up her calculator and let others take over the reins at the end of April. Anyone who has worked with Marty in this capacity can attest to her dedication and leadership over the years as head teller. In addition to overseeing the job actually getting done each and every week for the past two decades, Marty has also been responsible for recruiting volunteers and making sure enough tellers are on hand each week to get the job done. Marty came to Chapel Hill and the Chapel of the Cross in 1982 from Roanoke, Virginia, where she lived for 18 years. She set up and then headed the credit department in a local bank in Roanoke. Marty gained previous banking experience while living in West Virginia working in the accounting department of International Nickel at a time when it was rare for a woman to obtain a job in that field. Marty has been involved in a number of mostly volunteer activities at Chapel of the Cross over the years. Shortly after she first came to the parish and began working as a teller, she was asked by then rector, Peter Lee, to serve as the clerk for the vestry. Marty was also very active in the ECW (Episcopal Church Women) group of which she served as treasurer for a time. Shortly thereafter, Marty worked as the church bookkeeper for three years, her one paying job at the church. Marty served as a lay Eucharistic minister for three years in the early 1990s, and she has also helped out from time to time with both the ABC Sale and vacation Church school. I can assure you that, as one of the current tellers under Marty's tenure, we are all going to miss her dearly, and we hope she will only be a phone call or visit away when we need to pick her brain or hear her friendly voice. It's not going to be the same without her. Many thanks and all the best to you, Marty, from the tellers and all at Chapel of the Cross! Web-site Volunteers Dan Poirier, Web-sexton The parish Web site has been a volunteer effort since its inception in 1999. Barbara Tolin Rowan and Don Shaffer created the site, worked out what should initially be on it with help from Vivian Varner, then designed the site's organization and its distinctive style. Barbara put most of the original content on the site, with Don Shaffer taking responsibility for the sermons. In 2004, Barbara has turned over primary responsibility for the site to Dan Poirier. Barbara still puts the proceedings of the vestry meetings on the site, and Don publishes the sermons, while Dan posts the weekly Crossings and monthly Cross Roads, and keeps the front page up-to-date. A new volunteer, Nathaniel Quinn, has created a whole new section of the site for the parish's music programs. Ted Pratt has also helped occasionally. Proofreaders Joyce Jones Shortly after moving to Chapel Hill, I was attending services at the Chapel of the Cross and looking over Crossings and the service leaflet when a typo (that's short-speak for typographical error) flew up and hit me in the face. It was a three-letter word; and there were five different letters, any of which, when used as the last letter, spelled a word. Four were ordinary words and the last was one not normally found in a church bulletin. (You guess!) That motivated me to volunteer my services as a proofreader. Typos are one of the numerous hazards faced by publishers of printed materials. They are one of the reasons that a number of unnamed, unseen volunteer proofreaders are regularly checking the various publications at the Chapel of the Cross. For example, each Thursday morning, volunteers come to the parish office and get print-outs of the two already prepared Sunday bulletins, along with the original items submitted for inclusion. Also needed are a Book of Common Prayer, a Bible and a Hymnal for liturgical reference. After the volunteers finish making changes and corrections, the papers are turned over to staff members for final proofing before printing. The same procedure is followed monthly with Cross Roads as well as variously weekly, monthly, annual, or occasional Chapel of the Cross publications. Proofreaders check for typos, misspelled words and names, errors in grammar and punctuation, coherency of writing and overall clarity of the items. But despite all the efforts of numerous proofreaders, you'll still see an occasional goof in our parish publications. Varieties of Volunteers Barbara Hastings, Parish Administrator Parish administrative staff would not be successful without the assistance of our volunteers. We are greatly blessed by their work, their smiles, and their willingness to do almost anything. Chances are, if you've visited or called the parish office during the week, you've been helped by them. They are our office guild volunteers, and their collective service to the office staff and to the entire parish is invaluable. Office guild volunteers answer our busy phones, greet parishioners and visitors, and provide information when possible. They offer the staffing assistance needed to keep parish operations running smoothly. They help with almost all mailings, excepting Cross Roads. They stuff the bulletins, or insert the weekly Crossings into Sunday bulletins for parishioners. They are the frontline of parish hospitality and welcoming for visitors and droppers-by. One of our office guild volunteers has been serving five days a week for about 10 years now. Euva Meyer, a parishioner at Chapel of the Cross since 1956, staffs the front desk in the parish office every afternoon. She sorts the parish mail, sends service reminder postcards to our acolytes, and manages our memorials correspondence. When I began working at Chapel of the Cross, everybody told me if I had a question to see Mrs. Meyer. Three years later, she's often still the person I go to first for parish information. Your office guild volunteers are: Gladys Dalby and Shirley Swift on Monday mornings; Mary Brenda Joyner on Tuesday mornings; Alice Ellington and Mary Brenda Joyner on Wednesday mornings; Pat Gross and Sidna Rizzo on Thursday mornings; Lulu Mae Chase on Friday mornings; Euva Meyer in the afternoons, Monday - Friday; and Archie Copeland, whenever we need a substitute. The newest volunteer group at the Chapel of the Cross, our kitchen linen launderers, came together in the winter of 2002. Their formation was a direct result of the annual time and talent surveys sent to parishioners each autumn. When the need for such service was realized, we turned to the completed time and talent surveys to find those people who had indicated a willingness to offer their time and to serve the parish by doing laundry. In a relatively short time, we had the fully formed corps of volunteers now known as the kitchen linen launderers. Each volunteer serves for one month at a time, laundering once a week, or more often as needed, depending on special services, parish meetings, and receptions. Theirs is an invisible and too-often thankless service; they come to the parish hall each week to haul away tablecloths and kitchen towels and bring them back again, fresh and clean, in time for Sunday services and the coffee hour. Thank you to our kitchen linen launderers: Amy Burnett, June Clendenin, Jewell Cornell, Gladys Dalby, Laurie Gosnell, Molly McConnell, Susan Meyer, and Jeffrey Underwood. Among our faithful volunteers are the tellers or money counters. They come once a week to count and deposit money received during the previous week by dividing into three teams: Sunday offering, weekday collections, and Church of the Advocate deposits. As the receipts are counted, tellers write the amounts on record sheets that are given to the parish accountant for posting in the ledger. The money is then taken to the bank for deposit. This team has been led over the years by Marty Ensign who recruits counters each week, answers questions and generally supervises the team's work. They work about three hours each week for a total of 21 hours of volunteer time. Our tellers include Marty Ensign, Edith Welch, Carolyn Van Sant, Mary Frances Branch, Jacquie Scarborough, Lucy Smith, Bob Chase, Mary Chase, and Ted Pratt. One group of volunteers is small and works behind the scenes. They are our proofreaders. Some - Larry Hart, Sidna Rizzo, and Joyce Jones - come in each Thursday morning to read and correct bulletins and Crossings. They read and mark up these publications for correction before final proofing by the rector and organist-choirmaster. These three donate about two hours each for a total of six hours each week. During Holy Week and Advent, they proofread larger, additional service materials. In addition to Larry and Joyce, another reader, Sallie West, puts in about four hours each month reading and correcting Cross Roads and other periodic publications. All of these folks graciously correct our spelling week after week, double check readings, verify hymn numbers, and rectify our punctuation. With the help of these able proofreaders, we are able to produce documents with as few errors as humanly possible. Another lively group is our bulk mail volunteers who prepare bulk mailings. Once a month (or more often when needed), this group gathers to spend a morning putting on labels and sorting Cross Roads. This requires putting labels on straight (not an easy task when doing 1500 labels) while keeping them sorted by zip code. There's always lively conversation and lots of laughter while they work. Our labelers provide about ten hours of service each month. Mail volunteers include Kristin Bergsten, Mary Kate Cunningham, Emilie de Luca, Alice Ellington, Catherine Fogle, Betsy Frazier, Marion Highriter, Joyce Jones, Ann Ramsey, Peg Rees, Phil Rees, Gloria Ripperton, Lauren Tappen, Jay Tappen, and Edith Welch. Dan Poirier serves as our Web-sexton, with assistance from Barbara Tolin Rowan and Don Shaffer, who designed the Web site in 1999. Barbara served as web-sexton until this year. They keep our Web site current with important information including weekly Crossings, sermons, and announcements. They also upload Cross Roads and vestry minutes on a monthly basis. Don uploads sermons to the web-site when they are available. Barbara and Dan are responsible for the web connection many of you used to make your annual giving pledges. In addition to parish news and events, our web site also has links to other sites that might be of interest to parishioners and to others interested in our parish. Our Web site is among the best church Web sites in the diocese and the state for all denominations. We can all be grateful for the work that Barbara, and more recently Dan, have done to create and maintain this wonderful addition to our parish outreach. Barbara and Dan work about 10 hours each week on the Web site. Two other volunteers fill key roles on the administrative team. Vivian Varner is communications coordinator and editor of Cross Roads. Her role is to publish the story of what is happening in the parish. She coordinates publicity through newspapers and other media, communicates with the Web-sextons, publishes the Directory of Parish Ministries, and serves as a valuable link to parish events for the administrative staff. Barney Varner assists in our accounting office to provide information to staff members and parishioners. As senior associate treasurer Barney works with the treasurer to create and produce financial reports. He often is called on to supply data to committees and serves as a substitute for the parish accountant in her absence. Barney also is treasurer for UNC Habitat for Humanities. In addition to his financial skills, he provides some in-house technical support for our computer network. Each volunteers over 20 hours per week. When added together, our administrative volunteers provide an average of 140 hours of service each week. That is the equivalent of three and a half full-time employees on our staff. Thank you to each of you for your service and dedication. Volunteers in the Community While this issue of Cross Roads is focused on volunteers who work within the parish, the volunteer work done by parishioners outside the parish is immeasurable - in types, hours, and importance. Frank Holt, Social Ministry Committee Member When we think of the need to serve and help others, sometimes taking that first step to actually get involved is a difficult obstacle to overcome. For various reasons, finding the time to give back to the church and to our community through volunteerism is something we may decide to put on the back burner and hesitate to commit. The rationale for this decision may be because we feel the need or help is already being taken care of by others and is not really needed or valued. These impressions are definitely off the mark. If you are willing to get involved, you will make a difference in the life of our parish and to the community we serve. Volunteering time to help improve the lives of others is a something we are all called to do. Opportunities to reach out to make a difference in the lives of others come in many sizes and shapes. From helping out at the church to serving on committees to provide outreach in our community, many of these efforts are ongoing and volunteers find joy knowing that their efforts are making a positive impact to serve the church and provide outreach to the needy. A sampling of volunteer opportunities available through the Chapel of the Cross includes:providing administrative support to clergy/staff, serving on the Altar Guild, singing in the choir, helping feed the hungry, providing tutoring assistance to the needy, helping church-supported organizations reach out to their needy populations, participating in mission trips, among many others. Volunteering can be a rewarding experience; many parishioners, for various reasons, may not have taken this journey and benefited from the satisfactions received by answering this call to make time to help those less fortunate. By following this path, you may discover a new level of joy and satisfaction that comes as a reward from getting involved to help others. By taking time to get involved in outreach opportunities, you may also find joy in developing relationships with other parishioners who share this same spirit of serving as volunteers to the church and our community. There will be a unique opportunity available at the church this summer, that will need many volunteers to help the Chapel of the Cross provide temporary shelter for homeless men. The men's shelter at the corner of Airport Road and Rosemary Street will be closed for renovations from mid-May through late September. Churches in the area have been asked by the Inter-Faith Council to volunteer their facilities to provide temporary shelter for these homeless men until the shelter re-opens this fall. With the Chapel of the Cross's commitment to help on this project from July 18-31, volunteers from our parish will be needed to assist with this project. More details regarding our commitment to this project and roles of interested volunteers will be publicized later this spring. Your time and energy to help with this important community effort is needed and appreciated. As we go through life, many memories and experiences are long lasting and powerful. We all seek happiness and strive to do things that will make us feel we have contributed to the well being of others. Volunteerism is one means of accomplishing this goal. Through participation in outreach efforts, one's gratitude for having such opportunities is enlightened by becoming more aware of how blessed we are to have the opportunity to give back as volunteer. For volunteer opportunities involving social ministry outreach, please contact the Social Ministry Committee Chair, Sandra McClaskey. Volunteering and Membership Responsibilities Mary Agnes Rawlings, Johnson Intern Program Director In preparation for writing an article on the topic of volunteers, I read the definition of the term in Webster's Dictionary. Although I typically think of a volunteer as a person, there was also the description of a volunteer providing service without payment; and finally as an action of offering oneself as an unpaid contributor to a particular cause. I then began thinking - What, if anything, is the distinction between being a member and being a volunteer? I began my query with a simple question, are Chapel of the Cross parishioners considered volunteers when they contribute their time to the work of a program such as the Johnson Intern Program or would they be fulfilling a personal obligation as a member of the Chapel of the Cross parish? Are the terms volunteers and parish members interchangeable? An example from my own experience came to mind as I contemplated the idea. Recently I transferred my church membership to a parish closer to my home. I received an invitation from the parish council (somewhat equivalent to a vestry) to a social hour for new members. I went to this meeting thinking I would meet folks new to the parish and find new friends amidst the group. Instead, much to my initial surprise, I received instruction about the ministries of the church and the individual requirements for becoming active in these ministries. The meeting concluded with a serious discussion about an expectation that every parishioner contributes through regular consistent tithing. "Requirements," I thought to myself, "I have been in many parishes in my life but not once did anyone tell me there were requirements for serving in a particular ministry!" I also learned that, in this particular parish community, I would be limited to one active ministry at a time! It has taken several months and a lot of time spent in reflection for me to grasp the concept of having requirements for service and limited involvement in the work of the parish. I think I have had a volunteer mentality without realizing it. We all know how hard it is to recruit and maintain volunteers. My Aunt Helen, after years of consulting with not-for-profit organizations wrote a book, Volunteers How to Get Them - How to Keep Them. She includes a chapter in her book on the 12 basic needs of every volunteer. She says that "Recognizing these (12 needs) and knowing how to meet them will help you expand the number of volunteers and increase the number of hours each gives to your organization." In February, the Urban Institute released a new study, "Volunteer Management Capacity in America's Charities and Congregations: A Briefing Report." It is one of the most comprehensive studies conducted of volunteer management in the U.S. to date. Much of the information included in the report has to do with the recruiting, retaining, and rewarding of volunteers. Do the same principles apply to 'active' members of a parish? Is the trick to find out what the needs of a parishioner are and try to meet them? My understanding as I reflected upon the meaning of becoming a member of Christ's body, the Church, came as I thought about the fact that each of the disciples had a period of induction or training before moving out into the world as apostles of Jesus. It took Saul 13 years after his Damascus Road experience before he began to serve as Paul. Perhaps we might do well to ponder our responsibilities as members of the community of faith. The 'social hour' I attended brought up questions about my own personal commitment to God's work - questions about how I use my time and talents in church ministries to build the Kingdom of God here on Earth. I have determined that, for some individuals, parish work could be volunteering while the completion of the exact same responsibilities, for other individuals, is a faith journey as a participating member of the parish. In conclusion, I decided that it all has to do with a person's ability to reflect, knowledge of self, and uncovering one's underlying intentions to know whether one is volunteering or working as an expression of love. In the latter, I believe that God recruits, retains, and rewards the individual who fully understands and accepts responsibility for becoming a parish member. ADULT EDUCATION IN MAY May 2 Conversation with the Bishop Please welcome Bishop Gloster to the Chapel of the Cross. [chapel] May 9 Parent Gathering- Family Ministry, Part 1 [campus center] May 16 Parent Gathering - Family Ministry, Part 2 [campus center] Johnson Interns' Presentation [chapel] Love thy neighbor: a personal and professional look at homelessness Who are the homeless? What creates this situation in the life of an individual, and what is life like on the streets? How are we all affected by this issue, and how can we help? This two-part program on May 16, organized by the Johnson Interns, endeavors to answer these questions. During the Adult Christian Education hour, several formerly homeless members of the Chapel Hill community will share their experiences of life on the streets. A discussion with a panel of local non-profit professionals working on the issue of homelessness will be held during a pot-luck dinner after the 5:15 p.m. church service. All are invited to come eat, ask questions, and discuss the issue of homelessness. May 23 The Shape of our Liturgies [chapel] The Rev. Dr. Richard Pfaff Dr. Pfaff will complete the series he began in January, when session # 3 was iced out, examining the development and the structure of our services. He will also speak briefly about the place of Pentecost in our liturgical calendar. Reception for Church School Teachers, [At 11:00 in the dining room] May 30 The Pentecost Picnic!!! Celebrate the movement of the church into the world by joining with the parish at a gala, family-centered picnic from 12:30 to 3:00 p.m. at the Hank Andrews Park, just west of Carrboro off Hwy. 54. Tickets for the meal will be available on May 9, 16, and 23. Lunch, a birthday celebration, softball, volleyball, horseshoes, and visiting with friends follow the meal and program. Pentecost Picnic Sunday, May 30 12:30 - 3:00 Hank Anderson Park, Carrboro Meal: A cook crew lead by Ken Stynes will serve up hamburgers, hot dogs and all the trimmings. The meal will be simple and will include chips, veggie trays, beverages and birthday cake. Tickets will be on sale on Sundays, May 9, 16, and 23. $5.00 per person Getting There: Take Hwy 54 west from town; pass the Carrboro Plaza shopping center and continue through the stoplight at Fayetteville Road. Just beyond the stoplight, turn right into the park; follow the drive until you see the shelter decked in red! Activities: Following the meal and time of remembering the church's birthday with cake and singing lead by a group of guitar players, there will be organized softball and volleyball games for all ages; in addition, there are horseshoe tracks next to the shelter and a great children's park area. A lovely pond invites strollers to enjoy the out-of-doors. Attire: Everyone is encouraged to wear something red, the liturgical color for Pentecost. Those worshipping at the 11:15 service are encouraged to dress casually and come straight from church to the picnic. Vacation Church School A HEART FOR MISSION Kids Making A Difference Join us for a week of stories, song, crafts, and games; learn how you can make a difference; engage in activities to learn about the homeless in our community. June 14 - 19 9:00 a.m. - Noon Registration forms are available in the parish office for children who are or will be 4 years of age by October 15 through kids now in 5th grade. How Does Your Garden Grow? A Question for God's Environmental Stewards Linda B. Rimer, Environmental Stewardship Committee Chair How often have we heard the phrase about March winds and April showers bringing beautiful May flowers? We are fortunate here in central North Carolina that we do not have to wait until May for beautiful flowers. Hellebores, quince, and sweet smell of spring treat us with their beauty and fragrance, sometimes as early as January. By March, wild flowers are popping up in meadows and forests, perennial gardens are sending up new shoots and gardeners are standing in the check-out lines of home and garden centers, eager to get home and plant the newest additions to our gardens. This couldn't be a better time to examine our gardening practices and make sure they are environmentally friendly and protective of Earth's resources, God's creation. How we garden - from the techniques we use; to the flowers, grass, and vegetables we select to plant; to the locations we choose for planting; to the products we use - have many implications for the environment. While an in-depth description of environmentally friendly gardening practices is clearly beyond the scope of this article, there are many resources available to inform and guide us (see below). From these and other sources, we can learn how to have beautiful and bountiful gardens while also protecting our water and land and even supporting wildlife by providing healthy habitats. Examples of environmentally friendly gardening practices include:
Here are a few resources for more information: http://www.ncbg.unc.edu/ (The North Carolina Botanical Garden) http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum/ (The JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State) http://www.epa.gov/epahome/cnews_051001.htm http://www.projectwildlife.org/news.spring2001-envirogardening.htm (integrated pest management) http://www.compostguide.com/ (composting information) http://www.startribune.com/stories/417/715639.html (rainwater gardens) http://www.cleanairgardening.com/brillux38ree.html (clean air gardening) Finally, you may find it interesting to engage your parents or grandparents in conversations about how they gardened in their youth. What today is described as "environmentally friendly gardening" or "organic gardening", is, in many cases, simply a return to practices of the past, practices which were based on observing and respecting natural processes. In this way, we support the delicate balance of life rather than attempt to alter it. And if you are a gardener, this is one of the best opportunities to demonstrate stewardship for our land, water, and air - all part of God's creation. From the Parish Mailbox Successful ABC Sale: Everyone Had A Role We want to say a great big "thank you" to everyone who took a role in making the ABC Sale a tremendous success. Whether you donated merchandise, helped with the sale, baked a treat, or purchased an item, your contribution will help make a difference for numerous community outreach projects. We hope that you all had as much fun as we did and made some new friends along the way. Our goal this year was to get more people involved in the sale. So many of you responded to our "Everyone Has A Role" plea that at one point we worried that we might not have enough roles for you to fill. As the day of the sale drew closer, we realized that we always needed one more person. An extra added bonus to all the fun we had is that, on the day of the sale, the parish brought in $26,000. After expenses are deducted, every penny of the proceeds will go straight to our community. We'd like to say that's a job well done! "I thank my God every time I remember you." Philippians 1:3 Love, Betsy and Katherine Betsy Elkins-Williams and Katherine Dauchert ABC Sale Co-chairs Thank you for your kind and generous donation to us of the leftover merchandise from the ABC sale. The Habitat for Humanity Hand-Me-Ups Store located in Durham sells gently used household items to the public with profits given equally to both Durham and Orange Habitat for Humanity. The store accepts donations year round and provides free pick up of large items. Feel free to visit us at 3215 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, call us at 403-8668 or check out our Web site at www.hhmu.org if you would like more information or have household items to donate. Thank you again for helping Habitat. Peggy Sanford Store Manager Habitat Hand-Me-Ups Store |