Contact info:

 

 

For the past 7 years, First UU members, Bernie Hart and Marita Hart have tirelessly run Understanding Us, a non profit organization that works with our unsheltered friends in the community. Three times a week, they prepare and deliver breakfast burritos, and fresh brewed hot coffee to group of about 45 men and women. What is so unique and special about the program is that after enjoying breakfast and coffee, they all gather to do Tai Chi on the SLC Library Plaza. Street Tai Chi, as it has become to be known is something that needs to be seen and experienced to be fully understood. Imagine a large group of people socializing with typical chatter and noise but then becoming eerily silent when the clock strikes 10am to participate together in almost perfect synchronicity. It’s beautiful, inspiring and the energy that is felt circulating around is amazing. If you’re wondering, why Tai-Chi? The Hart’s started this program when it occurred to them that Tai-Chi addresses so many of the issues that the homeless face on a daily basis. Tai Chi is known as meditation in motion and has been shown to offer therapeutic and healing solutions for things like PTSD, TBIs, anxiety and depression. Most participants say they are in a much better place mentally after Street Tai-Chi and are more capable of filling out job applications and government forms. The Hart’s Street Tai Chi program has been featured on the Today Show and other news outlets. Click Here for a link to the Today Show segment.

 

Because this service project aligns so well with the First UU vision and our values, our congregation members now have an opportunity to help the Harts serve the homeless. We are asking for volunteers to help with this endeavor in different capacities such as 1) joining us twice a month in the First UU kitchen to make burritos 2) helping us make coffee and heat up the burritos in the morning 3) delivering the coffee and burritos to the homeless and 4) participating in the tai chi sessions. We also have many other ways you can help. For more information or to sign up to help, please contact Bernie at

 

 

 

Sanctuary is the practice of welcoming someone to take refuge in a house of worship in order to avoid persecution or injustice. Sanctuary has been practiced in various forms for centuries.  In recent decades, Sanctuary has become a powerful tool in the fight for immigrant rights. Congregations have opened their doors to people who are slated for deportation. While living inside this sacred space, undocumented people amplify their message and gain more time to seek justice with the community’s support.

 

On January 30, 2018, Vicky Chavez and her two young daughters took sanctuary at First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City. Vicky was on her way to the airport to self-deport to Honduras after her Stay of Removal was denied. But she could not do it; she could not expose her daughters to the violence rampant in the country that she fled from in 2014 to seek asylum in the United States.  So, she took the brave step to defy deportation and take sanctuary, and we opened our doors, our arms, and our hearts to this amazing and courageous family.  

 

Vicky and her family took sanctuary at First Unitarian until she received a Stay of Removal on April 12, 2021 and physically left the church building on April 15, 2021.  But Vicky’s struggle to gain permanent resident status continues and, therefore, today, our work is ongoing but different and includes: accompaniment, child care, legal fees, continuing our participation as co-plaintiffs in the civil fines lawsuit, advocacy in seeking private legislation on Vicky’s behalf, and working in solidarity with Vicky locally and nationally in support of immigration reform for all immigrants.

For more information, check out: https://slcuu.org/programs/sanctuary     To get involved, contact: . 

 

Terracycle Collection Items/Recycling Opportunities

Below is a list of items that are being collected and will be sent to Terracycle.  Please note: below that are items that we are no longer accepting. By participating, you keep trash out of the landfill & help raise $ for the church, so far $362!  

 

Drop off items in the marked bins on the shelving unit in Eliot Hall on Sunday mornings. You can also drop off at Hello Bulk Market, 1185 S 300 W, SLC https://www.hellobulkmarkets.com/

• Empty toothpaste tubes & caps
• Toothbrushes
• Toothpaste Boxes & Toothbrush Packaging
• Floss Containers

No Electric Toothbrush Heads

Hair care packaging such as shampoo bottles & caps,conditioner bottles & caps, heir gel tubes & caps, hair spray bottles & triggers,  hair paste plastic jars & caps

Skin care packaging such as lip balm tubes, face soap dispensers tubes, face lotion bottles, tubes & plastic jars, body wash containers, soap tubes & dispensers, body lotion dispensers & bottles, shaving foam tubes (no cans), hand lotion bottles & tubes

Cosmetics packaging such as lipstick cases, lip gloss tubes, mascara

tubes, eye shadow cases, bronzer cases, foundation packaging & bottles, powder cases, eyeliner cases, eyeliner pencils, eye shadow tubes, concealer tubes, concealer sticks, lip liner pencils