Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Gift of the Week – July 15, 2009
Who Gave It: Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Olympia, WA
Who Got It: Association Sunday 2008, the North Shore UU Society in Lacombe, LA, and the Out of the Woods homeless shelter in Olympia, WA
How Much: $1,849 to each (a total of $5,549 raised by Olympia)
How it Happened: Reverend Arthur Vaeni and the leaders of the Olympia UU Congregation have been strengthening connections with their local community and our UU congregations for some time. Following Hurricane Katrina, they made a commitment to help our congregations in the New Orleans area recover from the devastation, and started a partner relationship with the North Shore UU Society. The North Shore Society has been struggling to keep paying their mortgage, and could not afford also to have a minister this year. In February, with the Olympia congregation paying for his time and expenses, Arthur traveled there to serve for ten days as the North Shore minister.
For many years, the Olympia congregation has housed in their annex the Out of the Woods homeless shelter, which provides housing to families with children for up to ninety days. All of their beds had become dilapidated and needed to be replaced at a cost of $1500; they could not afford to do so as donations have dropped off.
Reverend Vaeni and the leaders of the Olympia church also wanted to connect with our Association of Congregations, to raise funds for lay theological education materials and to develop the excellence of our clergy through participating in Association Sunday 2008, which was focused on Growing Our Spirit. So, as Arthur put it, “Rather than conducting individual fund-raising efforts for each of these at different times of the year, our Board felt we could do better if we combined the three into a single fund-raiser that will inspire fuller participation on each of our parts.”
And that is what they did. Olympia raised more than enough money to buy new beds for the shelter; they contributed to North Shore’s efforts to pay off their mortgage so they can move toward having a minister again; and Olympia’s contribution to Association Sunday placed them in our top ten percent. The Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation is growing in spirit; they are growing in the spirit of responsibility, creativity, and generosity; and they are Growing Our Faith.
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Last updated on Thursday, September 8, 2011.
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