Touch of Christmas Fair Report

Fast falling snow and roads barely plowed couldn’t stop the nearly 100 First Parish volunteers who staff the Touch of Christmas Fair.  Nor did it stop many of the customers, who came, and bought, bought, bought!  The Fair, held on Dec. 6^th, earned $9.326.49 for the church, and generated a great amount of fun and community spirit.  The breakdown of revenue by table isn’t feasible, given how our payment and accounting works, but I do know that the bake table was cleaned out, and there was relatively little to sell the following morning.

The most amazing part about the Touch of Christmas Fair is just how many people pull together to make it all run.  Bakers, knitters, sewers, attic cleaner-outers, wreath makers, general set up and clean up helpers all do their part.  It is truly a community effort!  I want to extend a special thanks to the “above and beyond” folks:

·       Jeff Eaton, who was Mr. Can-Do, “Call if you need anything” – and I called him!

·       Diana Smith who organized the wreath making workshops, teaching and coaching the new wreath makers (and feeding them delicious home-made lunch)

·       Jackie Lenth who led the craft table effort and created hot-selling wall hanging, wall sconces and American Girl doll outfits

·       Nancy Donaldson and Carlolyn Montie, who organized the food table

·       RL Smith, who planned, purchased and was master-chef of the lunch

·       Dana Robbat who organized the plant table

·       Martha Grabill who spear-headed the knitting table, along with the prolific Blandyna Williams who supplied a great deal of product to sell

·       Bean Nardi and Charlotte Perkins, who salvaged me from a mental breakdown in organizing the children’s room

·       The indomitable Ruth Williams who was back for the umptieth year as the Santa photographer

·       Santa Claus who charmed the children, and the Lincoln Fire Department who brought him

·       Claire and Wayne Mount, who managed the coffee and donuts

·       Ellie Donaldson and her crew, who created the prettiest table display for the First Parish History Book

·       Jack Pugh and Janet Daniels, who carefully counted the snow soaked money that was collected.

A Touch of Christmas will come around soon, and  I’m hoping we can count on everyone again in 2004!

Respectfully submitted,

Sarah Andrysiak, Chair

Webmaster’s Report

In preparation for writing this report, I reviewed last year’s report. I found that simply updating the numbers would result in a perfectly honest report. There have been no significant changes or innovations this past year. In part because there have been neither complaints nor suggestions for improvement.

The number of hits (times the page was accessed) of the fifteen most popular pages December through April were:

These figures do not make much sense. I will study them further, but I believe that some numbers are significantly raised by people’s use of search engines, which found something interesting on some of these pages.

The Webmaster Advisory Committee is Rachel Mason, Gert McDermott, Roger Paine, Susan Welsh, and the Webmaster.

Respectfully submitted,

Jack Pugh, Webmaster

Welcoming Committee’s Report

In 2002, the Parish Committee formed the Welcoming Committee with the following charge:to support and work with the Deacons and Parish Committee in welcoming visitors and new members and in encouraging community fellowship opportunities for all members.

The members during the past year have been , Sue Howland, Mary Helen Lorenz, Jayne Mundt, John Neri, Molly Robinson, Lucy Sachs, and Tucker Smith. Martha DeNormandie is an honorary member.

In our first year we were busy creating new pew cards and brochures and hosted a couple of social events. This year we hosted our second annual Bingo event which was well attended with about 60 people. Instead of the "Bingo and Beans" we just had popcorn since we had it earlier in the afternoon on Super Bowl Sunday. Our prize table is always a sight to behold. Each attendee or family is asked to bring a silly gift from the things to be "re-gifted" and there is always something there for everyone! We have started a tradition ... as this seems now to be our annual contribution to Winter Carnival and people love it. All ages from five and up..

Our long term project has been developing a guidebook to the First Parish. The guidebook would describe the church philosophy and community, and provide detailed information on services, Sunday School, committees, family celebrations like weddings and memorial services, and how to volunteer. The Welcoming Committee is very grateful to the work being done by volunteers, Irene Weigel and Christina Brown, who are helping to write the guidebook. Coming in the fall 2004!

We look forward to another year and hope that you will make suggestions on how we can make the church more welcoming for new and old friends.

Respectfully submitted,

Tucker Smith, Chair

Youth Programs Committee

It has been an exciting year for the Church School with Barbara O'Neil as the Director of Religious Education (DRE) for a second year. She is an absolute pleasure to work with.  She has inspired the committee to start new initiatives and support existing programs with enthusiasm.

This year we have focused on increasing community service projects for all the grades. At Christmas time the children assembled gift boxes for the men at Haley House.  Thanks go to the Social Concerns Committee for providing the funding for this project. This connection to Haley House we hope to expand next year. We also sponsored bulb planting around the church, a bake sale for UNICEF, caroling at church members' homes on a snowy sunday to name a few. It is one of our goals to have the children in the community come together in activities for the benefit of others. We plan to increase their involvement in this next year.

Our committee is commited to increasing the sense of community within the church families. To that end we hosted a chili supper after the caroling in December. We also hosted a teacher appreciation breakfast in May as a thank you for all of the teacher volunteers. Next year we hope for an ever larger turn out for both events.

We had a retreat at the end of January to assess the religious education curriculum from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Most of the conversation focused on the program for middle school grades.

One of the most difficult aspects of Barbara's job and any DRE's job is that of recruiting teachers. This year in an effort to give Barbara more time for the creative and enriching aspects of her job the committee called members of the community in an active, proactive recruiting effort. For the most part it paid off. Barbara has felt supported by the committee and most of the slots are filled for the year. We are still in need of a director for the Pageant. Any volunteers??

As we look ahead to next year we are planning a new initiative for the children and their families. Currently our children spend very little time in the Sanctuary. We plan to change that next year by offering a number of family Church Sundays where there will be no formal Sunday school and families will be encouraged to attend the service together. Child care will be provided for the younger members of the community.

As a committee we were a great spirited group with much laughter, energy and ideas. A special thank you goes to every member of the committee who donated her time to help Barbara run a great program so the children of the community can grow and learn.

Respectfully submitted,

Deborah Manegold, Chair

The Youth Programs Committe: Susan Beard, Sarah Bishop, Annie Charrette, Cathy Jahrling, Karin Levy, and Linda McMillan.