January DOWN... February queuing up!

When I was younger my friends and I spent all of 5th grade WAITING to get thru the next two years so that we would be old enough to be in UMYF. We all used to watch the older kids at their car washes, Spaghetti Dinners, sitting in their room gathered together hanging out, or taking part as a group in a special part of a Worship service...we would discuss this at great length, in awe of this cool group that we were DYING to be a part of.

Imagine the JOY and excitement that we got when, after only waiting ONE year instead of two, Rocky River City Schools moved the 6th grade up to the Junior High, making us not only the first 6th grade class there, but also changing our name to "the middle school" and causing the Church to announce that they were including us in the Junior High UMYF!

I was BESIDE myself with excitement. Now, in reading this, perhaps you have already guessed what a big Dork I am… I would like to argue with you and tell you that I am SO not, but I really can’t do that. Just ask my husband and he will tell you that I am the biggest Dork he knows. But Dork or not, I was ready to start UMYF! (and by-the-way, I am proud of being a Dork...just so you know lol)

Finally being included into UMYF I would get SO excited about the upcoming events. We had those car washes, and Spaghetti Dinners, and Super bowl Sub Sandwich sales, Bible Studies, UMYF Retreats, and Haunted Houses, and raking leaves for the Rockport Seniors… and it was AWESOME! Youth Group meant a great deal to me and I always brought friends into the fold who all ended up thinking our Church was the BEST, which I was proud of… and while I knew that there was some degree of work that went into these things, we kind of had magical Youth Leaders…John & Margie Lind Mills, and Scott and Julia Welsh, who weren’t even MARRIED yet in the beginning! And the glue that held us together, our Director of Christian Ed, Rev. Barbara Davis...(or Mrs. D, as she was to us then) They worked hard for us, and while we, in the back of our minds, kind-of knew this, and definitely appreciated them and enjoyed their leadership, we didn’t TRULY or completely grasp the immediate amount of work that went into this…

-- UNTIL --

It was time for ME, a new-on-the-scene UMYF Leader, along with my Husband Scott, to stay out ALL NIGHT on Feb. 5^th in the CRAZY weather that was Friday Night. It SNOWED from the beginning of our event at 4PM Friday until well after we were home Saturday morning- and we arrived home around 7:30AM. It was during this event, Homeless on Hilliard, at the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River, dripping wet from the snowfall and standing around the trash can where the BEAUTIFUL fire was burning, that I began to think about my own UMYF group, and to mentally fill out some thank you cards to John, Margie, Scott, Julia, & Mrs. D... MAN did they go above and beyond for us kids… Enough so to make me want to try to give other kids the wonderful and fulfilling experience that I had… Dunno if I will be able to do that, but I am certainly trying!

Our kids were troopers and they stood in the snow alongside the West Shore UUC kids and the Rocky River Presbyterian kids and took donations for the Homeless and they made shelters out of tarps and cardboard boxes and sat out there until the REALLY wee hours of the next morning! All of us adults kept talking and discussing how great all of our kids were and how wonderful it was that they were caring and compassionate and willing to give up their Friday night to “the cause” and how we were miserable out there and it was SO horrible in the wind and snow and how some people were surprised that they would want to stay outside… and all of this is true, but I also found myself thinking that if we had done this “back in the day” I know a bunch of people who would have signed up too! To be honest, it wasn’t my dream to go and stand outside in the wind & snow, but when I was 15/16 I would have totally thought it was cool… and I was at that moment grateful that I was able to remember this and suddenly there wasn’t any reason to be crabby about being wet & cold any longer… although I was pretty good-natured about going and spending the time with the kids for a good cause, I also dreaded being outside miserable all night... but THIS was an event I heard some of the kids discussing for a week or two, before they even knew if we were able to participate, and they were discussing it with excitement… so how do you not encourage THAT?

Scott and I arrived home Saturday morning, after having stayed up all night, and went pretty much straight to bed – we are old now, lol, so staying up all night is a BIT on the whacky side, and we were BEAT!

And THEN on Sunday the 7^th we had to be at Church by 8AM to prepare SUBS! Our tradition at Rockport… This started before I was even in UMYF – does anyone know what year? I would LOVE to know how long for sure we have done this! Totally the BEST tradition!

We had a large group of Youth in our Church kitchen, preparing Subs – and Scott & I think they did an AWESOME job!

I would also like to thank our friend, Andy Magda, owner of Jimmy’s Pizza, who helped me organize the supplies WELL above the call of friendship – I have never had to figure out how to buy for large quantities of Subs before (I had only MADE them every year, lol) So, after being armed with some great notes from Julia Welsh (See? After all these years, somehow she is STILL helping me out!) and Andy helping me with the suppliers and connections in the food industry that he has had for the past 25 years from being in the business, I figured out my organization strategy and Scott and I were good to go! Everything went so smoothly and the UMYF kids worked REALLY hard to make your sandwiches!

UMYF: We are very proud of you guys! You all worked very hard to make a successful weekend! THANK YOU!!!!

So, with the whirlwind that has been January, thru this first weekend of February, I close and assure you that I am going to go for ANOTHER nap right now – it has occurred to me that I need to keep up with these guys! I may be tired – but I am truly happy!

THANKS!!!

Kira (& Scott, too!)

p.s.

is anyone else’s coat still drying out after Friday?