Have you seen the mini lending libraries around town?  What if they held food and hygiene products instead?!  Churches around the country are creating small cabinets/pantries full of non-perishable items sitting outside, with a sign stating "Take a Blessing, Leave a Blessing."  Let's build one for the UU!  It will sit outside, brightly painted, in full view for anyone in need.  If you are interested in helping manufacture, supply, and/or maintain the blessing box, please contact Emily Long at Longsville@gmail.com.  If you have a small cabinet or building supplies you would like to donate, please contact Emily ASAP.  There is a box in the UU hallway if you would like to donate non-perishable food items, diapers, hygiene products (soap, tampons, pads, etc.), animal food, or clothing.  Thank you :) 

Beltane, also known as May Day, is a traditional Pagan holiday celebrated on May 1. It is by far the largest fertility celebration of the year. On Sunday, April 30, Debby English and Lynn deBeauclair will lead us in a ceremony at the church. Shari Daly-Miller will provide a May Pole as well. Friendly for all ages. 

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for us every month.
 
     Five children huddled together, listening. Their bellies are full of butterflies, bursting with a hungry hope, listening to their dad talk on the telephone around the corner. He is calling the bus drivers one by one, asking, “What does it look like out your way; do you think you can make it through?” Dad’s phone conversation will determine a day of adventure or tedium. Suddenly the children are jumping up and down, shrieking with delight. Woohoo, snow day! You see, dad is the principal; his children are always the first to get the news.
     Peg (Waterman) Oswald grew up in the small town of Stanford, in upstate New York. She was the fourth of five kids. Her dad was the principal of the K-12 central school. Mom was a music teacher.
     Music was pervasive in the Waterman household. The family was very involved in the Presbyterian Church. Mom was the church organist and dad sang in the choir. The children were often asked to sing together in front of the congregation. Each child played at least one instrument. Peg chose the flute. From an early age the siblings would occasionally all play together, and mom would find an errand to run so she could leave the house for a while.
     The Watermans spent a lot of time outdoors, on the farm and in the wilderness. They were avid hikers and went on long backpacking trips. And every summer they camped for two weeks in an isolated area of the Adirondacks. Both parents were birders.
     After high school Peg got her degree from New Paltz State Teachers College.  After college she taught second grade for four years in Schenectady – it was her first time being on her own. She enjoyed this time – teaching brought her joy.
     Peg and a girlfriend began talking about the need for a change. They were feeling the need for a little adventure. Peg loved to ski and her friend wanted to experience a big city, so they decided to move to Denver.
     Peg eventually got a job teaching in Northglenn. She spent much of her free time skiing in Aspen. This was before the real estate development, way back when Aspen was wild and free. She met a blue-eyed boy on a black diamond run, and chased him ‘round the powdered slopes.
     Lance Oswald was in Aspen completing his Masters thesis, and skiing. Well, mostly skiing. He eventually finished his thesis and got a counseling job in the engineering department at the University of Colorado.
     Peg and Lance got hitched and moved to Boulder. Alyssa and Aaron were welcomed into the world. The family discovered the UU church in Boulder, and joined the community. The Oswalds would become connoisseurs of fresh air, spending more time out-of-doors than in – hiking, skiing, backpacking, camping – worshiping the beauty of wilderness.
     The Oswalds eventually moved to Glenwood Springs, where Lance sold log homes. A year and a half later they finally found their way to Grand Junction, when Lance accepted a counseling job at Mesa State College. Peg started out substitute teaching, and taught elementary school until she retired.
     In every stage of Peg’s life she was involved in music. At every stop along the way she found a choir to share her voice. In Grand Junction she started out singing with The Revelers and then the Western Colorado Chorale. The highlights were when The Chorale performed in New York City at Lincoln Center, and at Carnegie Hall.
     When Lance and Peg first moved into town they had been excited to discover a group of Unitarians meeting in town. Yet, the first time they walked through the door they encountered a small circle of chairs with a half dozen folks. Over the next dozen years the group grew to around 30 people, with a small children’s religious education group; yet, the group gradually dwindled and finally dissolved.
     A few years later the Oswalds met Shari Daly-Miller. Shari and Lance would conduct an effort to restart the UU church in Grand Junction – rising from the ashes. A few years later the group was thriving, with close to 100 members and several young families with children. Seeing around a dozen energetic children, Peg decided to start a children’s choir. She loved it! She liked it so much that a few years later she got talked into starting an adult choir, and was the beloved UU choir director for many years.
     When Peg retired she started classes at the Art Center. She currently belongs to The Uptown Art Colony, which is a group of 12 ladies who share studio space and offer classes and instruction in Downtown Grand Junction. Peg works on her pastel painting at the Colony and her pottery at the Art Center. Peg’s paintings and pottery have been shown in galleries in Grand Junction and Palisade, as well as in and annual art show in the UUCGV building in October.
     Peg feels like she’s lived a storybook life. She’s been fortunate to have a family of origin that showed her how to love – love others, love music, love the earth. She says that she’s been lucky in happiness, yet it all boils down to her outlook, to the moment and how she greets it – encouraged and encouraging in the art of administering joy.
Life goes on…    in endless song…

There are a few things around church that need a loving volunteer like yourself to take care of. Please contact Mallory in the office if you're able to help –administrator@grandvalleyuu.org or 970.257.0772
 
Greeter Sign Up Coordinator
Each week we have two greeters who pass out hymnals and Orders of Service to church attendees. We're looking for someone to coordinate the greeters, and make sure those who sign up know what their job is.
 
Stewards
Each year, our stewardship team and canvasers help collect our congregants' pledges for the following fiscal year. We're looking for volunteers to canvas and to help organize the campaign. Contact Rev. Wendy or Mallory. Our first meeting of 2017 is on Tuesday, January 31 at 6:00 pm.
 
Ride-to-church Coordinator
Many of our members and friends love attending Sunday services and other church events. We need someone to help coordinate rides for them!
 
Dirty linen washers
We have a new location for dirty linens! They are in the middle cabinet under the coffee counter. Pick up anytime! 

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for us every month.
 
     Steve is six years old. The nice man squats down so he can see him better. “Hi Steve, my name is Sterling”, shaking hands. “How would you like to see some gemstones and dinosaur bones?” he asks. Steve nods his head yes and his mother says goodbye as Sterling motions him into the shop. The counter against the wall is piled with different kinds of small stones. The excitement shows on the boy’s face as he examines the rocks. And dinosaur bones!
     Sterling picks out a rock that is a piece of dinosaur bone and motions Steve over to another table. “This is where I make jewelry” he says. Together they polish the dinosaur bone. And then they move a ways down the table where Sterling does the silversmithing. Steve watches as he makes the dinosaur bone into a pendant. He puts it on a chain and hands it to Steve. “This is for you”, Sterling says. The boy’s eyes get big. And a smile as big as the world!
     The following week Steve’s mother stopped by and thanked Sterling for what he had done for her son. She told Sterling that Steve took his dinosaur bone pendant to school for show and tell. It sparked a class discussion on dinosaurs. The kids all crowded around wanting to see his pendant. “Wow that’s so cool” they said. Steve was the most popular boy in class.
     This is one of Sterling VanWagoner’s favorite memories because it shows how a simple act of kindness can impact another’s life. Sterling has an overriding desire for everyone to experience joy in their life.
     Sterling grew up in Washington and St. George, Utah. Sterling’s mother was Catholic and his father was Mormon. During his teen years, after his parents were divorced, he would spend one weekend with the Mormons and the next with the Catholics. He recalls a splendid childhood. He remembers pretending to be a rock star from an early age, playing music with anything he could get his hands on, including pots and pans, which tended to annoy his parents.
     Sterling would experience life as a rock star. Hair down to here (placing his hand to the small of his back). The girls fluttering around. He was the drummer; they called themselves Star Fire. They played hard rock/psychedelic music. The band would attain a modest amount of fame, playing in Las Vegas and touring around the country. St. George put on a welcome home parade and Star Fire performed on Main Street.
     Sterling liked to cook, so one night when the band was on tour he cooked a meal for them all. Everyone liked it so much that Sterling ended up cooking many meals for the band along the way, trying out new recipes. The band ended up settling into Florida, performing in the Tampa Bay area. Sterling loved living in Florida.
     When the band folded up, Sterling opened up a restaurant on Anna Maria Island. He was the head chef and used his own recipes. Yet, after a few years the restaurant went out of business because of mismanagement by his business partner. So, Sterling decided to go back to school. He enrolled at Florida University, where he got a degree in small business administration and studied music composition. He got married, and has two children – Geovoni Sterling and Shaylah Marie.
The family picked up and moved to Salt Lake City to be closer to his wife Lori’s family. Sterling dabbled in music and worked with the local talent agency, recording and promoting local artists. He learned to make jewelry and loved hiking in the hills hunting for rocks and dinosaur bones.
     Yet, Sterling’s marriage began to fall apart. Lori and he eventually divorced. It crushed his spirit – he wanted to remain married, believed in the commitment of marriage. He tried to remain in Salt Lake to be near his children, but suddenly realized he had to get away. Something inside of him broke and collapsed. He stuffed what he could into a bag and hit the road. Homeless.
     The streets eventually brought Sterling to Grand Junction, where he was fortunate to get a bed in the homeless shelter. He often found himself trying to cheer the guys up, encouraging and passing around hugs; calming violent outbursts. Sterling took up the motto of trying to reach one person every day to make them feel better about themselves.
     The folks from Grand Valley Peace and Justice who work with homelessness took notice. They hired Sterling to drive the homeless transportation van and offer peer support. And Sterling met Mallory Rice, through her work with the nonprofit Solidarity Not Charity. Sterling and Mallory hit it off from the very beginning. (Sterling still volunteers for Solidarity Not Charity, and engages in peer support and mentoring. All Sterling has to say about being homeless is – it is horrible – we don’t realize what we have until it is gone: the basic needs of food, water and shelter.)
     Sterling loves Mallory like a sister. Her family has become his family of choice, a covenant of happy friends.  He lives with them now, which is a situation that works out well for all involved. Sterling helps out with Audrey and occasionally watches Miranda’s kids too. Sterling loves spending time with the children, and the children love him in return. He’s 53 going on 35 because the youngsters help to keep him youthful. And he also likes to do a little cooking.
     Yet, most of us know Sterling as our awesomely affable Facilities Manager; we know that we are blessed to have him, as he is a sterling steward to our beautiful building. Yet , undoubtedly many of us are scratching our heads and asking ourselves “who is this Sterling person”. And that is how he prefers it – Sterling is quiet and soft-spoken. He sees himself as one of the roadies for his old band, dressed in black and doing the work in the background, unseen.
     When Mallory first called three years ago to tell him that there was a job she thought he should apply for, Sterling was skeptical. It turns out that he could not have dreamed of a better place to work, better people for whom to work. He loves the congregation and fits right in with the gentle loving people.
Life goes on...            in endless song...

     For most of its life the UUCGV has been, like Moses and the Israelites, wandering in the desert, seeking a home.  Just three years ago we were at the FCC church, uncertain of our survival, our numbers diminishing.  When we finally found our home and made it ours, there was great celebration and a sense that we had arrived.  For a time, that masked the inevitable question — “What now?”
     Over the past several months the congregational leadership has been asked to make decisions regarding the programs and commitment of resources that affect the direction of our religious community, but have felt a need for more guidance from the community at large.  The question of “What now?” leads to more fundamental questions; “Who are we?” “Where are we?” “What do we want to become?”
     We’re happily growing, with many new faces on Sunday mornings and new members assuming leadership roles.  We, the leadership, feel it’s time for the congregation to sit down together and reflect on where we’ve been, where we want to go and how we intend to get there. 
     We want to hear from all of you, especially those whose voices have not been heard and those who are new to our beloved community.
     So, on Sunday, January 22, after the Sunday service, we will be hold a cottage meeting, facilitated by the Team Leadership Circle (TLC).  Join us for a potluck after the service. Please bring a dish to share.  Then we’ll break into small groups for the meeting, each with a leader to help us through our discussion, which may last an hour or more. 
     If you cannot attend on January 22, there will be another session on Wednesday, January 25 at 7:00 pm.
     Please attend one of the cottage meetings. Come and speak up!  We very much need and want to hear your voice.  Thanks!

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for us every month.
 
      Arleta (Finch) Carr had an idyllic childhood. She grew up on a small farm on the Western edge of Fruita, just across the Big Salt Wash. She had two sisters, older and younger. Arleta was the tomboy; she was the one most often helping her father around the farm. Sometimes the work was not her favorite thing to do, but she didn’t complain because she was helping her dad and didn’t have to do housework on those days.
As a nine-year-old, she got to miss school to help drive the tractor for hay harvest. Arleta drove the straight lines, and when it was time to turn around her dad would jump on the tractor to help her turn and then jump back off to help load the hay. This saved hiring one extra farmhand. Along with farm work, Arleta also helped her dad with carpentry work when they built the barn and the addition on the house.
The Finches were poor, yet Arleta never felt poor. They had chickens, milk cows, livestock and a vegetable garden. They finally got running water in the house when Arleta was in high school.
Arleta was the salutatorian in a graduating class of 42 students, and the only one to go directly on to college. She graduated from Western State College with a degree in elementary education.
She met Duane at Western State in Gunnison Colorado. Duane was a year ahead of Arleta. They were married in September, 1954. They had originally planned the wedding for the following summer, but Duane was unable to get a deferment from the draft in order to attend grad school. They found out that Duane would get $60 more a month while he was in the service if he was married, so they pushed up the date.
Arleta, her mother and two sisters sewed the wedding dress and all of the dresses for the wedding party in six weeks, using two sewing machines. Moving the wedding date forward turned out to be a real blessing because Arleta’s mother died the following January. Her mother thoroughly enjoyed planning the wedding and working on the dresses with her daughters.
Arleta and Duane lived together at Western State for six weeks before Duane went into the Army. When Arleta finished school she joined Duane in Olympia, Washington. Their son Dan was born in 1956. (Arleta taught school, some of it substitute teaching, at all the stops from Olympia to Cedar Rapids.)
The next stop for the Carrs was West Lafayette, Indiana, where Duane received his PhD. Their son Don was born in 1957. The part Arleta liked about having her two children close together was being able to get through the diaper stage and put that in the rearview mirror.
Duane taught for a year at Wabash College in Crawfordsville Indiana, and then the Carrs moved on to Cedar Rapids Iowa where Duane taught at Coe College. They put down roots and immersed themselves in the local community. Arleta, as always, was very active in the League of Women Voters. She served as the local president and other positions on the board. One year Arleta participated in the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride across Iowa, along with over 6000 other bicycle riders.
The Carrs were in Iowa for 33 years, except for the sabbatical years from 1968 to 1970 when Duane taught for the agricultural branch of Haile Selassie University in a rural area of Ethiopia. Their boys were 11 to 13 and 12 to 14. When the Carrs returned from Ethiopia, Arleta went back to school to get her Master’s degree.
During the Iowa years, Arleta started out teaching a preschool development class. This was special ed. at a preschool level. Seeing these children open up under her care really touched Arleta’s heart. Then Arleta moved on to work as a parent-child educator, where she visited special ed. preschoolers in their homes. During her visits she would observe the parent interacting with the children, and demonstrate for the parent how to work/play with the children.
In the summer of 1988 the Carrs undertook the monumental project of building a cabin in the mountains. It is near the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, about 20 miles north of Lake City, Colorado. It is on an 80 acre parcel that was a timber claim Duane’s father never mortgaged, and was part of the Carr ranch where Duane grew up.
Other than the cabin foundation the Carrs built everything, with the help of friends. All of the architectural plans for the cabin were done by Arleta and her son Don over the previous Christmas break, and they spent the entire summer camping and working on the cabin. Friends from Iowa arrived at different intervals to help. Arleta loved doing the carpentry work. That summer was the best time of her life. The Carrs continued to improve upon the cabin over the years. Arleta and Duane spend a lot of time with friends and family at their second home in the mountains.
In 1996 Arleta and Duane retired and moved to Grand Junction. It wasn’t long before Arleta was investing her tireless energy in the local community, the League of Women Voters, and the UU congregation. The Carrs have been to more UU General Assemblies (the national UU convention) than you can count on two hands, and several of those were as official UUCGV delegates. Arleta has held innumerable UU leadership positions, including two stints as president.
The congregation accomplished a great deal during her presidency, partly because Arleta’s specialty was delegation. Of Arleta’s many contributions to the congregation, perhaps her highest offering was getting people involved. She feels that the best way to make people feel at home is to have them help. The asking is a gift: an opportunity to be of service. All Arleta has to do to know, about how good it feels to be of service, is to think back to how good she felt, out there in the field, helping her dad.
Life goes on...       in endless song…

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for us every month.
 
     Joanie Leinbach loves her life. She has a wonderful family – a loving, sweet tempered husband and two delightful children. She has a rewarding job. She has good friends by the bucketful.  She does not expect her life to be perfect: in thanksgiving, life is a walk in beauty.
     Joanie does not think of her life as one fell swoop.
 
     She is not merely
     an accumulation of moments.
     Essence of Joanie is
     not a perfume for the faint of heart.
 
     Joanie did not come into her own until she went away to college. When she arrived at Colorado State University she began to leave behind the shy girl with the low self-esteem. She began gaining confidence, gaining glimpses of her true self. She became more outgoing. She became a person to whom people came to tell their stories.
     Joanie met Kent Leinbach in 1986, early in her freshman year: they were in the same dorm. Yet, it wasn’t until they bumped into one another in 1989 that everything clicked into place. It was love at second sight.
     Kent introduced Joanie to fire. So during the summer of 1990 she set off to Oregon for a grand adventure, keen and feral, engaging in break-back work with a crew of wildland firefighters.
     Kent is the rock to Joanie’s drum roll; he brings a blessed sweetness to her life. They were married in 1993. Abby came along in 1997 and Ben in 2000. Amenity dwells within her family, and for this Joanie is most glad, because she feels a cycle has been profoundly broken.
     Though she grew up in an upper-middle-class family, Joanie was well aware, from an early age, of suffering and the existence of another not so idyllic world. Her mother was a Lt. Col. in the National Guard. (Joanie often liked to quip – “my mama wears combat boots”.) Her father was a district attorney. Tragedy was spread out in front of her as crime scene photos on the dining room table.
     Joanie’s childhood experience helped prepare her for employment. Circumstance fed her bleeding heart and developed her propensity to care for people. She works for Hilltop, splitting her time between the Workforce Center and Latimer House.
     Joanie cherishes her jobs. She meets people from all walks of life. She is an adult basic education teacher at the Workforce Center, often trying to help individuals break from the cycle of poverty. At Latimer House she works with domestic violence victims, and is often on-call and responding to emotionally charged situations.
     The Leinbach’s discovered the Grand Valley Unitarians in 1998, mostly for Abby (and Ben to come). They were seeking a religious community where children gain a healthy, life-affirming sense of self and of the world. And, UUism was also a good match for a Catholic (Joanie) and an atheist (Kent).
     As a volunteer, Joanie has been around the block many times. She currently serves on the TLC (Leadership Circle) and helps teach OWL (Our Whole Lives) while sitting on a gazillion committees/teams. It’s the kids that tug her heartstrings. In the past Joanie was more involved with religious education, and when some of her current responsibilities end she is hoping to again spend more time in that arena.
     Joanie recently returned from her 12th Youth Con. She enjoys being a sponsor for Youth Cons, which are conventions where hundreds of UU teenagers gather for the weekend. They are theme based, with a keynote speaker and workshops. The workshops get them thinking deeply, and they form deep connections with one another. The adults try to blend into the woodwork and let the kids take over. UUCGV hosted a Youth Con last year, but it usually calls for a long road trip, which Joanie appreciates because she is able to connect and get to better know the teens.   
     Singing fills Joanie with joy. Singing in the choir fills Joanie with glee.
    Anyone who knows Joanie knows her glorious sense of humor. Some UUCGV’ers will remember her for her role as one of the hilarious Sweeney Sisters at past auction dinners.
Joanie is rocking the Big 50 this month!
And life goes on…          in endless song…