Seeking connections?
WUUC offers numerous opportunities to get to know one another, delve more deeply into spiritual topics or just gather for song or conversation. If you’re seeking connections, the first place to try is here.
Community Spotlight
To highlight the contributions of WUUC volunteers, both within and outside of church, Winny Schnitzler is researching deserving individuals for our new Community Spotlight series.
To the Rescue: Tom Richards
Hello, I’m Tom Richards. I have been volunteering with Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue (SAR) since 2012. We search for lost persons urban, rural and backcountry. We carry the injured out from the backcountry.
I was taking an alpine mountain-climbing class with The Mountaineers and one instructor made a pitch that we join SAR. Our skills are needed and we’d be welcome to join. I don’t think I’d heard of SAR beforehand. I did some research, attended a few meetings and joined. I thought I’d get to see lots of backcountry. Well, most of the rescues are at night. Once an injured person gets word to SAR, daylight is gone. Occasionally, a rescue takes all night and we get to see dawn.
My most memorable rescue was a recovery at the ice caves located off the Mountain Loop Hwy. The roof of the ice cave partially collapsed injuring several and killing one person. The injured made it out with help from bystanders. The presumed dead person was deeper in the cave. We waited overnight. The next day an avalanche expert from Washington Department of Transportation was brought in with explosives. He tried to collapse the cave by dropping explosives from a helicopter. Impressive explosions but the cave roof held firm. But enough debris came down that we deemed it safe enough to run in and carry out the body. At the end of the mission, the SAR team was flown out in the helicopter, my first SAR helicopter ride.
I wish more people knew that SAR is an all-volunteer effort, not a government agency. We buy our own equipment and rely on donations and grants for the big stuff, like trucks, rescue litters, ropes and radios. I also wish everyone who goes for a hike in the backcountry would make a plan and take the ten essentials with them. Visit SCVSAR.org for more information.
Tom Richards
WUUC Congregational Game Night
Junior Youth Group will host a WUUC Congregational Game Night on Saturday, March 27 from 4-5:30 p.m. on Zoom.
This event will be open to the whole congregation and friends with games for adults and youth. The event will be free, but the youth will accept donations for Lambert House as part of their social justice work for the year.
Hug Your Little Superheroes!
This pandemic has been hard on everyone, but parents and students have a unique set of struggles. And as we are recognizing a year since lockdown began, it seems that right now things seem even more difficult. I want you to know that you are all amazing, both the kids and the parents who are doing their best. YOU ARE ALL SUPERHEROES!
The following post by Christine Deregowski says it better than I can.
I’ve lost a year with my kids battling over school and I’m done.
My seven year old and I were in the midst of our usual asynchronous day battle. I had his writing homework in my hand from school. He’d written several full, well-thought-out sentences.
But he won’t do the same for me, at least not without a fight.
I told him he didn’t have to write about his best day like his teacher asked, he could write about his worst. He could write about whatever he wanted as long as he wrote a few sentences.
He said he’d get in trouble. He said he was doing a bad job in first grade. He was on the brink of tears but didn’t know why.
And it hit me.
Instead of getting frustrated and pushing the assignment, I sat down with him at his desk in his superhero bedroom.
I said “you won’t get in trouble and you can’t fail first grade. In fact, you’re kind of a superhero yourself.”
He sat up in his chair just a little and looked at me with disbelief.
I said, “Do you know that no kids in the history of kids have ever had to do what you’re doing right now? No kids in the history of kids have ever had to do school at home, sitting in their bedroom, watching their teacher on a computer. You and your friends are making history.”
A visible weight lifted from his seven year old shoulders, “What does that mean?”
I told him it means I haven’t given him nearly enough credit for rolling with the punches. I told him how proud I am of him and his friends. That kids this year are doing the impossible and they’re doing a really great job.
I apologized for not saying it sooner and more often. A little tear fell down his cheek.
We’ve thanked everyone from healthcare workers to grocery store employees but we haven’t thanked the kids enough for bearing the burden of what we’ve put on their shoulders this year.
We’ve said kids are resilient, and they are. But they are the real superheroes in this whole scenario for having ZERO say in their lives but doing their best to adjust every day.
We closed his school-issued laptop and spent the rest of the day playing. This was supposed to be temporary and here we are a year later still trying to hold our head above water.
This is our home and I won’t turn it into a battle ground anymore over something we can’t control. Something that no longer makes sense.
Hug your little superheroes today and don’t forget to cut them the slack we’ve given everyone else.