Real commitment, real results

Palpable excitement filled the air at the Friday, Jan. 21, meeting of the Interfaith Action Initiative as the group and represenatives of Berkshire County Community Action moved forward toward opening a food pantry at 43 Eagle St. in North Adams.

Details are being worked out, but BCAC will provide the necessary equipment, food and utilities and the Interfaith group supplying volunteers to open and operate the pantry.

Though several people who intended to attend the meeting could not due to several inches of snow overnight or previous committments, 15 people were present.

In subsequent e-mails after the meeting, it seems unlikely that a Feb. 2 opening (as had been hoped) for the food pantry is feasible, with mid-February seeming more realistic.

However, in order to further discuss the opening of the pantry, allow more Interfaith members to become more familiar with the space, and to identify and recruit more poential volunteers, a meeting will be held in the space at 43 Eagle St., next to Papryi Books, from 10 to 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 28.

Assessing the front window of the 800-foot storefront — which includes space for an office and a bathroom — for a temporary sign will be another task for the meeting this coming Friday.

As was discussed in the last blog entry, and during Friday’s meeting, the 43 Eagle St. storefront will likely be just a temporary location until a larger and more full-service location for the pantry can be found. At that time, the space at 43 Eagle St. would continue to serve as the Initiative’s headquarters, though our volunteers would be involved in an expanded services center.

To this end, we hope to develop a corps of volunteers of all ages, from teens to seniors. We may even have some training materials or training itself available through the Northern Berkshire Neighbors program of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. We would even hope eventually to incorporate some of those served as volunteers in an effort to build solidarity and to empower them.

The name of the center on our temporary sign will be the Interfaith Action Initiative Friendship Center. I will run the concept of such a sign by the mayor and the planning board.

Corinne Case had the wonderful idea of having a ceremonie/ceremonies by clergy to dedicate the new center. This would be fantastic. As soon as we have things up and running, this will be a top priority.

I again would like to thank Lois and Mike Daunis for their generous donation of use of this space for the Initiative and the food pantry.

While there are many details to be worked out, there seems to be plenty of will and plenty of means to make this dream a reality. The several months our Initiative spent trying to discern a course of action to serve the community are bearing fruit.

And bearing fruit not only in regards to the above initiative. For instance, Interfaith Action member Denise Krutiak is working to develop a mentoring arrangment with clients of Louison House. Our ongoing survey of what faith communities are doing to serve the less fortunate has already received a good response and made us more aware of what is going on and of opportunities for more cooperation. In addition, we are keeping in mind the possibility of an expanded voucher system through houses of worship for those in need in Northern Berkshire.

We also are providing a regular community forum where those motivated to community action by faith can freely share their ideas and concerns. For instance, at our Jan. 21 meeting both Denise and Sue Walker shared moving prayers and thoughts. Faith sharing and a period of silent prayer are a regular part of our monthly meetings.

Our next regular monthly meeting will be held on Friday, Feb. 18, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in North Adams (use Eagle Street entrance). The meeting will include a presentation by Christina Maxwell of the Western Mass. Food Bank, who could not attend the Jan. 21 meeting because of the snow.

Speaking of snow, as mentioned above several people who intended to attend our Jan. 21 meeting could not attend because of the weather. And in the hours before it started people had questions whether or not the meeting would in fact be held. In the future, look to this blog on the morning of our meeting in the event of a storm. I will post whether or not there will be a meeting by 8 a.m.

Hope to see you this Friday, Jan. 28th!

Please feel free to comment with ideas, reminders and comments on this blog. Thanks, Peace, and God Bless all of you,

Mark

Our Second Meeting - Great Ideas

Our Second Meeting

Friends, below is the article I wrote for the July edition of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition newsletter about the June meeting of the Interfaith Action Initiative:


The Interfaith Action Initiative has held two well-attended and dynamic meetings, and participants are discerning long-term community needs they may fill.

The next meeting of the initiative will be held on Friday, July 15, at 10:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in North Adams. (Use the Eagle Street entrance).

In addition, the Initiative is planniing to present a drumming circle, led by local musician Otha Day at the North Adams Downtown Celebration on Wednesday, Aug. 25. This will be an outreach effort and information about the Initiative will be available.

At the June 18 meeting of the Initiative, the discussion centered around community needs we possibly could fill. These included findiing a centralized space available one or two days a week for the work of the Family Life Support Center.

Another possible area for service would be youth mentoring. Work with, or along the lines of, Big Brothers Big Sisters was discussed. One meeting participant suggested mentoring gay and lesbian youth, as they often feel particularly isolated and alone; this person also mentioned that there’s a need for mentoring of youth between the ages of 18 to 23 or so.

A third possible area would be provision of emergency housing for those men and women who cannot fit in at the Lousion House in Adams. These would be people on the fringe of our community, possibly recently released from incarceration. One participant asked whether an intermediate step could be creation of a kind of “social services hub” at a fixed location to help such people.

We also discussed the role of silent prayer and possibly faith sharing at our meetings.

At our July 15 meeting we will discuss our plans for the Downtown Celebration and each of the above service possibilities in more detail. Everyone is welcome to attend and bring their ideas.

The Interfaith Action Initiative grew out of the April forum of the Northern Berkshire Communiity Coalition, at which those present discussed the intersection of faith and community issues. All people of good will are welcome to participate in the Initiative.

For more information, e-mail northernberkshireinterfaith@gmail.com; visit http://northernbekshireinterfaith.blogspot.com or call the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition at 663-7588.

***

In this more expansive blog forum format, a number of further items are worth noting and/or discussing. Basically this blog is sort of like meeting minutes, with some opinion thrown in. So if I leave something important out, or you disagree, please feel free to comment.

Check out Otha Day’s Website, www.drumtothebeat.com

Where are the Adams people? And people from the hilltowns? Hopefully some from these places will become involved as the initiative moves forward.

Thanks to Denise Vigna for attending the June 18 meeting and inviting everyone to participate in the efforts of the local conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, located at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in North Adams. This conference does fine work helping people whose needs cannot always be met, or met quickly, by local service agencies. The phone number of the conference is 664-4835.

Thanks to Dave Babcock, a member of First Baptist Church in North Adams, for suggesting the possibility that faith communiities could fill in the gaps for the meals program headquartered on River Street in North Adams. He also spoke of First Baptist's outreach called Faith in Action, held twice a year, where participants go out on a Sunday and do service.

Thanks to Robin Lehleitner for her insightful ideas on how we might serve young people and for her mentioning the possibility of working with the Catalyst group at Williams College, which has tried to run a sort of social services hub in North Adams called “4th Monday.”

Thanks to Susan Jameson, of Lanesborough, for telling us about the World Prayer Day Interfaith Prayer and Peace Pot Luck Dinner that was held at her farm on June 21. I was not able to get this entry done in time to announce it ahead of time, but for more information about the intefaith work Susan is involved in, e-mail HumanityInConcert@Earthlink.net or visit www.healingwinds.net

Thanks to Judy Grinnell for reminding us about the important Community Conversation about the future of the Hoosic River, which will be held at St. Elizabeth’s Parish Center in North Adams from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 26. Visit www.hoosicriverrevival.org

And, of course, thanks to everyone who has attended our two meetings so far. It is exciting to see what great people we have and what exciting ideas we are putting forward.

Don’t hesitate to comment on this blog entry. Become a “follower” of this blog so you’ll know when people post on it. Bring a friend to our next meeting which, again, will be held on Friday, July 15, at 10:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in North Adams. (Use the Eagle Street entrance).

Peace

Our First Meeting

The first meeting of the Interfaith Action Initiative for Northern Berkshire County drew 21 people at the First Baptist Church on Friday, May 21.

The next meeting will be held on Friday, June 18, at 10 a.m., again at the First Baptist Church.

People from a variety of Christian denominations, Jewish people, a man from the Sufi branch of Islam and others with no formal relgiious affiliation attended. Two memembers of the clergy attended, Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser and the Rev. Ed King.

There was a powerful feeling of energy in the room as people from the Northern Berkshires discussed the reason or reasons why they came to the meeting.

Some had seen successful ecumenical or interfaith groups work in other areas. One person, for instance, pointed to the success of the interfaith group for the Bennington area in Vermont, with its Food and Fuel Fund and Free Clinic providing medical care to those without insurance. Others spoke of an active group in Pittsfield.

Ideas discussed included working with youth, finding and filling community needs otherwise not being met, working to create jobs, working on the transition towns initiative. The possibility of having a drumming circle and information about the Interfaith Initiative at the North Adams Downtown Celebration in August also was discussed. We also discussed such activities as watchiing a relevant film and inviting speakers from successful interfaith groups.

Al Bashevkin noted the energy in the room and said that those present came because they want to be part of a group of people who want to do things together. As people wrestled with ideas, Al noted the tension that can arise between process and product.

Currently there are two efforts in which people of different faiths and denominations cooperate together in the Northern Berkshires: the annual CROP Walk and the Take and Eat program in which individual congregations fill in some of the gaps in the Meals on Wheels program.

The idea for an Interfaith Action Initiative arose from the April meeting of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. While clergy in the Northern Berkshires revitalize their association, the idea of laypeople joining together themselves in an active association for community betterment arose.

The Interfaith Action Initiative is open to everyone of all faiths, lay people, clergy and people of goodwill with no formal religious affiliation.

At the June 18 meeting, we will begin to prioritize the needs we can possibily meet, look toward an event we can put together in the near future, discuss the role of prayer and religious sharing within the Intiative and more.


Please attend and invite friends, fellow parishioners or congregations and anyone you know may be interested to attend.

And, as this is a blog, feel free to post ideas.

— Mark Rondeau