Tag: kids

Mystery Pals 2021 Save the date: Saturday, September 18

•
These kids are moving away, but Paula is enthusiastic about keeping in contact with her pal.

Covid restrictions at UCV and elsewhere are lifting and more and more of us are fully vaccinated, so summertime is a great time to connect with your mystery pal (or coming of age partner). If you need help with contact information, let us know.

There’s a lot of enthusiasm for an early fall Pal meetup at UCV so SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, September 18 from 4 to 5:30 pm.  All pals are invited to an autumn “Pal Party”. We’ll harvest, munch, play and walk and run or even dance on the labyrinth. Possibly this will be the first annual fall Pal Party. Unitarian traditions come easily.

With the needed covid adaptations, we went ahead with our Mystery Pal program this year to connect up people from different generations. Indeed we had the largest group ever: Fourteen pairs participated. Most were kids matched with an adult, but we had a couple of younger adults matched with older and two kids under 14 matched together!

Most chose snail mail which came to UCV and then was forwarded. Hence, the usual four-week program became eight to allow for postal forwarding. Other pairs chose to send email through a volunteer.

To offer assistance, we included artist trading card (“ATC”) materials for those who wanted to create art to share–and many did!

If you were a pal or parent of a pal and haven’t yet completed our feedback form, we’d really appreciate it: https://forms.gle/pG2aJoJ4c3yZoaf57 You can RSVP for September 18th there as well.

As time went on, our hopes for a big spring reveal party were dashed by covid restrictions, so individual pairs and small groups have been meeting up in parks or at UCV. Here’s a poem and some photos.

This pair have started a vegetable garden and are meeting weekly to garden together. Cynthia applauded us for making a “perfect match” with her new pal. On July 25, they read the “story for all ages” together, adding in their own stories as well.

 

Mystery Pal Revealed so much

by Vivian Davidson

Being a mystery pal was as fun as it was exciting,

To exchange letters had me antsy to keep writing.

I loved learning more and more about my mystery friend

I could hardly wait for my fresh letter to send.

I am grateful to have had this opportunity

To engage so intimately with someone in my UCV community.

To feel the paper, read the words sent to me by my pal

Mairy Beam got to visit the Imagine: Van Gogh exhibit with her mystery pal, Maddie, and sister Emma and mom, Sheri.

Was something so wonderful forever treasure I shall.

I hope others in the future engage in this wonderful treat

For it’s rare to get the chance to learn about others at UCV you meet.

It was exciting to think about and plan what to say and write

Oh my watch my grammar, serendipitous did I spell it right?

I learned letter by letter about my special pal and their likes

That included leaves and stickers, dolphins and hikes.

I can now certainly attest to how great it is to have a mystery pal

It was my first time and certainly a boost to my morale.

I will be back and ready to write, draw, paint and send

What a great way for a lonely day or weary heart to mend.

For this mystery pal exchange is a real treat for the young and young at heart

And made me feel special and that to UCV’s community I really am a part.

Artist to Artist Mystery Pals

We try to match up pals with something in common: Paula is an artist and loved her exchanges with her artist pal.

Here’s what she says:

Who couldn’t use an emergency packet of confetti?

My last package included a great picture of a unicorn with very long legs and a long neck and a little horn, a thin long multi-coloured banner announcing I LOVE PURPLE,  a bracelet made of beads and pipe cleaners and (best of all) a custom packet of homemade confetti. On the outside it said  I LOVE MAKING THINGS.  IN FACT I AM AN ARTIST.
Who couldn’t use an emergency packet of confetti? They are little bundles of  joy coming coming through the post and  it just makes my day when I receive one  🙂
-Paula

Their pair had the codename “Wolfgang Gerson” and it accidentally led Paula to exploring the theme of home/buildings and a connection with a student and friend of Wolfgang Gerson’s, the architect of our buildings.

 

Charlotte and Eva and Mr. and Mrs. Chickadee’s Adventures

I really enjoyed reading the story complete with an illustration of two birds named: Mr. & Mrs. Chickadee who are discussing where to build their nest to start their family made by Eva who is trying to encourage Mr. & Mrs. Chickadee to not peck holes in the house wooden siding for their nest.
It was lots of fun receiving Eva’s letters AND meeting her in person!
Charlotte

Panda in the Sun by Charlotte

 

Imagination Month for Kids and Families

•

Kiersten is currently on a well-deserved break. As she puts it, “I’ve put down every ball I had up in the air.”

So here are some ideas and invitations to be part of our various programs for kids, youth and families. And first a chalice lighting for this month:

May the light of this chalice, spark our imaginations.

May it lead us back to the stories and characters

that romp and roam the corridors of our minds.

In the warmth of this chalice, may we remember again

how thankful we are to have others who love us,

and guide and accompany us, as our own stories unfold.

The Soul Matters theme for January is Imagination — so watch out! or better still, dive in!

If you’d like to receive the package for families, please let Kiersten know.

December saw a flurry of activities in the kids, youth and family programs.

The highlight might have been the Winter Solstice play. The kids tell me the hardest part was the two minutes of sitting silently.

For me, that was also the most moving part.

Kiersten did an amazing job of writing, casting and directing.

As well, though programs on zoom happened regularly coordinated by Olivia, our youth coordinator, volunteers including Mairy and Nan and the Tween ukulele group with Donna Brown.

UCV and our young people are always a fount of imagination. What could possibly happen when we actually focus our attention on that theme for the whole month?

 

Can you imagine yourself as part of the extensive team who plan, facilitate or support programs for our kids and families?

I’ve taken on a role to assist with communications and especially multigenerational activities and I can tell you it’s very nourishing and Kiersten is a dream to work with. It’s a sincere pleasure to support her and therefore support our families and the broader congregation.

For a list of kids, youth and family programs with contact and date/time, click here.

by Mary Bennett

 

Family Zoom – join any Sunday at noon

•

from Mary Bennett

Although many children’s programs (and Kiersten!) are on vacation right now, there’s now a team to make sure there’s a kid-focused space during coffee hour every Sunday as a breakout room during virtual coffee hour. Myself, Sandy, Catherine and Meaghan take turns facilitating, often with a few conversation starters or an activity, but as often just a willingness to meet our kids where they are. Kids often do a show-and-tell with some artwork or tell us about something they did that week. And we love hearing that.

On the first Sunday of each month, we especially like to provide a chance for Mystery Pals to check in with each other.  We hope some pairs might want to use the chance to have a breakout room of their own to check-in, whether for 5 minutes or more.  They can do a quick check-in and then return to the main session if they want.
The Family breakout room will still be there for any of you, whether or not you’ve been a mystery pal.

In other news, if you missed Sunday’s service, do check it out with link from main page vancouverunitarians.ca  Until Saturday only it includes the kids’ play and Rose reading the Connections are made slowly poem. The procedures UCV is now using is that the greetings are edited out immediately after the service, and then after a week (6 days actually) everything except for the sermon is removed. Contact Marie, chair of communications team, at communications@vancouverunitarians.ca if you have any questions about the procedures.

The next mystery pal program will start up as usual in spring 2021 (we assume), but in the meantime, I’d really encourage you to find some way to connect with past pals if possible. If you need contact information, you can contact the administator or office assistant Monday to Friday. If it’s urgent, ask me.  info@vancouverunitarians.ca 604-261-7204. If you want a directory of members and friends either hardcopy, pdf or Breeze database access, Aurora or Marcus can help with that.

Labyrinth picnic anyone?

Some of the kids have enjoyed our garden path labyrinth at 49th and Oak. I enjoyed visiting it briefly when I was there this past Sunday (for the first time in four and a half months).  Once this heat wave passes, I’d love to meet with a few of you to walk, play (and weed!) the labyrinth. Drop me a note if that would be of interest. We’d socially distance of course, but there’s a lot of space there to spread out.

Some links you might find of interest:

Last week’s service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4J_jD52taU&feature=youtu.be
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Vancouver.Unitarian.CYRE/
Covid-19 Plan for UCV site: https://vancouverunitarians.ca/ucv-covid-19-go-slowly-forward-plan/

Note the Main hall can be used for up to 20 people by arrangement with the office in advance. Details on procedures can be found at that link.

I will likely send regular notes about what’s coming up for Family Zoom (and anything else I might know and think you’d want to know too).  You’re not obligated to read everything (LOL!) and if you don’t want to receive at all, just let me know.

If you did not receive this message via email and want to receive them in future, please just let me know.

connect@vancouverunitarians.ca

Family Plots Available for Veggie Gardening

•

There are three and could be six small plots available for UCV familes to plant a small vegetable garden. Each plot is about 38″ square–a manageable size!

Mary Bennett is available to encourage and mentor on an ad hoc basis including at Messy Church nights or immediately after Sunday service.

Contact Mary if your family would like to have a plot for vegetable gardening.

Now is the time to plant peas and lettuce!

The vegetable garden is on the north side of Hewett Centre.

New plots will need a bit of time to get going. The three that were assigned last year are ready for planting.