OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunities for Sharing and Enrichment
FIFTH MONDAY MEAL
	Please consider joining Cloggie Crowder and her team of shoppers, cooks, servers and clean-up crew to offer a meal to a roomful of hungry people at Calvary Presbyterian Church at East 79th and Euclid on Monday, September 29. Let Cloggie know if you are interested. We start preparing at 4:00, serve at 5:00, and usually are cleaned up and on our way by 6:30. As members of InterAct, we prepare and serve a free meal at Calvary every fifth Monday. In August, several Fifth Monday volunteers were rewarded with baseball tickets for an Indians game; Claude Brewer, Cloggie Crowder, Keayna and Robin Crowder, and John and Kathy Baker and three of their grandchildren helped cheer the Indians on to victory over the Kansas City Royals.
CITIZENS CIRCLE
	Citizens Circle, a group of EACC and Church of the Covenant members, has been formed to welcome people who have been recently released from prison back into the community. Currently they are meeting to learn more about the resources and support they can offer these people. They plan to start actually meeting with participants in January. EACC members who are involved are Dean Sieck, Eleanore Dees, Nathaniel Martin, Johnnie Mitchell, Kathy Baker, and Calvin Humphrey. If you feel called to prison ministry and would like to join the Circle, please let one of them know.
PEACE PROJECTS FOR SEPTEMBER
	September 1 - Consider attending the Peace Show on September 1, Labor Day, at Willard Park at East 9th and Lakeside as an alternative to the Cleveland Air Show that will be going on nearby at the same time. “Peace Cranes, Not War Planes” is the slogan for the Peace Show, beginning at noon and ending at 6PM. Come enjoy food, music, games, activities for children, drumming, and the Third Annual Paper Airplane Launch. Unlike the Air Show, the Peace Show is free. September 13 – “Gather the People and Change the World” is the title of an event planned as a call to action remembering 9/11/01. Come to Trinity Commons from 9AM-3PM to hear morning speakers and discussions on “Connecting Spirituality and Peace Activism” and an afternoon of workshops on microlending, practicing nonviolence, peace advocacy, achieving inner peace, and peace in our neighborhoods. Lunch will be provided. There is no charge for the event or lunch; a freewill offering will be taken. To register, call Molly at 216-382-4367 or Kathy at 216-383-1684. September 20 – Come join the women who pray together the third Saturday of every month for peace and an end to violence. This month we will be meeting at the statue of Gandhi on Martin Luther King Blvd. at 9AM for 45 minutes of prayer and meditation. Please join us.
VOLUNTEERS
	- Looking for a few members to alphabetize and maintain the Member Nametag Board and create an EACC Beloved Community photo album. Youth and Young Adults encouraged to speak to Charlene Higginbotham
INTERACT AND THE FOOD PANTRY
	InterAct Cleveland is pleased to announce that the ownership of the Community Food Pantry at 8052 Carnegie transferred to the Antioch Development Corporation this summer. It has been renamed the Bread of Life Pantry and will continue to serve food to the needy in the Fairfax neighborhood. If you would like to volunteer at the Bread of Life Pantry, please call Toni Sacco, the InterAct Volunteer Coordinator, at 216-241-0230 for service opportunities.
Children's Defense Fund
	The Cleveland office of the Children’s Defense Fund has begun an ecumenical and interfaith network of women, called Women of Faith, to provide strong effective voices for children. Of particular concern are poor children who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. To learn more about this ministry, please phone Rev. Mylion Waite, Senior Manager, at 216-298-4480.
TENTS OF HOPE
	*FLYER* The Church in the World Ministry wants you to be aware of a very special project coming your way. We will need your help to become part of two national efforts: Tents of Hope and Tent2Tent. Although these efforts give us the opportunity to learn about and respond to the crisis in Darfur, this will also be an opportunity for us to grow in community with each other as we prepare pictures, videos and letters for a refugee camp in Chad to tell them who we are. Who are we? As we journey together over the next few months let’s hope that we discover our compassion, our energy and how similar we are with the local groups (other churches and schools) we hope to invite to join us as well as the African family that we will hear from first hand. Let’s see how similar our hopes and dreams are. So get ready to learn about people far away but also about each other and yourself. More details will be shared as they become available but a very tentative time line includes the following plans for January and February: Preparation of materials (letters, photos, video, personal messages and artwork including decorated canvas panels for our Tent of Hope) to introduce ourselves to our “sister tent” family in one of 12 refugee camps administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Tents of Hope partner group, Stop Genocide Now, will deliver this first round of communication in March. As we receive materials from our Darfurian brothers and sisters we will record our reactions and responses to their introductory items and continue our exchange in what we hope will become a long-term relationship. Sometime in June we hope to hold a larger community tent event to educate and activate those attending concerning the current situation and steps we can take to support and advocate for peace and justice for those who will no longer be strangers. By our September Homecoming we hope to have completed our very own Tent of Hope, decorated with our creative panels. What can you do now? Please start collecting pictures, videos and/or written stories that tell who you are and who EACC is and pass these along to Brenda Bagby. Stay tuned for more details but if you can’t wait to hear more then please contact Brenda Bagby at 932-2946 or check out the websites www.tentsofhope.org or www.stopgenocidenow.org. — Brenda Bagby
DONATIONS NEEDED
	The Renaissance Residence, scheduled to open this month, is a 12 month re-entry program for women sponsored by “Just Like Us” Family Enrichment Center. The program will provide support and help prepare women for employment, re-uniting with families, housing, education and community. Donations of twin sized linens, towels, wash cloths, toiletry items, paper goods, kitchen supplies, cleaning materials, shower curtains, washable rugs, robes, house shoes, dressers and night stands are needed. Contact Dyeatra Williams at dew7@sbcglobal.net
PRISON MINISTRY AT EACC
	Thanks to those of you who have been bringing in personal hygiene items for the women in the County Jail and Northeast Pre-release Center. There is a basket in the parlor for your donations, and it is emptied and its contents delivered to the women who need them at least twice monthly. They are not allowed glass bottles, dental floss, aerosol cans, or anything - such as mouthwash - containing alcohol, so please bring in items in plastic containers such as lotion, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner. Toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap are also welcome.
ARE YOU A “SEASONED INDIVIDUAL?”
	Several Cleveland area nonprofit organizations, including the ACLU of Ohio, Community shares, Adoption Network Cleveland and Hard-Hatted Women, are collaborating on a volunteer program called “Engaging for Civic Change” supported by the Cleveland Foundation’s Successful Aging Initiative. They are looking for seasoned individuals moving into a new phase of their lives who want to volunteer to support the causes they care about. To learn more, visit www.communityshares.org/eecc.shtml or call Francis Martin at Community Shares, 216-361-9920.

Opportunities for Sharing and Enrichment