​Needed: White Sheets and Butterfly Nets. Our children will be building a large “Peace Dove” to fly on Sunday, September 24 to commemorate the International Day of Peace, and we will need several new white sheets to accomplish this.

We also need a few butterfly nets so we can safely capture and tag Monarch Butterflies we find in our meadow. We will keep tabs on the Monarchs we tag, and then submit that information to MonarchWatch.org to aid their ongoing research.

We continue our on-going search for Monarch butterfly eggs. We learned during our trip to the Butterfly Pavilion that when Monarch caterpillars are brought indoors, they stand a much better chance of survival to adulthood compared to being left outside to predation. Let us know if you are interested in fostering a Monarch. You need a wire or mesh cage, and lots of Milkweed (and we have plenty in the church meadow that you can bring home).

Our next Family Fun Night is Saturday evening, August 26, 6:30 PM. We are planning a drum circle, so bring your best drums!

Kids and adults are encouraged to bring Butterfly “treats” and leave them on the flat stones in the Butterfly Garden. Old and even rotten fruit is quite the delicacy (think brown bananas).

OWL Sexuality Education Being Offered this Fall to Mill Creek Youth

7th, 8th and 9th graders from Mill Creek are invited to participate in the “Our Whole Lives” program beginning this September and continuing through most of the school year. This comprehensive and balanced class is led by trained teachers. We are hoping to merge our group with the program at First UU Church. This means we will have several spaces available for interested youth whose families are not members. There is no cost to our families for this program. This is a wonderful and life-changing/ life-affirming experience that we feel is so important to the well-being of our young people. The curriculum has been recently updated to include relevant information about such pertinent topics as cyber-bullying and gender orientation. There will be an orientation meeting for parents in which the entire program will be explained and questions answered. It is very important that our youth have access to factual and compassionate information about their bodies and their relationships. Jeannie and Brian Hanson and Reverend Greg are all trained “OWL” facilitators. Please ask them or contact DRE@UUSMC.org for more information.

Support RE

Members who are interested in supporting the children’s programming on Sunday mornings can click on this link: Sign-Up! to sign up to help in a class. It’s a different Sunday morning experience, but one with spiritual benefits (especially if you like to laugh). We are looking for adults to volunteer to help with RE especially in late February and throughout March. Many thanks to the wonderful adults and youth who help make this program fun and meaningful for our children!

Please contact us with any questions related to Children’s RE or our Butterfly Spirituality Program (DRE@UUSMC.org).
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Parents can register their child for Religious Exploration at this link: https://goo.gl/forms/EwcQQQG1tqVViEND2​