BBN Teams in love with community service

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups volunteering in their communities and raising money for FBB’s featured charities and programs. Any group with a public secular humanist or atheist identity is welcome to join, regardless of experience or group size.

One of our goals for this year is to continue to spruce up the BBN website, making it more functional. This includes beefing up our team profiles. So, we're asking ALL our teams to send us new information: a team profile pic, a logo, and details of your social media. While you're at it, this is also a great time to let us know about changes in your contact details, and update us on how many members you currently have. Please fill out this webform by Sunday, February 15 at midnight.

Five Central Ohio United Non-Theists (COUNT) volunteers worked as Housewarmers last month at the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) in Columbus, Ohio. RMH provides housing and meals to families with children being treated at Nationwide Childrens Hospital and other area hospitals. Housewarmers work with our guests to provide a home-like environment. Their ten Housewarmers try to volunteer at least one four-hour shift a month and have contributed 490 hours to date. Six COUNT volunteers also worked as servers last month at the Community Shelter Board (CSB) facility in Columbus, Ohio. CSB provides housing and meals to homeless families and individual men and women in Central Ohio. Half of the volunteers assembled hundreds of sack lunches for distribution the following day while the other half served dinners and cleaned tables. This was COUNTs first event with the CSB; they are planning 1-2 such events each month.

Lehigh Valley Humanists in Bethlehem, PA collected fifteen bags of non-perishable food for donation to the Catasauqua Food Bank in Catasauqua, PA. One member gave a $100 donation to the food bank towards future food purchases or expenses. Donations were brought to their February General Meeting and delivered to the food bank immediately afterward.

Pikes Peak Atheists and Pikes Peak Atheist Families in Colorado Springs, CO were successful in helping Black Forest Animal Sanctuary raise money at their charity painting event. They sold eight seats (at $35 a seat) and had a blast painting a picture of a bear. There was also a raffle with gift baskets (teasers for an upcoming gala fundraiser in March), for which many team members bought tickets. Overall, the sanctuary raised over $900 from this event, and the team is happy to have been a part of it.

Six members of Austin Atheists Helping the Homeless' Gettin' Knotty Knitting Guild made 41 hats as well as some washcloths for the January giveaway. This is a pretty good number, especially since it takes more time to knit/crochet hats. ATXAHH appreciates the guild's contributions to their winter Warmth Drive.

If you are a member of a secular humanist or atheist group and would like to participate in community service projects under the national umbrella of Foundation Beyond Belief, join Beyond Belief Network. We welcome all atheist groups interested in service, from groups with extensive volunteer experience to newly formed groups new to secular service. By aggregating our efforts, we demonstrate that all we really need is charity and goodness to make the world a better place.