Rev. Paul Johnson, Senior Minister of Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock and 24 members and friends of the congregation joined 38 other volunteers to help clean the shoreline along the bay of the City of Long Beach on Saturday, Aug. 17.
Volunteers of all ages worked together throughout the day to repair the ravages left by Superstorm Sandy last fall. This project was a collaboration of the central eastern regional group of the Unitarian Universalists and Sustainable LI.
It was organized by Fernando Tirrado (SLI), Rev. Susan Karlson (CERG), Claire Deroche (UUCSR), and Betty Jeanne Rueters Ward (UUCSR).
The central eastern regional group of the Unitarian Universalists and Sustainable Long Island are both Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock Large Grant recipients. At a meeting this past March, Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock voted to allocate $680,000 from the large grants fund to support five different responses to Superstorm Sandy reconstruction.
Monies were awarded to the Metro New York District of the UUA to hire a coordinator of disaster response and volunteer services to oversee long-term repair and recovery assistance to Unitarian Universalist congregations, members and communities most seriously affected by Superstorm Sandy. Funds were also awarded to Sustainable Long Island for a five-component collaboration with the City of Long Beach to ensure a robust and equitable economic recovery after Superstorm Sandy for all residents of the city.
The large grants program was created in 2007 in order to facilitate annual contributions made by Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock to causes selected by the congregation. Through the large grants program, funds that are set aside for a period of seven years can be allocated in grants no less than $100,000 to a particular cause or organization.
Other Unitarian Universalist congregations that participated in the clean-up effort included Original Blessing (a new Unitarian Universalist congregation in Brooklyn), Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington, and Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Central Nassau in Garden City.
Other volunteers were from the group, All Hands, and residents of Long Beach and other LI communities.
