fundraising

Our Endowment Fund

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About two decades ago, anonymous donors gave the Fellowship $20,000 toward an Endowment Fund with the stipulation that the principal could never be spent and the interest could not be used until the fund had reached at least $50,000. We placed it with a “socially responsible” fund, Calvert, which handles the investments of many churches and other public interests.

The fund has grown to $28,112 with very little attention from various Endowment Committees. This year, the committee decided to be more proactive in order to build the fund up to $50,000. This “Nice Stuff ReUse” sale is the first project to do this.

Proceeds will go to our Endowment Fund, which will be used in the future to keep up our building as an important art piece in Athens and provide leadership opportunities for our members. Anything you contribute to it, including the value of items for this sale, will live forever because donations to the Endowment or earnings for it (such as this sale) cannot be spent.

Cakewalk starts pledge drive with a roaring success — $1,675

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Natalie Barman and Kev Polk pulled off a miracle April 14 with our annual cakewalk, which kicked off the pledge drive to meet the operational expenses of the Fellowship over the next fiscal year (July 2013-June 2014). The $1,675 they raised at the auction was more than double the highest previous figure (last year).

Seventeen members and friends made the cakes and other home-baked goodies, which were auctioned just after the regular second-Sunday lunch, during which the auction items were on display for the purpose of silent bidding. All were labeled on the silent auction forms, which were used by auctioneer Evan Young to describe the delicious and beautiful items as Natalie and her attractive assistants took each item table to table as it came up for bidding.

Those who stayed up half the night or arose early Sunday (or both) to bake for the cakewalk included some multi-project bakers and more single bakers. Jeremy Bowman was the champ, with a chocolate- chip cheesecake, gluten-free poppy-seed Cake w/ vanilla egg custard and chocolate butter cream frosting; chocolate layer cake with chocolate butter cream icing; and a mini yellow cake with chocolate butter cream icing. Jessie Roberson was next, with a German chocolate cake, ginger bread, and two lemon pound cakes.

Other creators of glorious fare were: Charlie Barman, Guinness chocolate cake; Harry Coffey, chocolate mousse; Dru Riley Evarts, pecan cinnamon rolls; Sara Foster, sour cream crumb cake; Ross Hockman, chocolate chip cookies; Kate Mitchell, chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies; Laura Mitchell, chocolate trifecta cake with blue fondant bird and eggs; Lorraine Myers, chocolate/kaluha cake; Marsha Nagy, pineapple upside-down cake with walnuts; Milt Ploghoft, sour cream gooseberry pie; Jerry Schaffer, lemon bars; Kimberly Wagner, whole wheat olive & sun-dried tomato loaf; Jackie Warmke, vegan orange cake with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache; Lois Whealey, applesauce spice cake with cream-cheese frosting; and Evan Young, raspberry cream cheese coffee cake.

Yard sale at city pool shelter May 4 will benefit UUFA endowment fund

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“Nice /Stuff ReUse” is the name of the yard sale we are planning for May 4 in order to
build up the UUFA Endowment Fund, and we hope that everyone is willing to help.

Here’s how you can make it a success:

Gather stuff for the sale: Look around your house for nice stuff that you no longer use. These should be things you really think someone else would love to have. (Please no “junk” or old clothes or ragged books, etc.) Ask your friends and neighbors for similar stuff. Everything should be clean and usable.

Get your donations to the sale early. Bring your nice stuff to the city pool shelter between 7 and 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 4. If you can’t do that, leave at the Evarts house (in front of Glidden Hall (Music Bldg.) on the OU campus earlier that week. Call Dru before you come to be sure someone is there to receive it. Or bring it to the Fellowship on the last Sunday in April.

For large or heavy donations, Don Shamblin has offered to pick these things up in his pickup truck. Call Dru to arrange for this. Leave a message on the answering machine if phone is unanswered.

Help AT the sale or FOR the sale. The Endowment Committee is small, so we need others to help at the sale. Sign up for two or three hours to help on May 4. Or offer to make and put up signs to attract people to the sale. We need big, bright, clever signs that can be read from a distance. You can also do an exceptional job of collecting nice stuff from friends and neighbors and delivering them to the sale.

Rewards for helping. Those helping AT or FOR the sale get first pick of the goods before the sale is open to the public. Of course, this means getting out to the pool picnic shelter before 9 a.m. because we are opening it to everyone at 9. But there will be some nice stuff. You will want to join in on this riotous grab. Contact Dru to get on the schedule.