Blog | Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture

Ethics For Children Service Project – Multigenerational Connection

With our BSEC platforms and Ethics for Children classes being held online, there have been fewer opportunities for multigenerational interactions within our community. Many of our students have never seen the BSEC building bustling with activity or enjoyed a brunch with the bunch. The latest service project for our EfC kids program was designed to remind participants that we are a part of a larger multigenerational community.

Earlier in March we came together and prepared house plants as gifts for a shortlist of recommended members. The kids designed and painted the pots, then chose from a variety of houseplant cuttings ready for transplant. Embodying our themes of care for the earth and care for community, the plants were potted in new soil ready to be taken to their new homes.

A special thank you to Nancy, Fiona, and Taty for helping with delivery!!!

Announcing our new Managing Director

We would like to welcome Erin Carney as the new Managing Director of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. The Recruitment Taskforce conducted an exhaustive campaign and had the pleasure of interviewing several impressive candidates; however, none matched as many of our long list of desired attributes as Erin. She was most recently the founder and chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Creative League, a shared office space serving over 200 members — independent professionals, non-profits, and small-shop creative companies. As a small business owner, Erin was responsible for everything from budgeting to members’ services. Prior to that, she had a distinguished career in the non-profit sector. Erin has a solid background in fiscal management, operations, program development, and implementation, staff management, strategic planning, relationship building, and fundraising. Please join us virtually at the April 17th colloquy, “Rebirth” for an introduction to Erin and on May 16 th , in-person, for a luncheon and celebration after the “All-Society Platform.”

Ways to Help Ukrainians Affected by the War

The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture is committed to peace and human rights.
We are also part of the American Ethical Union (AEU), and the statement on the Ukrainian crisis can be found below:
https://ethical.nyc/aeu-statement-on-the-ukraine-crisis/
Below you will also find resources, both, local and broader, to help support those affected by the war in Ukraine.

LINKS AND RESOURCES FOR HELP AND PROTESTS:

Razon for Ukraine:
https://linktr.ee/RazomForUkraine

Rallies and Protests:
https://www.stopputin.net/

Links and resources to various ways to help:
https://ukrainewar.carrd.co/

Help children of war in Ukraine:
https://voices.org.ua/en/

Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Fundraiser:
https://www.mightycause.com/story/M1wzpf?amp;

World Central Kitchen:
https://donate.wck.org/give/236738/#!/donation/checkout

LOCAL TO PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN:

Fifth Avenue BID that they are helping with a one-week Supply Drive for Ukraine. Please read this and donate if you can. Wednesday March 2nd to Wednesday March 9th

Drop Off locations:
Private Picassos (between Carroll and President on 5th) Mon/Fri/Sat 10am-4pm, T/W/Th 10am-12pm & 3-5pm
That Bar Corner of Bergen on 5th Sun-Sat 3-10pm
Winemake’Her Bar Between 11th and 12th on 5th Sat-Sun 12-10pm
Yardsale Cafe Between 17th and 18th on 5th Sat-Sun 9am-5pm

Please consider donating any of the following items and dropping off at one of locations:
Antibiotics
Pain relievers
Non-sterile bandages
Elastic fixing bandages
Sterile materials for anti-burn measures
Scissors
*Baby formula (*but note info I found from Meest below)
*Diapers
*Hard Soap
*Tampons
*Non-perishable food
All items will be delivered to Meest at their NJ center and then onto Lviv, Ukraine through Poland. Items will be distributed via Meest’s non profit organization in Lviv.

Ethics for Children Service Project – A Surprise Party!

For their February service project, the Ethics for Children program threw a surprise party to validate and honor the work of two special guests – Jorge and Nahomy.

Jorge and Nahomy work in an industry that has been deeply impacted by the pandemic – Domestic Workers. They provide the service of cleaning houses and offices and they thought that they had been hired to clean one of the rooms in the building. As guests, they were chosen at random, with only the assurance of John, who handles the scheduling at Hire a Maid, that he would send two people who had been working with them throughout the pandemic.

When Jorge and Nahomy arrived they were met with a round of applause, a banner, superhero capes, crowns, and cards all of which the kids had prepared. Then – a party complete with snacks and dancing. A good time was had by all.

Ethics for Children Service Project – Books

The Ethics for Children program hosted its first service day of 2022 with a theme of literacy. They collected 26 boxes of gently used books (that is over 1,000 books) to donate! The children’s books that were collected are being donated to the Brooklyn Book Bodega (brooklynbookbodega.org) – a non-profit that collects and distributes kids’ books with a mission to increase the number of 100+ book homes for kids in NYC. The adult books that were collected have been donated to Books to Prisoners, a collaborative project of BSEC and The Humanist Being which provides books to prison libraries. In addition to collecting and sorting books, the kids made bookmarks, wrote book recommendations for their favorite titles, and of course, spent a little time just reading. Thank you to everyone who helped to make this event such an amazing success!