Message from Dawn Star Sarahs-Borchelt Each February the RE Board and I hold a Teacher Appreciation Brunch in honor of the volunteers who teach in the Religious Education program. Teachers are the people who do MOST of the work in RE. I work 25 hours per week; RE Board members work at least 1 or 2 hours per week (often significantly more); but we use somewhere around 40 hours per week of volunteer teacher and assistant work to make the program really run. And the teachers are the ones who spend the most time actually interacting with our children and youth at BuxMont. What does it take to be an RE teacher, you ask? (Or maybe you don’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway.) Well, you have to want to do it, or at least want to try it. I’d much rather have volunteers who want to do what they are doing. It makes everyone happier. Do you want to get to know some of our kids? (They are pretty cool people!) Do you want to learn more about our UU faith? (Our curricula are pretty intriguing and most teachers learn a lot from teaching them.) Do you like being creative? (Some age groups do a lot of crafts while others need more active games or stimulating discussion questions – all require you to use whatever creative ability you have when you are with them.) Do you want to give back to this Fellowship some of what it has given to you? (It feels good to know you are contributing in a very real way!) If this sounds like a pitch … it kind of is. But not a hard sell. We could use a couple more teachers at 9:15. We could use some assistants at 11:15. If you are interested, please let me know. But even if you aren’t sure yet, think about it for the future. One of my goals is to include more people who are not currently parenting children in the program in our teaching roster. The more diverse our teaching roster is the more our kids can learn about what it means to be UU!