Hold a bake sale. A bake sale during coffee hours is a great
way to involve different religious education classes, or even
adults, in Guest at Your Table.
Bake with fair trade products. The UUSC Coffee Project is not
just for coffee anymore – it also includes fair trade tea, cocoa,
baking cocoa and even chocolate bars. Work with your congregation's
children or youth to hold a bake sale using these special fair trade
items. All bake sale proceeds can go towards Guest at Your Table.
You might even raise enough to earn memberships for each of your
congregation's youth and students. Youth and student memberships are
only $10. Remember to include each child's and youth's name and the
amount they gave on your tally sheet to ensure that they are
credited with membership.
Create your own 'Guest at Your Table game show' or other quiz
game relating to UUSC programs activities. Find program information
and action alerts on our website, or contact UUSC to request
informational publications to create your game. This can be great
fun for UUs of any age, from children in religious education to
youth groups to your Social Action Committee. Learn how much
everyone really knows about UUSC's work. You can create questions
based on the materials included in your Guest resource packet
(mailed to your congregation in early September, and
downloadable
from our website). Create a game show similar to "Jeopardy," "Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire," or another favorite show.
Use a calendar suggesting daily acts of giving, sharing and
learning.
Once you've set your goal for Guest at Your Table donations,
create a giant thermometer which you can use to celebrate
with your entire congregation the funds raised through special
activities (such as bake sales), and as the families return their
boxes.
Music
One way to make your Guests more real to your congregation is to
feature music from the countries featured on the Guest box in your
Guest services or during your religious education classes about
Guest at Your Table. You can find recordings or sheet music on the
web, at your local library or in music shops.
Feature music from countries pictured on the Guest box in your
services (Guatemala, U.S., Burma) as well as other regions in which
UUSC works (Central Africa, Mexico, Cuba).
Skits
Perform a skit featuring a huge Guest box, with a person inside,
delivered to the minister's house. Various guests pop out of the box
to talk with the minister about Guest at Your Table and UUSC, basing
their talks on the "Stories of Hope."
Perform a skit about teaching a beggar to fish, highlighting the
story that a relief agency will give you a fish, a development
agency will teach you how to fish, and a human rights agency, like
UUSC, makes sure that everyone has access to the path to the fishing
hole.
Help your congregation's children perform a play or skit related to
Guest at Your Table. This can mean a play or skit illustrating
UUSC's work, or a pageant where children dress as children in the
countries in which UUSC works. Be creative. Many congregations that involve children as much
as possible in services and encourage them to pass out the Guest boxes have
seen great success in their Guest at Your Table program.
Have a group of UUSC supporters give a short skit for the
congregation about UUSC.
Visuals
Create a display including the Guest posters, boxes, flyers and
anything else you would like to use, such as Guest or UUSC stickers,
in a prominent and heavily-trafficked location. During and after
each service for the duration of your Guest program, encourage
people to donate their pocket change to a box in the display.
Create 8 ½ x 11 posters, each featuring a different Story of Hope to
display in a prominent place during your opening service and
throughout your program.
Make a giant version of the Guest box. Have children put giant coins
into it as you read stories during a special service.
Create a giant box like a gift or giant Guest box, place it in the
front of your meeting place throughout the program as a large
reminder of the importance of Guest at Your Table as well as a place for people
to drop in donations (checks only!).
You can create your own Guest at Your Table boxes, as did the UU
Church of the Lehigh Valley. Winnie Tyler tells us: "Adults started
early in the summer making them from recycled cereal boxes. In
September, we started having the church school children decorate
them with markers, stickers, and cut-out pictures. Always a picture
of a child or adult from another culture was pasted on the front.
Our first meeting for working at these was a pizza and game night in
September and we've worked at them at the UUSC table after church
since then. Adults of the congregation have joined in the decorating
with equal enthusiasm. We will finish the job at another pizza and
game night in November, and the children will hand out the boxes,
one to each household, at the service on November 20."
Guest at Your Table Box
competition
by Michaela and Simon Voorhees
Reflection given on Nov. 23, 2003, North
Parish of North Andover, Mass., Unitarian Universalist
©2003. Michaela and Simon Voorhees. All rights reserved.
Simon: Last year, when the Guest at Your Table boxes were
handed out at North Parish, Michaela and I each wanted to get a
Guest at Your Table box. Neither of us could be convinced that only
one box was necessary for the collection of funds.
Michaela: As you may know, in religious education classes the
children make placemats for the boxes. Simon and I both made our own
placemats. To make a long story short, we ended up with two boxes.
S: When we got home, I labeled one box, "Kids Rock!"
M: (Simon being his usual competitive self.)
S: Then someone else labeled the other box, "Parents Rule!"
M: (Mom, are you listening to this?) And so the contest had
begun. Our parents carefully explained that since they had more
buying power, it was likely that they would make the greater
contribution. It didn’t really matter, they said, because it was all
going to the same place.
S: I made large contributions in hopes of winning.
M: I, being my big-sisterly self, would not let Simon surpass
me and also donated large amounts.
S: Why is it that to boys it’s called "being competitive" and
to girls it’s "being big-sisterly"? Through large donations of our
weekly allowances we made contributions of about $1 a day together.
Our parents would go for days giving nothing and then contribute a
few dollars, thinking that would keep them safely in the lead.
M: On the Sunday morning that the Guest at Your Table boxes
were being collected, the Voorhees Family was busy counting the
money in the boxes. To our parents’ surprise and embarrassment, we
were only one dollar behind them.
S: I quickly added $1.13 to ensure that the kids would win.
M: And we had won, 13 cents. Upstairs, while brushing his
teeth, Simon could be heard singing "We—"
S: "—We are the Champions..."
