ACTION INC’S EMERGENCY HOMELESS SHELTER

Action Inc provides a limited number of beds and hot meals to homeless adults (ages 18 and older) on a nightly basis. Prior to leaving the shelter in the morning, guests are also provided with bag lunches. Members of the UUSR prepare twenty of these bag lunches on Wednesdays, twice monthly. This adds up to more than 450 bag lunches a year for the homeless and others in need at the Action Shelter.

Members (and sometimes their children) meet twice monthly, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at 4 pm, to prepare the lunches and deliver them to the Action shelter. The food continues to be paid for by generous donations from a wide range of parishioners, while 10-20 members actually make the lunches. If you would like to make a donation, please send a check payable to the UUSR with Action Lunches in the memo line to UUSR, 4 Cleaves St, Rockport, MA 01966.

OPEN DOOR

Food Bank: We coordinate, collect, and deliver contributions of non-perishable food.  Members are sometimes told of dire circumstances and the following Sunday, the basket is full to overflowing.

MITTEN TREE

Every year around the winter holidays and into early January, the members and friends of the UUSR bring in winter mittens/gloves, hats and coats to be donated to Pathways for Children.

HELP FOR HAITI

The UUSR continues to collect goods and give aid to support Mary Ann Camp’s work with Partners in Development. UUSR Member, Mary Ann Camp, takes the donations to Haiti with her on her annual volunteer trips.

Mary Ann is a volunteer nurse at a Partners in Development medical clinic in Blanchard, Haiti. Partners in Development (PID) is a nonprofit organization that provides child sponsorships, employment opportunities, adequate housing, medical care, clean water and sanitation to thousands of people each year in Haiti and Guatemala. Since the earthquake in Haiti in January, 2010, PID’s medical clinic has been transformed from a quiet outpatient facility to a bustling emergency room/triage/care center.

In the wake of an outbreak of cholera in Haiti, Mary Ann organized efforts to collect such much-needed items as soap and hand sanitizer, which she arranged to be sent to the clinic.  She also created a network of knitters in Gloucester and Rockport who have created hundreds of hand-knit “comfort dolls.” These small, cuddly dolls, knit in colorful Haitian clothes, have been “adopted” by many Cape Ann residents for a donation of $5.  The dolls are distributed to Haitian children and the money is used to buy supplies for the clinic.  Dolls are available for adoption and contributions of soap and/or hand-sanitizer are welcome.

OTHER EVENTS

The UUSR sponsors various speakers to come give lectures from time to time. There are also times that we are moved to write letters to the local papers.

The UUSR also sponsors several special events throughout the year, including our annual Peace Fest, and our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day march.