Youth and Family

YOUTH PROGRAM REOPENING

Reverend Bonnie Rose always embraces any opportunity to celebrate the gifts animal friends bring to the world. She feels that animals, in particular, are pure love, freely given. And we believe that the love of the divine is expressed in all beings.

The Youth Program is open to all pre-school to high school ages and will feature a new curriculum developed by Suzy Thatcher, an educator with 33 years of classroom experience, and Bill Hadrys, RScP, who brings 15 years in Scouting leadership to the revitalized Sunday morning teachings. Suzy’s extensive educational background brings a passion for the arts and in combination with Bill’s love of nature and scouting; they are working together to create a supportive environment for our children so that the attributes of kindness and gratitude can emerge.

Also a VCSL Practitioner, Bill is well known for his Sunday morning thought-provoking creative messages of inspiration. He truly enjoys helping others and spending time with making people realize how special they are. He says he also appreciates hearing from parents who say they came to church because their child instructs them to: Get out of bed, because we have to go see Mr. Bill today.

Our Youth Program supports the teaching and practice of kindness, the importance of being of service and to further a connection to community through activities that exemplify the appreciation of art, music, and theater. The program will empower youth to practice learning opportunities to be of service. Both Suzy and Bill have an uncanny ability to take spiritual information and make it practical and applicable to children of all ages.

ArtPlay will be incorporated as part of the new Youth Program, which provides an opportunity for kids to learn how to use different art materials and explore different cultures. Practitioner and resident artist, Lida Martin is slated to lead several of the ArtPlay activities, including drawing and craft projects, such as creating prayer flags using construction paper and yarn, as well as hand-building animal-themed masks. Other ArtPlay project will be to decorate small terra cotta pots, then fill with soil and seeds so children can take these home to tend as the plant flowers.

The children often get a chance to interact with our kindness ambassadors, Waldo and Emma (the bunnies!).  Kindness in caring for animals is an unconditional commitment and this empathy toward animals extends into other relationships.