BBN teams show their love through service in February

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.

Congratulations to Tri-State Freethinkers in Union, KY! They submitted our Picture of the Month. The picture was taken when team members assembled over 1200 power pack lunches Freestore Foodbank for local area children who might not know from where their next meal will come.

Congratulations to Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry in Charleston, SC! They’re our Team of the Month. This month, the team picked up litter from their adopted stretch of Harbor View Road between Fort Johnson Road and Darwin Street. (Really, Darwin street.) This a regular event they hold to keep their adopted stretch litter free.

This month Minnesota Atheists had a smaller group than usual volunteering at The Food Group, but with only five members they still managed to pack 210 boxes of fruit and produce. This was enough to help feed 840 people in the Twin Cities metro area. At another event at the Family Place, a day shelter for individuals seeking homes, Minnesota Atheists volunteers purchased food to make egg bake, bagels and cream cheese and fruit salad for guests.

Corpus Christi Atheists were busy in February. They had a glass recycling event where nine members unloaded glass from residents' cars and sorted the glass for recycling by the city. Fifteen members also distributed donated supplies to dozens of homeless people in the downtown area and donated food for a free meal for everyone. And after they cleaned the park where the event was held, which was in very bad shape. That was all on top of their regular, monthly cleanup of their adopted park: Oak Park.

Camden County Humanists in Blackwood, NJ volunteered their time to help serve food to those less fortunate at the Cathedral Kitchen in Camden, NJ. They helped by preparing the dinners, serving food and cleaning up the facility afterward.

Central Ohio United Non-Theists (COUNT) joined forces with Humanist Community of Central Ohio (HCCO), both in Columbus, OH, for their third joint shelter event at the Community Shelter Board (CSB) facility in Columbus. CSB provides housing and meals to homeless families and individual men and women in Central Ohio. Some volunteers served dinners while others washed dishes, mopped floors, filed forms, and cleaned tables. While volunteering they wear COUNT branded name tags to raise awareness that they are non-theists doing charity. Once the dishes are done, they adjourned to the Omnipresent Atheists meetup in progress for dinner, drinks, and conversation.

This month, Omaha Atheists returned to Completely Kids to volunteer for a third time, this time packing food for their weekend food program. This includes packing food items that require little to no preparation into bags that are then sent home on Fridays with students that are on the discounted lunch program at school.

The Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix continued their regular Crochet Sleeping Mats Using Plastic Grocery Bags to Benefit Homeless People event. Members cut plastic bags into strips and looping the strips to make "plarn" (plastic yarn). Then they crocheting the "plarn" into approximately 2' by 5-6' mats. Mats are then distributed to people living on the streets.

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.