Community Spotlight: Interfaith AIDS Ministry of Greater Danbury
In 1989, a coalition of faith communities in the Greater Danbury area responded to the critical needs of individuals and families infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS virus by forming the Interfaith AIDS Ministry (IAM) of Greater Danbury. Today, IAM continues to offer critical support services to families faced with the nutritional, physical, and spiritual challenges of living with HIV/AIDS while providing vital education programs that respond to the greater community. IAM serves areas inclusive of Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield, New Fairfield, Newtown, Redding, Sherman, and New Milford. This month both our monthly congregational social action project and our Mitten Tree gift collection will benefit the families of IAM.
Community Give Back is Friday, November 18th Save the date!
Our next monthly “one and done” congregational social action project to give back to the larger community will be on Friday, November 18th from 7-8PM. Come and make (relatively) healthy snack kits for kids and beverage kits for adults of the Interfaith AIDS Ministry (IAM) of Greater Danbury. We will be collecting items such as the following for these kits. Snack Kits:
- Granola bars or Lara Bars
- Fruit roll-ups, fruit leather, and/or That’s It real fruit bars
- Snack-sized popcorn (such as Boom Chickapop or Smartfood)
- Dried apples, mangoes, or bananas
- Freeze-dried fruits
- Amara Smoothie melts
- Bark Thins
- Single-serving cups of applesauce or applesauce squeezes
- Mixed fruit cups in fruit juice
- Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies
- Medium-Large Lidded Plastic Storage Bins for each family’s snacks
Beverage Kits:
- Coffee
- Tea
- Cocoa
- Large baskets to put the beverages in
It’s almost Mitten Tree time!
You are invited to share a holiday gift with a family of the Interfaith AIDS Ministry (IAM) of Greater Danbury. Each November IAM gives us a list of families, along with some requests for gifts for family members. Families are told that each request should be something that can be purchased for $25 or less. Adults are permitted one request. Children are permitted three requests: something to read, an article of clothing, and a toy.
The children and youth of the UU Congregation of Danbury will soon decorate paper mitten ornaments with the gift requests listed on the back and hang these on a “Mitten Tree.” You are invited to collect a mitten ornament starting Sunday, November 20th, and to bring back the gift to UUCD by Sunday, December 4th.
From the Social Action Council
Soup Kitchen Corner by Judy Lacker
On Saturday, November 5th
, some members of Soup Kitchen Team #1 (Team Leaders Judy Lacker & Rose
Schlemmer, John Miglietta, Inge Hill, Sally Mandler, Jane Leff & Randy Becker, Brian Teagarden and
Gary Winn) will be returning to the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen on Spring Street to help serve take-out meals
that were cooked in volunteers’ homes as well as bagged sandwiches for lunches and breakfasts and hot lunches
for Pacific House also prepared in volunteers’ homes as well as through donations. Unfortunately, we are not yet
able to serve the guests a meal inside because of the Covid pandemic.
You can also help feed our neighbors with a gift card in any amount from any local supermarket. In addition,
you can still continue to make food donations to the Daily Bread Food Pantry (25 West Street – entrance off
Terrace Place). Donations are accepted on Mondays between 11 am and 2 pm and on Fridays between 8:30 am
and 11:30 am. Lynn Taborsak has also been scheduling the sandwich donations so we have just the right amount
each day at Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen. If you are interested in making sandwiches, please email her
at ddhhsandwiches@gmail.com. We can all be an important part of the fight to end hunger in our community!
From the Social Action Council:
Soup Kitchen Corner
by Judy Lacker
Saturday, November 5th , some members of Soup Kitchen Team #1 will be returning to the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen on Spring Street to help serve take-out meals that were cooked in volunteers’ homes as well as bagged sandwiches for lunches and breakfasts and hot lunches for Pacific House also prepared in volunteers’ homes as well as through donations. Unfortunately, we are not yet able to serve the guests a meal inside because of the Covid pandemic.
You can also help feed our neighbors with a gift card in any amount from any local supermarket. In addition, you can still continue to make food donations to the Daily Bread Food Pantry (25 West Street – entrance off Terrace Place). Donations are accepted on Mondays between 11 am and 2 pm and on Fridays between 8:30 am and 11:30 am. Lynn Taborsak has also been scheduling the sandwich donations so we have just the right amount each day at Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen. If you are interested in making sandwiches, please email her at ddhhsandwiches@gmail.com. We can all be an important part of the fight to end hunger in our community!
Music at the Ridge Nov. 6, 2022
Pat Wictor is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist who spent most of his growing-up years in South America and Europe, and he claims many cultures as influences on his writing and performing. Tickets to his Music at the Ridge concert November 6 are now on sale at Eventbrite.com, or through www.musicattheridge.org. Join us!!
On October 2, our brand new live acoustic music series, Music at the Ridge, opened to a full house of enthusiastic audience members who gave Pete and Maura Kennedy a standing ovation at the conclusion of two 45 minute sets of mostly original songs accompanied by high-energy dueling guitars and gorgeous harmonies. The audience was comprised of longtime fans of the Kennedys as well as first-timers, some of them UU’s who wanted to support the series. Both groups had a wonderful time, and were enthusiastic about coming back next month for more wonderful music.