A Hectic Pace Continues...

Friday ushered in another very full day for UUSC at General Assembly. Many of the staff were up early and over at the America's Center combing the conference center for delegates to talk to about our Action of Immediate Witness, which focuses on ensuring fairness and accountability by government and contractors in the rebuilding of the Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast.

At 11 a.m. we hosted an overflowing room of UUs at our workshop entitled "Class, Caste, Race and Gender in Disasters from Katrina to Aceh." UUSC program manager Martha Thompson and three program partners -- Kala Peiries from the tsunami-devastated area in Sri Lanka, Mary Croom Fontenot from ACT (All Communities Together) in New Orleans, and a UUA staff member reporting on the Holdeen India Program -- spoke for an hour about the inspiring relief work UUSC has been engaged in with them.

The next major UUSC activity of the day was our Annual Meeting and Celebration. It began with some live drumming, and quickly segued into a rousing speech by Charlie Clements. Awards were given out to outstanding volunteers, and a report on our plans for the upcoming year was shared with the overful room.

The packed day came to an end with an incredible joint plenary presentation by Clements and UUA President Bill Sinkford. Clements began by sharing the story of UUSC founders Rev. Waitstill and Martha Sharp whose efforts to save Jews from the Nazi terror was recently recognized when they were named Rightous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Israel.

Sinkford then told of the trip he took with UUSC on a visit to refugee camps in Chad that are housing many of the Darfurian refugees fleeing from the genocide currently occuring in their home country of Sudan.

Amazingly, this hectic pace continues in St. Louis.