Monster Blog Post: Lots to Share

In this post: 1). Planning for the Postal Food Drive. 2). Hoosac Harvest at March meeting. 3). ‘Wish I Had Transit’ campaign. 4). Generous Donations from Friends: food, pet food, and a copier. 5). NBIAI is 3 years old! 6). Mark Lincourt now on Food Bank Board. 7). Pope Francis discussed on ‘In the Company of Friends’

Planning for the Postal Food Drive

The next meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will be held on Friday, April 19, at 10 a.m. in the Eagle Street Room at the First Baptist Church of North Adams.

The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the upcoming letter carrier union food drive on May 11 and to seek other avenues of cooperation. Individuals wishing to learn more about what we do and/or about possibly volunteering to help collect and sort food on May 11th are welcome to attend. 

This drive is by far the biggest non-foodbank source of donated food we receive each year, and it requires a great effort to take it from the dedicated letter carriers and sort and store it.

We hope to have representatives of several local food programs attending this meeting. We hope this discussion may aid other efforts at future collaboration.

One of the topics I hope will receive some discuss is transportation, a topic which has come to the fore recently (see related posts below).

The Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative is a group of people of various faiths and denominations working with others of good will to serve our community through charitable works, open discussions of community issues, and presentation of faith-motivated activities and events. It is the parent organization of the Friendship Center Food Pantry at 43 Eagle St. in North Adams.

Our meetings start with introductions, silent prayer, faith sharing, and announcements.

For more information, call Mark Rondeau at 664-0130 or email northernberkshireinterfaith@gmail.com.

Hoosac Harvest at March meeting

Kathy Keeser of Hoosac Harvest speaks at the March 15 NBIAI meeting.

The featured guest at our Friday, March 15, monthly Interfaith Action Initiative meeting was Kathy Keeser of Hoosac Harvest, “a citizen-based organization that envisions a vibrant food system in which all members of the Northern Berkshire community participate and have access to locally grown, healthy, and sustainably produced food.”

Its mission is “to support and encourage access for North Berkshire residents across all income levels to sustainably-raised, locally grown food while building relationships between the land, each other, and our food.” See www.hoosacharvest.org

We had an interesting discussion with Kathy, including ideas about transportation, both of food and of people. One of the things we can’t help but notice is that some of our visiting friends at the Friendship Center have a hard time either getting there and/or getting home loaded with bags. We do call people taxis — several times per week — but is this is all that can be done?

All this inspired Kathy to get a meeting together of some interested parties, including representatives of Berkshire Rides, the Friendship Center Food Pantry, and the Berkshire Food Project. It will be held on Thursday, April 11, at 10 a.m. at the Berkshire Food Project/First Congregational Church of North Adams. 

Anyone interested in this topic is welcome to attend.

‘Wish I Had Transit’ campaign

This increased talk about transportation is a result of the March meeting of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition at which the county’s bus service and the inequity of funding between the Boston area and Berkshire County were the main topics of discussion, along with regular people's difficulties getting around.

Part of the effort to redress this inequity is the Wish I Had Transit campaign, which anyone can participate in by expressing a wish for better transit. Here is an explanation of the campaign from the website http://www.wishihadtransit.org

“We have a remarkable regional transit system with active, progressive leadership. However, funding inequities prevent the system from providing the level of service that neighboring regions take for granted. With this campaign, we aim to demonstrate that the would-be ridership of Berkshire County is deserving of more equitable transit.

“The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA) provides public transportation services to twenty-four member communities within Berkshire County, the westernmost region of Massachusetts. The BRTA's daily service area spans a region as large as Rhode Island; bordered by Vermont to the north, New York to the west and Connecticut to the south. Fixed route service is provided by fourteen bus routes in twelve communities from Williamstown to Great Barrington, Monday through Saturday. Paratransit services are provided to eligible persons from the BRTA's member communities for ambulatory, non-ambulatory, or complementary paratransit ADA service.

“The BRTA’s vision is to have public transit in service seven days a week, operating until 11 p.m. The three areas of our county, north-central-south, would have vehicles circulating in both directions every half hour and connecting with larger express buses bringing customers to the Intermodal Center in Pittsfield to connect with other parts of the county, intercity buses and trains.

“We want our workforce to be able to get to and from work for all three shifts without long waits. To achieve this efficiently and effectively, the BRTA system must be supported and supplemented by Intelligent Transportation Systems.”

This is not only a matter of need but also one of justice. That’s why I hope the NBIAI in some small way can participate in this effort.

Generous Donations from Friends

 A woman gives Caroline Webster, of the MCLA Chapter of MassPIRG, a donation at Stop & Shop in North Adams on Monday, April 1. 

As usual, we are the recipients of numerous generous donations. 

For instance, on Monday, April 1, volunteers stood outside Stop & Shop in North Adams for several hours taking donations. The next day they dropped off 131 lbs. of non-perishable food items at the Friendship Center.

In March, the Friendship Center received a high-quality copier thanks to the generosity of our friends at the First Baptist Church of North Adams and its pastor, Dave Anderson. 

The First Baptist Church continues to be a great support. We hold our monthly meetings in its Eagle Street Room and each Wednesday during our day food pantry session we sign people up in this room so that they don’t have to wait in a long line outside.

Here are some photos of the copier being delivered:

Here a group of people from First Baptist move the copier toward Pastor Dave’s truck.

It took four men to get it off the truck and into the Friendship Center. And below, the copier in its new home.

And we also want to thank the UNITY youth development program of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition for donating 225 lbs. of dog and cat food to the Friendship Center. It is greatly needed and greatly appreciated. 

In March, volunteers from the program took pet product donations from customers at the North Adams Wal-Mart for us and for other food programs. Two of the several youth involved in the pet food drive are pictured below.

NBIAI is 3 years old!

Monday, April 9, marked the third anniversary of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative. That was the date in 2010 of a Northern Berkshire Community Coalition forum on “ Intersecting 

the Faith Community with Social Issues.” Accounts vary of how things went at that forum but I recently discussed the beginnings with Al Nelson, at the recent NBIAI Steering Committee retreat.

From our perspective, faith communities needed to be doing more to work together for the community. Al and I were thinking along the same lines and, having been challenged by one of the clergy members present, began after the form to discuss starting an effort ourselves. The name Interfaith Action Initiative came to be during our first discussion.

We held our first public meeting on Friday, May 21, 2010, at the First Baptist Church of North Adams and were quite pleased by how many people showed up. We looked for a major project to take on for several months until it came in the form of a need for a food pantry. The Friendship Center Food Pantry opened on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011.

In three years the pantry has grown to serve about 1,300 families in North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida. We run an emergency voucher system, and at the end of January helped host and present a very successful interfaith service for Mental Illness Awareness and Understanding.

Over the years we have developed a steering committee of nine people, and on Saturday, March 16, we held a six-hour retreat. Part of what we decided was to pursue legal non-profit status. We feel that we can maintain the faith-based, grassroots nature of our organization while formalizing our structure.

We also launched our second letter-based fundraising campaign. Anyone reading this who would like to make a financial donation may do so by sending a check made out to the Friendship Center Food Pantry, and mailing it to The Friendship Center, 43 Eagle St., North Adams, MA 01247.

Donations are tax-deductible through our non-profit fiscal agent.

Mark Lincourt now on Food Bank Board

Mark Lincourt co-hosting the April edition of “In the Company of Friends”

One of those who attended that first meeting in May 2010 and has been with us every step of the way since is Mark Lincourt. We are very pleased to annouce that Mark, who is a member of our streering committee and is food pantry food distribution director was recently named to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Board of Directors.

We are also pleased that after suffering a very bad fall and breaking his arm this winter, Mark started back on the evening shift at the Friendship Center this past week. Mark had stayed involved in other ways, of course, while he was recouperating. One of them was to host or co-host our NBIAI local-access TV program, “In the Company of Friends.” This brings us to the final segment of this long post.

Pope Francis discussed on ‘In the Company of Friends’

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Mark Rondeau holds photo of Pope Francis on cover of TIME magazine on “In the Company of Friends”

Mark Lincourt and I co-host “In the Company of Friends.” When our choice for guest for the April program couldn’t make it, I offered to talk about the new pope. And so, Mark and I had an enjoyable discussion.

“In the Company of Friends” is shown  on Northern Berkshire Community Television Corp. Channel 15 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and Mondays at 1 p.m.

For an article I wrote as religion editor at the Bennington Banner which deals with much of what I had to say on the program, visit http://www.benningtonbanner.com/opinion/ci_22907058/one-catholics-easter-hope-church 

Thank you for reading all or part of this and God Bless!

Mark R.

We host Hoosac Harvest at our next meeting March 15

In this post: 1). We take on tough issues; 2). Hoosac Harvest our guest on March 15. 3). March “In the Company of Friends” 4). Food Pantry 2 Years Old! 5). nbCC helps us every month. 6). Friday Coalition meeting on Transportation.

We take on tough issues

Lelia Bruun of the Fresh Air Fund tells us about this program

At the Feb. 15 meeting of the NBIAI, 12 people continued our discussion from January on the causes of violence and what might be done to build a more peaceful community. We also heard from Lelia Bruun of Great Barrington about the need for Fresh Air Fund host families in Berkshire County. Anyone interested in hosting an inner-city child for a week or two during the summer may call 1-800-367-0003 or visit www.freshair.org.

As a result of our discussion of violence, including violence against women and gun violence, over two months, Mark Rondeau drafted the following letter, which he brought to the next NBIAI Steering Committee meeting on Feb. 25. All seven of the Steering Committee members present agreed to sign it:

Feb. 25, 2013

Dear Official or Editor:

We, Steering Committee members of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative, writing in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy and amid the ongoing gun violence that plagues the inner cities of our nation, urge you to support sensible legislation to reduce gun violence.

Measures we would like to see adopted include universal comprehensive background checks for all gun purchases, limitation of the size of magazines legally available for semi-automatic rifles, and a ban on military assault-type rifles.

We also support legislation currently under review, The Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act of 2013, which would specifically prohibit the straw purchase of firearms and strengthens the law prohibiting material false statements when buying a gun.

We also urge members of the Senate to stop blocking the appointment of a new director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, which has not had a full-time director since 2006. We also urge Congress to adequately fund this agency so that it can effectively enforce existing laws and future laws we hope will soon be adopted and signed into law by the President.

We support the right of citizens to own guns, but every right implies responsibilities and we seek sensible gun regulation to insure the common good and promote domestic tranquility.

Sincerely,

Mark E. Rondeau

Al Nelson

Corinne Case

Stuart Crampton

Steve Green

Mark Lincourt

Sue Walker

Later in the week, it was sent to the Transcript, The Berkshire Eagle, The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald; To President Obama, Gov. Deval Patrick, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Mo Cowan (temporary replacement for John Kerry), U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

I would imagine in the not-to-distant future we will focus our advocacy on maintenance of the “safety net” for the poor, given the regularly repeated federal financial crises — and threats in our state as well.

I knew this letter had run in one local paper (I personally didn’t see it) when a friend who belongs to the NRA started giving me crap about it!

Al Bashevkin speaks at our February meeting.

Hoosac Harvest our guest on March 15

The featured guests at our Friday, March 15, monthly Interfaith Action Initiative meeting will be two representatives of Hoosac Harvest, “a citizen-based organization that envisions a vibrant food system in which all members of the Northern Berkshire community participate and have access to locally grown, healthy, and sustainably-produced food.”

Its mission is “to support and encourage access for North Berkshire residents across all income levels to sustainably-raised, locally grown food while building relationships between the land, each other, and our food.”

The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. This should be a good discussion, on an important topic where much work remains to be done, and because it will be nice to look forward to the spring growing season. Speaking of Hoosac Harvest, it is sponsoring the following event on Thursday Night, March 7:

KNOW YOUR FARMER, KNOW YOUR FOOD

NORTH ADAMS — On Thursday, March 7 from 5-7pm, Hoosac Harvest will host the 3rd KNOW YOUR FARMER, KNOW YOUR FOOD event at the All Saints Church, Summer Street, North Adams, (next to the post office). Discover the bounty and meet the farmers and small food producers of the northern Berkshires at this FREE event. Learn about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), enjoy free samples and light refreshments, and swap seeds with friends and neighbors for the upcoming growing season. Participating farmers include Wildstone Farm, Cricket Creek Farm, Country Dream Farm, Many Forks Farm. Also participating are Wild Oats Market, North Adams Farmers Market, and more.

For more information about Hoosac Harvest, visit www.hoosacharvest.org or email hoosacharvest@gmail.com

March “In the Company of Friends”

Currently on “In the Company of Friends,” host Mark Lincourt welcomes Carrie Crews and Annie Rodgers of the Northern Berkshire Systems of Care Committee. This group is working to provide a hospitable local environment to youth and their families suffering from mental illness. Annie and Carrie talk with Mark about the upcoming project of inviting teens to film community service announcements about mental illness. Several members of the NBIAI Steering Committee are involved with the NBSOCC.

See “In the Company of Friends” on Northern Berkshire Community Television Corp. Channel 15 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and Mondays at 1 p.m.

Williams student-athletes collect donation for The Friendship Center Food Pantry.

Food Pantry 2 Years Old!

The Friendship Center Food Pantry continues going strong and observed its second anniversary on Feb. 23. Need continues to be great. On Feb. 23, 2011, we served our first 27 households in one session. On Feb. 22, 2012, we served 84 households in our first session and 35 in our second session for a total of 119. On Feb. 20, 2013, we served 92 households in our first sesssion and 50 in our second session for a total of 142. From 27 to 119 to 142, quite an increase!

During the two most recent weeks. Feb. 27, we served 109 and 26 families for a total of 135; and on March 6 we served 87 and 26 families for a total of 113.

During the Williams College - Amherst men’s and women’s basketball games on Feb. 10 at Williams, members of the Williams Student Athlete Advisory Council collected donations from fans for both fhe Friendship Center and a food pantry in Amherst. We received $848 from the event to buy food for our visiting friends.

Thanks to the students, and more were involved than shown here, and to Stewart Burns, coordinator of community engagement and Jennifer Chuks, assistant women's basketball coach and faculty member. Dan Bird, Al Nelson, and Mark Rondeau were present from the Interfaith Action Initiative/Friendship Center Food Pantry.

A few words here cannot begin to show thanks to all our many friends or give an accurate picture of what they all do for us.

Initiative Co-organizer Al Nelson at Williams.

nbCC helps us every month 

Still, we want to thank our friends at the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, which encourages those attending their monthly meetings to bring items for the Friendship Center Food Pantry. We greatly appreciate this. We also give out pet food, and this year the Coalition’s UNITY program is collecting pet food as well. Here is a Coalition Facebook announcement about this Friday’s Coalition meeting. The pet supplies will go to several places in addition to the FCFP:

“In addition to bringing non-perishable food items for the Friendship Center Food Pantry, please consider bringing pet food and other pet care items to support UNITY’S Youth Leadership Program's drive to support local animal shelters and pet food pantries during this Friday's monthly Forum. Items most needed include pet food (both wet and dry), cat litter and flea medicine. For more information, please call Annie with nbCC at 663-7588.”

Friday Coalition meeting

Speaking of the Coalition, it will be taking on the important issue of Transportation at its meeting this Friday, March 8, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams. See poster below:

Thank you for reading this and God Bless,

Mark Rondeau

Our discussion turns to non-violence and peacebuilding

In this post: Conversation continues Feb. 15; A satisfying January for the Initiative; Profound thoughts about what we do.

Conversation continues at Feb. 15 Interfaith meeting

Steve Green and others at our Jan. 18 Interfaith Action Initiative monthly meeting.

When we decided that we would make the topic of our Jan. 18 Interfaith meeting a discussion of the tragic violence last December at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., we did not know what to expect. Would anybody attend? What would we talk about?

We need not have worried, for 21 people attended and we had plenty to talk about. Some people told of terrible experiences of violence, including gun violence, others spoke about the silence of many religious leaders on guns and violence.

The discussion was so powerful that we decided to continue it at our meeting on Friday, Feb. 15, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams. All are welcome. (Please use Eagle Street entrance).

At this meeting we will focus on what we can do to build a more peaceful community and focus on non--violent problem solving. 

More of those who attended the Jan. 18 meeting.

A satisfying January

Weny Krom, at left, speaks to the community outreach workers during their visit to the Friendship Center on Jan. 31.

January was a very busy and successful month for the NBIAI. In addition to our great discussion at our Jan. 18 meeting, we welcomed a group of volunteers and accepted many food donations on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service in Northern Berkshire on Jan. 21. 

As you can read elsewhere on this blog, our Jan. 27 Interfaith Service for Mental Illness and Understanding at New Hope Methodist Church was a great success, with more than 40 people attending. Readings, candellighting, and powerful testimonies created a memorable event that will be presented again.

On Jan. 31, we welcomed for the second year community outreach workers from the Northern Berkshire Neighbors program of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, led by Wendy Krom and Annie Rodgers. 

Two of the visitors were Fran Bersai and Rich Davis, two of our stalwart volunteers. Rich gave a tour of the pantry to his fellow outreach workers in training. Mark Rondeau and Al Nelson helped welcome the visitors and informed them about the Interfaith Initiative and what else it does.

The Friendship Center Food Pantry continues operating at high-efficiency. We adjusted in January to the loss of our great friend and food distribution director, Mark Lincourt, to a broken arm he suffered from slipping on ice. Thanks to Dan Bird for stepping up to drive the van back and forth from Pittsfield to pick up our food each Tuesday.

Mark is doing well in his recovery, and we look forward to seeing him back at the Friendship Center soon.

The pantry now has more than 1,200 member families in North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida. On five Wednesdays in January we had a total of 757 household visits, an average of 151 per week. Our average was 104 visits in our 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. session and 47 in our 4 to 6 p.m. session.

We will observe our second anniversary of operation on Feb. 23. Astonishing!

Profound thoughts about what we do

In the 1940s, African-American minister and scholar Howard Thurman started an interdenominational church in San Francisco called the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. More than just interdenominational, this church brought people of many different races together. This in the U.S. during the Second World War!!!

Here is what worked for Thurman and his wife, Sue: “a profound conviction that meaningful and creative experiences between peoples can be more compelling than all the ideas, concepts, faiths, fears, ideologies, and prejudices that divide them; and absolute faith that if such experiences can be multiplied and sustained over a time interval of sufficient duration any barrier that separates one person from another can be undermined and eliminated. We were sure that the ground of such meaningful experiences could be provided by the widest possible associations around common interest and common concerns.”

Thurman’s church did this through a wide variety of spiritual, artistic and service activities.

And this, “And around all of these and other activities, one basic discovery was constantly surfacing — meaningful experiences of unity among peoples were more compelling than all that divided and separated. The sense of Presence was being manifest which in time would bring one to his or her own altar stairs leading each in his own way like Jacob’s ladder from earth to heaven.”

(“With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman,” pg. 148)

The second thought I encountered more recently and comes from Jesuit priest Fr. John Kavanaugh, who passed away recently:

“I am convinced that if Christians, Jews, and Humanists penetrate to the depth of their commitments, longings, and beliefs, if they enter that depth with a painful honesty and an integrity open to the fullest mystery of their human personhood, they will find themselves, at the bottom of those depths, indelibly and eternally brothers and sisters.”

(“Following Christ in a Consumer Society” pg. 130)

Hope to see you at our Interfaith meeting Feb. 15!

God Bless,

Mark

Volunteer name tags hang on hooks at the Friendship Center.

A powerful and moving Interfaith service at New Hope

All the candles lit at Sunday's service at New Hope Methodist Church.

“What lies before us and what lies behind us

are small matters compared to what lies within us.

And when we bring what is within

out into the world, miracles happen.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Candle lighting and heartfelt testimonies lifted our Interfaith Service for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding at New Hope Methodist Church to a truly transcendent level. Organized and conducted by New Hope Pastor Kim Kie with help from the Rev. Peter Elvin, of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Williamstown and the Rev. Dave Anderson of the First Baptist Church of North Adams, the service exceed expectations.

About 40 people attended on Sunday evenning, Jan. 27, filling most of the sacntuary of this unique, storefront church. The event was so well-attended, well-planned by Pastor Kie and others, moving and appreciated, that we will no doubt continue it in the future.

After Pastor Kie offered words of welcome, Marilyn Moran and Donna Turner of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Berkshire County Chapter gave moving introductory remarks. Donna read a great prose poem titled “Let Go....” (See text below)

During the service there were readings from various traditions, followed by each reader lighting a candle. The themes were Truth, Healing, Understanding, Hope, Thankfulness, Faith, and Love. Robin Kibler played fine muisc. I was privileged to read and light the candle of Hope. What I read, “Drawing Near--A Blessing to Begin Advent,” by Jan Richardson is below.

Later in the one-hour service, people came forward and lit candles in honor and/or memory of those in their lives affected by mental illness. This was profoundly moving. The Spirit seemed to be thick in the air during this time. Among the testimonies, Rachel Branch read a poem she wrote for the event, “NUTS & BOLTS.” It begins:

“Holy, Holy, Holy

Cow...

Someone things I’m crazy

Wow!”

Local NAMI Support Group

Among information shared at the meeting were details about a local support group:

The NAMI of Berkshire County North Berkshire Support Group, a peer-led group facilitated by trained NAMI member volunteers. The group provides insight, empathy, and experiences as well as education, support and advocacy to help family members. It is open to anyone who has a family member, friend, neighbor, or special person who has a biologically based mental illness.

The support group is held the second Thursday of every month from 6:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 35 Park St., Williamstown, in the library room. (Come in through the end doors of the Church School building. The library is on the right).

Thanks to all who in any way took part in this event. 

Pastor Kim Kie hosting the service at New Hope

“Let Go....”

To let go does not mean to stop caring. It means I can’t do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off. It’s the realization I can’t control another.

To let go is to allow someone to learn from natural consequences.

To let go is to recognize when the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to care for, but to care about.

To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to expect miracles, but to take each day as it comes, and cherish myself in it.

To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To let go is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less and love more.

HOPE 

Drawing Near--A Blessing to Begin Advent by Jan Richardson

It is difficult to see it from here,

I know,

but trust me when I say

this blessing is inscribed

on the horizon.

Is written on

that far point

you can hardly see.

Is etched into

a landscape

whose contours you cannot know

from here.

All you know

is that it calls you,

draws you,

pulls you toward

what you have perceived

only in pieces,

in fragments that came to you

in dreaming

or in prayer.

I cannot account for how,

as you draw near,

the blessing embedded in the horizon

begins to blossom

upon the soles of your feet,

shimmers in your two hands.

It is one of the mysteries

of the road,

how the blessing

you have traveled toward,

waited for,

ached for

suddenly appears

as if it had been with you

all this time,

as if it simply

needed to know

how far you were willing

to walk

to find the lines

that were traced upon you

before the day that you were born.

We light the candle of Hope for persons and families living with mental  illness, for better treatment, for steadier recovery, for greater opportunity to work and serve. 

MLK Day of Service at Friendship Center

A group of volunteers from MCLA and elsewhere came to the Friendship Center with donated  food shortly after 10 a.m. and helped us sort it.

Nate Rodgers and a little volunteer on a step ladder clean the outside of the Center's front window, which really needed a good cleaning.

Paul Marino of Northern Berkshire Community Television films as Amanda Chilson and Amber Besaw get more donated food to bring in.

Bert Lamb and Liz Boland next pulled up with donations from Stop and Shop.

Bert takes a photo of Rich Davis as he gets some of the donations ready to roll into the pantry.

Though I was not able to go to the MLK lunch and ceremony later at the MCLA Church Street Center, I want to acknowledge the awarding of the 2013 Peacemaker Award to the Rev. Dave Anderson, pastor of the First Baptist Church of North Adams. He does a lot of great work for the community, much of it behind the scenes. As a group we appreciate that we are able to use First Baptist both for our monthly meetings and during the winter as a warm sign-in station for Friendship Center members before they come to the pantry. Well-deserved. God Bless him and to all who donated to the Friendship Center and those who came to work!

Well-deserved — Pastor Dave Anderson receives the 2013 Peacemaker Award from North Adams Mayor Dick Alcombright, who is at far right in photo. (Courtesy Bert Lamb)

A busy January for the Interfaith Action Initiative

In this post: 1). Discussion of Newtown tragedy at NBIAI meeting; 2). Caregiver Resource Guide Available; 3). Interfaith Service for Mental Illness Recovery & Understanding. 4). Pantry going strong; 2012 statistics.

Discussion of Newtown tragedy at NBIAI meeting

After taking a break in December, the Initiative will hold its next monthly meeting on Friday, Jan. 18, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams (use Eagle Street entrance). 

Following introductions, announcements, a moment of silent prayer and faith sharing, we will discuss the December tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., from a faith perspective.

All are welcome to come and share their thoughts and feelings in an informal and respectful discussion on how, in the aftermath of this horrible event, we view our place in the world, our relations to others, our thoughts about good and evil, and our vision of and relationship with God.

Those attending also will be able to pick up a copy of the second editon of The Northern Berkshire Caregiver Resource Guide, fully revised and updated. Refreshements will be available.

We owe the idea for this topic to Pastor Kim Kie of the New Hope Methodist Church, who suggested this topic to me after the taping of the January edition of the Initiative TV program, “In the Company of Friends.” (More on this below.)

Caregiver Resource Guide Available

As noted above, the second edition of the “Northern Berkshire Family Caregiver Resource Guide” is now available, a product of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. Coalition Communications Coordinator Bert Lamb has done a great job both updating the original guide and in making it much more attractive than the original.

The 12-page guide features an introduction; listings for adult day services/respite care, assisted living, councils on aging, education, financial support or referrals, services in the home, support groups; and also a listing of helpful national websites, and books about caregiving.

The guide will be available both at the Jan. 18 NBIAI meeting and at the Friendship Center Food Pantry during our hours of operation. They also can be obtained from the Coalition, 663-7588 or from me, Mark Rondeau, 664-0130.

Service for Mental Illness Recovery & Understanding

On Sunday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m., all are welcome to an interfaith service for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding at New Hope Methodist Church in Williamstown (located in the former TGL Photoworks building) at the corner of Main and Water Streets. This will be an informal, 45-minute service with candle-lighting and a brief presentation. New Hope is a bright, non-churchy setting with a welcoming atmosphere.

This event grew out of a presentation at our September, 2012, Interfaith meeting by Kathy Quinn, a family advocate with the Berkshire affiliate of The National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Our discussion centered around the role faith communities can play to acknowledge the issue and offer support to individuals and families. Kathy provided us with a packet of information from NAMI — a “Mental Illness Awareness Week Faith Tool Kit” — on how faith communities could plan a vigil for those affected by mental illness.

On the January edition of the NBIAI cable access TV show, “In the Company of Friends,” on Channel 15, aired this month on Fridays at 5 p.m. and Mondays at 1 p.m., the Rev. Kim Kie, pastor of New Hope, talks about plans for this interfaith service.

We are grateful to Pastor Kim for stepping up to provide a venue for this service and in taking the lead in planning it. Here is some of what she had to say on the TV program:

“We’re thrilled to be asked, we volunteered our space because we are not a [traditional church setting], so we don’t have a lot of things attached to the wall and installed altars and things that might make people uncomfortable who are not part of a faith community or to preference one faith tradition over another.

“So we have that great flexibilty and a wonderful new space and a good location — that was why we stepped forward.”

She said that Rev. Peter Elvin from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Williamstown also has been working on the service; some members of First Congregational Church in Williamstown have been giving input; and Rev. Dave Anderson of First Baptist in North Adams is also involved.

“I expect some others will be stepping forward and participating,” she said.

Pastor Kim said the planners liked the idea of a vigil offered in the NAMI packet of service options.

“There are seven candles: one for truth, healing, understanding, hope, thankfulness, faith, and love. “And so what we’re doing is we’re having a reading to go with each one. Some of the readings are from sacred scriptures of different faith traditions, some are just contemporary poetry or older, familiar poetry that builds on that theme, and then lighting the candle,” she said. “Then there’s also an opportunity for people to come forward and light a candle themselves” for an individual intention.

There will be live background music throughout the service, alternating with periods of silence for people to reflect. And Kathy Quinn will talk about what NAMI does and the services that are available to help people who are either confronting a mental illness themselves or supporting a family member.

In the future, we hope to help present such a service every year during Mental Illness Awareness Week, which is marked during the second week of October. 

Again, the service for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding will be held on Sunday, Jan. 27,  at New Hope Methodist Church, at the corner of Main and Water Streets in Williamstown. The service will begin at 7 p.m. and last for about 45 minutes. All are welcome.

For additional information, contact Mark at 664-0130.

Pantry going strong; 2012 statistics

We’ve developed a tradition during the almost two years the NBIAI has run the Friendship Center Food Pantry that in the early evening of every Wednesday, Food Distribution Director Mark Lincourt emails several of us the total number of households who have come to the Friendship Center during its morning and evening session, the resulting total, and how many new members we added that day.

We add families from North Adams, Clarksburg or Florida every week and we now have about 1,200 member households. 

On Wednesday, Nov. 28, we set a new record, serving 120 families in our first session and 66 in our afternoon session for a total of 186 for the day. Demand has been so high, that we have begun opening an hour earlier every Wednesday, at 10 a.m., instead of at 11 a.m. as before, and continuing to 2 p.m. Our evening hours remain 4 to 6 p.m.

To keep our members from having to stand outside during the bitter cold, we just this past Wednesday started to utilize the First Baptist Church of North Adams as a warm place to sign people in. (See previous post here for more details).

We also continue to be the recipient of many generous donations of food and financial support from the community — I just today picked up several hundred pounds of food donated by students at the Clarksburg Elementary School.

And we continue attract new volunteers in addition to a large core of weekly stalwarts who make the Friendship Center a joy to visit.

Here are some statistics for 2012 based on the number of households we served each week:

1). We had a total of 6,581 household visits in 2012, 68 percent of these were during our morning session and 32 percent during our late afternoon/evening session.

2). In December 2011, we averaged 67 households in our first session and 29 in our second session, for an average total of 95. In December 2012, we averaged 93 households in our first session, 36 in our second session for an average total of 128. This gives a good idea of the level of increased visitors.

3). Our average number of households served for the whole year were 86 for the first session and 41 for the second session and a total of 127 served per week.

4). Our busiest weeks were:

1). Nov. 28: 120 + 66 = 186

2). Oct. 24: 131 + 53 = 184

3). Sept. 26: 115 + 53 = 168

4). Dec. 19: 123 + 44 = 167

5) May 30: 96 + 63 = 159.

Thanks for reading this and God Bless You All! And hope to see you soon!

Mark

Winter measures put into place at Friendship Center

Steve, Tara and Al, with baggers in the background, Notice that no one is working the back of the desk. Instead, Fran was doing the registrations down at the First Baptist Church (below).

In an effort not to have people waiting out in extreme cold during the remainder of the winter, the volunteers of the Friendship Center put into place a change in procedures on Wednesday, Jan., 2. 

We served 87 people in our first session and 39 in our second session for a total of 126 people served for the day. We added four new members. The temperature outside was in the low 20s, with a wind chill of -4.

We had people sign in at the downstairs level of the First Baptist Church of North Adams, and then sent them over to the Friendship Center Food Pantry as space freed up. This procedure was suggested by Dan Bird to the Interfaith Action Initiative Steering Committee at its last meeting.

In the moring and early afternoon session, Dan and Fran Berasi signed people in at First Baptist’s street-level meeting room right off Eagle Street. Meanwhile, back at the Friendship Center, Al Nelson, Steve Green and Mark Rondeau asked people showing up at the Friendship Center to first go down to the church.

And a whole host of our ususal volunteers were on hand to bag our friends’ groceries.

A great way to start the new year!

The sign we put on the door of the First Baptist Church. Below, Dan Bird at First Baptist.