Race to Nowhere panelists

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Michele

RACE TO NOWHERE Sunday Nov 14 at 6:45 p.m.
First United Methodist Church  625 Hamilton Ave. Palo Alto
Advance tickets $10, buy and print here. Tickets are $15 at the door.
Rated PG-13
Panel discussion follows film. Panel Members:
Mandy Lowell served on the PAUSD Board of Education from 1999 to 2007, including two terms as President. Ms. Lowell is the mother of three children and currently is a member of the Board of Directors of Palo Alto Partners in Education .
Chris Miller is Director of Youth Ministry at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Palo Alto, on the school board for the Los Gatos Union School District, and works as a substitute teacher at Palo Alto Unified schools. Mr. Miller holds masters degrees in Education and in Pastoral Ministries.  
David Mineau is a parent and has worked as a marriage and family therapist since 1985, providing counseling and therapy to individuals, couples, families and groups. Dr. Mineau holds a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology.  
Pamela Reasner is a 5th year Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Cupertino Middle School. She is also a parent of two girls educated in the Palo Alto school system (Walter Hays, Jordan, Paly), one now a freshman in college and the other a senior at Paly.
Lori Hammar Sapigao attended Palo Alto Unified schools K-12, graduating from Paly in 1984. She is a Full-time Special Education Aide at Barron Park Elementary School and parent of 15 and 10 year old students in the PAUSD.
Phyllis Sherlock is the mother of three boys who grew up in Palo Alto, and she has worked for more than 30 years both as a psychologist and marriage and family therapist.

RACE TO NOWHERE points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace; students are disengaged; stress-related illness and depression are rampant; and many young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.  RACE TO NOWHERE  is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how best to prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

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Race to Nowhere

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Michele

Race to Nowhere poster

We are hosting a screening of the documentary film RACE TO NOWHERE on Sunday Nov 14 at 6:45 p.m. The film will be followed by a panel discussion.
Advance tickets are $10, available online here.
Tickets are $15 at the door.
First United Methodist Church
625 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto

Rated PG-13

RACE TO NOWHERE is a close-up look at the pressures on today’s students. The film tackles the tragic side of our often achievement-obsessed culture. RACE TO NOWHERE asks the question: Are the young people of today prepared to step fully and productively into their future? We hear from students who feel they are being pushed to the brink, educators who worry students aren’t learning anything substantive, and college professors and business leaders, concerned their incoming employees lack the skills needed to succeed in the business world: passion, creativity, and internal motivation. (from IMDB)

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Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Matt

Our team paints the repaired fence

Yesterday was Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley‘s fall rebuilding day. Our joint young adult group (with Los Altos United Methodist Church) sent a delegation to San Jose to help repair a home in the Willow Glen neighborhood. We rebuilt and painted a fence, painted most of the outside of the house, rehung two garage doors, replaced a non-functional oven and cooktop, did various plumbing, installed smoke alarms, and did miscellaneous repairs.

The jovial group was proof of the old adage that “many hands make light work.” The day was filled with laughter, and by the end of the day, it was amazing how much we had done to improve the property. I personally worked on rebuilding the fence, rehanging the garage doors and replacing the oven.

Photo: John Burnham

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Glide Memorial Mission Trip

Posted on October 10, 2010 by Matt

Our Glide service team prepares to catch BART

This morning, thirteen of our congregants skipped church to go to San Francisco and help make meals for the homeless. We carpooled and took BART to Glide Memorial Methodist Church in the Tenderloin district, where we helped make 1200 sack lunches.

The lunches consisted of peanut butter and jelly or turkey sandwiches as a main course. We set up an assembly line for the sandwiches, with some people spreading the peanut butter and jelly (which was pre-mixed – that saved a lot of time) or distributing turkey and assembling the sandwiches and others placing them in bags and taking them to another table, where a third crew assembled sack lunches.

After assembling lunches for almost two hours, we handed it over to a team of volunteer servers and attended Glide’s 11:00 worship celebration. Finally, we ate in a local diner and headed back home.

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10-Fold

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Outreach Team

We are counting up to 10-Fold, an online interactive event that will highlight 10 projects, supported by The United Methodist Church, that are making a difference.

  • Starting Sunday, October 10th through Tuesday, October 19th, visit 10-Fold.org to hear, live, from people all over the world who are working to feed the hungry, heal the sick, or help spread the Word.
  • Register your interest in the daily highlighted project to trigger a $1 donation on your behalf.  (It doesn’t actually cost you anything!)
  • Take part in one of the online activities to learn more about the project.
  • Tell family and friends so we can multiply this effort and help secure up to $10,000 of support for each project.
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Breaking Bread

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Outreach Team

Picture of volunteers serving the meal

On September 27 a First-UMC “Breaking Bread Service Team” of six people served the Monday Night InnVision dinner in Kohlstedt Hall. We greatly enjoyed greeting the guests and preparing and serving the dinner that night. Our Service Team looks forward to the next opportunity in rotation with InnVision serving teams from other local organizations who serve the dinner on Monday nights at our church. We average 60 to 70 guests each Monday night.

Outreach would like to create a second Service Team to alternate with our first one so that each Team would serve the Monday night dinner about every three months. Our two  teams will be in a rotation with teams from other organizations that serve dinner on Monday nights at our church.

This second team needs two people as Greeters and four or five people who put the meal together (from food that InnVision furnishes) and serve it to our guests.

On nights when other organizations serve the meal, we need two people to greet and welcome the guests.

Mission Opportunity How about spending just 3 hours a few times this year, either as Greeter or as Server?
To be a Greeter, sign up on the bulletin board in the education building.
To be a Server on “Team 1″ or “Team 2,” please contact outreach@firstpaloalto.com.

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Moonlight Run and Walk

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Michele

On Friday evening, Sept. 24, 21 members and friends of First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto assembled under our banner at the Moonlight Run and Walk. Most of us walked, and some of us ran the 5K course through the Palo Alto Baylands under the beautiful harvest moon. Read about our group in “A Team Effort” on pages 40-41 in the Palo Alto Weekly, Sept 17.

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Welcome!

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Michele

Welcome to Imani, the blog of the Outreach Committee. We are re-organizing based on the principles of More is Less and Less is More.
First,

More People = Less Work

We have divided the committee activities into specific tasks – some small, some larger – but all manageable! so that one person is not burdened with too many responsibilities to be effective.
Second,

Less is More

With less for each of us to do, we believe the larger Outreach Family will be able to accomplish more than a small committee of people.

Stay tuned!

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