Campaign Kick-Off Event – Sunday, April 30th

Yes, dear friends, the Super Bowl is long passed, and most tail gate parties won’t resume until fall.  However, we at First Parish Church have our own tail gate party this Sunday, April 30.  Immediately following worship, we’ll gather in the vestry and beyond for an extended more elaborate than usual fellowship hour with an abundance of finger food and exploration. We’re calling it the Kick-Off to the Connecting Our Community capital campaign.

• Start out in the vestry and satisfy your hunger pangs.  Goodies will also be served in the chapel or on the lawn depending upon the weather.
• Hear four or five inspirational speeches by teens and those twice their age – no longer than five minutes total.
• Check out the video produced by the Communications Committee under Paige Mangum’s leadership. This will run continuously in the vestry.
• Follow the hard hat guys and gals to the building/renovation sites.  Yellow tape will make out the sanctuary spaces we expect to reconfigure.  Outdoors stakes and string will mark out the entrances to Pilgrim House where we plan to create all those aids to greater accessibility and an enhanced experience of community: the elevator, newer ramps, the garden gathering place near the Cleaveland St. entrance.
• Note also the hard hat gang’s lapel stickers: ASK ME WHY.  Ask them why THEY support Connecting Our Community.
• Hear Hector Casas, co-chair of the campaign, announce the results of the first wave of commitments, the advance gift stage.
• Note the six foot tall thermometer in the vestry which will portray graphically what Hector will state verbally.  Check it out each week until the closing campaign celebration the last Sun. of June.
• Try a couple of games which are there just for the fun of it.
• We expect the party to be over in about an hour.  You’ll really want to be there.  And, if you own a hard hat, why not wear it as a sign of your identification with our goals to strengthen our relationship to The Holy, enhance the reality of community together, and strengthen our connections with the wider community of Greater Brunswick.

He who writes this article quotes himself this month, “Whenever I sit in worship, I continue to think, ‘How excellent to cherish the past; how even more excellent to embrace the future.’  Hence my enthusiastic endorsement of this campaign.” – Chuck Erb