Search results for: Lehigh Valley Humanists

By Elizabeth Dorssom

Congratulations to the Beyond Belief Network’s January Team of the Month: Lehigh Valley Humanists! Lehigh Valley Humanists (LVH) was chosen for this honor because of the variety and number of service activities they held in 2013, including blood drives, community cleanups, food and clothing drives, a fundraiser for the Oklahoma Tornado crisis, and most recently a free Christmas dinner. We were most impressed by the multiple events they’ve held to feed the needy in their community.

In December, LVH hosted a free Christmas dinner for homeless people and retirees in their community at an LVH member’s restaurant. They served and delivered a few hundred meals. Restaurant staff cooked ham, turkey, and all the sides for a traditional holiday meal. LVH greeted guests, served food, delivered meals to retirement communities, and cleaned up tables. This event was featured in a segment on a local news station, WFMZ-TV, and in The Morning Call, a local paper.

LVH members have also helped out the Catasauqua Food Bank. In addition to holding food drives to benefit the bank, a LVH member allows the Food Bank to use his warehouse free of charge. Although the food bank is affiliated with a church, the church forced them out of their building when the food bank couldn’t pay to upgrade the building. By putting the beneficiaries of the Catasauqua Food Bank first, LVH truly embodies the spirit of compassionate humanism.

Team of the Month recognition is the latest benefit provided by Foundation Beyond Belief to our Beyond Belief Network teams. In order to be considered, your group must be a Level One Beyond Belief Network team and you must submit at least one event report during the month. Team of the Month selection is based on the number, length, variety, and documentation (e.g., submitted pictures, blog posts, videos, etc.) of events.

Teams can only be Team of the Month once per calendar year. If your local group does great service work, but isn’t a member of BBN, you can join anytime! In addition to recognition, your team can qualify for free t-shirts and grants. If your local humanist group doesn’t volunteer, but you’d like to start, we’d love to help! For teams new to secular service, we offer tons of ideas, event guides, and advice.

By Elizabeth Dorssom, BBN intern

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups volunteering in their communities and raising money for FBB’s featured charities and programs. Any group with a public secular humanist or atheist identity is welcome to join, regardless of experience or group size. In January, BBN is observing National Mentoring Month and encouraging teams to forge mentoring relationships with young adults or other secular humanist groups.

December’s Team of the Month, FreeOK, reported on their Holiday Humanist Gifting Project:

“Throughout the months of November and December, FreeOK registered 102 needy children in Oklahoma to be recipients of gifts from volunteers through the Humanist Gifting Project. We had 47 direct adoptions (volunteers gift-adopting specific children from our list) with the rest coming in purchases from the Amazon wish list we set up for national support. The bulk of the gifts, being taken to local recovery shelter Jordan’s Crossing, was picked up Friday, with the rest being delivered as far as Tulsa by volunteer drivers from OKC on Christmas Eve.”

We loved this event, and we’ve been encouraging beneficiaries and BBN teams to use Amazon wish lists as a fundraising tool.

The Humanist Community at Harvard recently opened the Humanist Hub, a nonreligious community center in Harvard Square. At their grand opening event, they had a great lineup of speakers and showcased their humanist values by organizing a food drive for the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Lehigh Valley Humanists (LVH) hosted a free Christmas dinner to homeless people and retirees in their community. One of the LVH members owns a pizza restaurant and decided to offer a free dinner to area homeless and retirement community shut-ins. A few hundred meals were either served at the restaurant or delivered door to door to the retirement communities. Restaurant staff cooked the meals: ham, turkey, and all the sides/trimmings of a traditional holiday meal. LVH worked with other volunteers to greet guests, serve food, deliver food, and bus tables. This event was featured in a segment on a local news station, WFMZ-TV, and in The Morning Call, a local paper.

Illini Secular Student Alliance teamed up with the University of Illinois Red Cross Club to host a blood drive with the Red Cross. In the University YMCA, ISSA encouraged group members and friends to donate blood. In total, 43 units of blood were collected, which was higher than their quota! In November, ISSA also organized a charity benefit concert, Rock the Night, featuring seven local bands. They raised more than $600 and donated the proceeds to ISSA’s Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walk team and the Foundation for International Medical Relief for Children.

Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry helped the Charleston Parks Conservancy trim back existing plants and plant new bulbs in a city park. They recently reached Level Three of Beyond Belief Network by having at least twelve service events in a single calendar year!

If you are a member of a secular humanist or atheist group and would like to participate in community service projects under the national umbrella of Foundation Beyond Belief, join Beyond Belief Network. We welcome all atheist groups interested in service, from groups with extensive volunteer experience to newly formed groups new to secular service. By aggregating our efforts, we show the world that all we really need is charity and goodness to make the world a better place.

By Elizabeth Dorssom

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups volunteering in their communities and raising money for FBB’s featured charities and programs. Any group with a public secular humanist or atheist identity is welcome to join, regardless of experience or group size. Our teams have been hard at work in December, proudly displaying humanism at work! During December we are encouraging everyone to keep toy safety in mind when making holiday purchases for children.

Secular Hub recently sorted medical supplies for Project C.U.R.E, a nonprofit that collects medical supplies and equipment from hospitals and other medical facilities and ships them to clinics and hospitals in poor countries, where the supplies are desperately needed. Secular Hub also hosted a tea party and Bead for Life party at which they raised more than $600 to help East African women lift their families out of extreme poverty.

Central Ohio United Non-Theists (COUNT) volunteered as housewarmers at the Columbus Ronald McDonald House. Ronald McDonald House provides housing and meals to families with children being treated at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and other local hospitals. Housewarmers work with Ronald McDonald House guests to provide a home-like environment: they greet families, assist with family needs, answer phones, give tours, assist with checking in and out, prepare guest rooms after checkout, clean the facility, do laundry, restock supplies, and staff the front desk. COUNT members volunteer as housewarmers for at least one four-hour shift a month.

Lehigh Valley Humanists (LVH) hosted a speaker who discussed the teaching of intelligent design in PA schools and had some fun playing an ID/FSM Jeopardy game. LVH hosted a Pastafarian Pasta Drive to benefit Catasauqua Food Bank. The food bank was originally affiliated with a church, but the church forced the food bank out of the building when they couldn’t afford to pay for the building’s upgrade. One of LVH’s members owns a warehouse and lets the food bank use it for free.

Humanist Community of Central Ohio recently hosted a blood drive in their office building. They had their largest recruitment ever with 28 registrations, five walk-ins, and one volunteer. They were able to collect 21 units of blood overall, two more units than the target set by the Red Cross. This collection can help save up to 60 lives!

Siouxland Freethinkers collected toys and other items needed for a local children’s shelter, Children’s Inn. The collection was held during their monthly meeting. Members unable to attend the meeting were able to donate early. Check out the items donated to Children’s Inn below.

Humanists and Freethinkers of Cape Fear held a holiday toy drive to benefit Duke University’s clinic for children up to age 18. They also held a school supply collection to benefit school-aged children at Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard. Due to space and availability restrictions, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard wasn’t able to give out backpacks, but did hand out various school supplies.

If you are a member of a secular humanist or atheist group and would like to participate in community service projects under the national umbrella of Foundation Beyond Belief, join Beyond Belief Network. We welcome all atheist groups interested in service, from groups with extensive volunteer experience to newly formed groups new to secular service. By aggregating our efforts, we show the world that all we really need is charity and goodness to make the world a better place.