Family and Friends

Family & Friends Week is a time for people of all ages and families of every description to come together for playing, learning, and rejoicing.  Join us as we get to know each other and discover ourselves all over again.  Become a member of our family!  Come to one or both weeks of Family & Friends. 

Each week there are organized workshops in the mornings for both adults and children.  Each adult takes one workshop; children's workshops are divided by age groups.  Afternoons are for beach time, ecology tours, singing and picking on the porch, or working on your great American novel.  Evenings include intergenerational activities from 7:00-9:00 p.m., and after 9:00 p.m., social activities for adults. 

ADULT PROGRAMS

Adult Programs July 19 – July 26

Tai Chi with Paul Grosswiler
Experience the gentle, flowing movements of tai chi in the natural beauty of the Chapel. Explore Taoism's spiritual path of harmony and balance through readings, conversation, music, and quiet time. Paul Grosswiler will facilitate this week of morning meditation and movement to help us reduce stress, become more centered, and tap into our innate energy.

Soul Mapping with Jean Winslow
Jean Winslow,  a long-time Family and Friends conferee and workshop leader is an artist/therapist who uses art, drama and visualization as guides towards opening our hearts to the soul's journey. 

Work Around the Beach with Joel Lussier
Always a popular workshop, with the emphasis on work and fun, Work Around the Beach has conferees of all skill levels work on projects around the beach—carpentry, dune restoration, landscaping—whatever is helpful and can be accomplished in the course of a week. Joel Lussier leads the chain gang, er, work crew this week.

Of Play and Mindfulness with Yvette Yeager & Tom Bassarear
Do you find that your life is so busy that you forget or don't have time for activities that nurture you?  Do you find that your recreational activities often feel more labor intensive than pleasurable?  How often do you let your body/mind/soul truly play?   Play is a necessary part of a fully lived life.  Children of all cultures seem to know this innately.  As adults, many of us have either developed amnesia or simply no longer place a value on this belief.  Through the use of cooperative games, short skits, circle dances (no experience or partner necessary) and laughter, this workshop is an invitation to bring your outer adult to a reunion with your inner child. 

Rug Hooking: Traditional and Punch with Sara Burghoff
Learn to hook a textured colorful rug using either a punch needle and yarn or a rug hook and strips of fabric.  Sara Burghoff is an Oxford Certified Punch Needle Rug Hooking teacher. She learned to use a rug hook when she was 6 years old.  She has been dyeing wool fabric and yarn for rug hookers since 2004 under the business name Violet Jane.

Adult Programs July 26 – August 2 

Dance Workshop with Kim Cullen
Engage in an exploration of the world of dance and movement.  Adults of any age are encouraged to participate, and both seasoned dancers and beginners are welcome. 

Kayaking with Marty Burgess
Enjoy the waves off the cost of Ferry Beach in a kayaking workshop available for up to twelve participants.  Since registration will be limited, please notify the beach that this workshop will be your choice.  Also, if you need advice about how to obtain a kayak or other equipment for the workshop, don't hesitate to contact Marty at vnm@gwi.net

Growing in Spirit Workshop with Rev. Nina Grey
Our third UU principle calls Unitarian Universalist congregations to covenant ~ to accept one another and encourage each other to grow in spirit. In our spiritually pluralistic faith, we have many spiritual ways. During Family & Friends - August Week we will gather in summer community to share, explore and grow in spirit. Bring yourself, your knowledge and wisdom, your questions and wonderings. We'll use story, poetry, music, silence, ritual, and other ways of sharing and deepening our paths.

Writing Workshop with Jim Ellefson
If you want to spend the week under an umbrella of writing, the discussion of writing and books and writers and craft and strategy, telling the stories of your life--in a circle of soulful smiling and laughing raving big-hearts, this workshop might be for you. No experience necessary. Nobody tells anybody what to do. Absolutely everyone is very cordially welcome to attend.

Spiritual Collage Workshop with Pam Bearer Amirilian
Tell your story -- or any story -- through artistic expression in the form of a collage work. If you plan on attending this workshop you need to bring some personal materials to add to the collage. Small items, writings (i.e. poetry, journal, entries, fabric, beads ,found items or nature objects), and photographs -- essentially, any item that you want to add to the collage that can help tell your story.

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT PROGRAM

Six workshops are planned for ages 3 to 18 years. Besides making and renewing friendships, activities will include music, art, storytelling, ecology, and games. Parents of children under 3 years are fully responsible for their children. The Post-Teen group is offered for those too old for senior teens and too young for adult programs.

INTERGENERATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Afternoons and evenings are free time at Ferry Beach. This is when families are free to enjoy the Maine coast by joining the Ecologists’ field trips, visiting nearby attractions on their own, or just enjoying the beach conveniently located at the end of our boardwalk. Organized events include the Sand Castle Contest with ice cream prizes (and who knows who the judges will be!), the Masked Ball (seriously humorous dress-up for all), the Cabaret (adult talent exhibition), and the Talent/No Talent Show (youth and intergenerational talents on display). Other events include the ice cream social, dancing, karaoke, volleyball games, paper bag theater, a marshmallow roast (weather permitting) in the Grove. We also have a tradition of informal music, both sung and instrumental. A choir will be organized for the chapel services held each morning and accompanied singing will be held after dinner in Quillen each evening before Friendship Circle.

July Coordinators:  Bill Trippe, Vicki Bridge (Children’s Programs) 

August Coordinators:  Chuck Sokol (Adult Programs), Marlaine Mahady-Potter (Children’s Programs), Carol McIntyre-Peale (Intergenerational Programs)