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By Elizabeth Minutello, Beyond Belief Network intern

Congratulations to Beyond Belief Network’s February Team of the Month: Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry! Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry (SHL) was chosen for this honor because of their strong service schedule in 2013, including Adopt-a-Highway litter clean-ups, volunteering at local organizations, hosting multiple fundraisers and a blood drive, and collecting donations for a featured charity in each quarter. We were most impressed by the multiple causes they’ve supported. 

One of their ongoing initiatives is Charity of the Quarter. Four times a year, SHL chooses a local charity and collects donations on their behalf. During November and December 2013, SHL raised $655 for their most recent Charity of the Quarter, Charleston Animal Society.

In January, SHL volunteers donated their time and energy at the Lowcountry Food Bank, a clearinghouse for donated food items that serves ten counties in coastal South Carolina. Working mainly in the Food Bank’s warehouse, SHL unpacked seven pallets of mixed food donations. After inspecting the donations for expiration dates and damage, the food was sorted into new boxes by category, sealed, and loaded onto pallets.

Not even foul weather can stop SHL members from volunteering! As part of their Adopt-a-Highway litter pick-up, SHL cleaned two miles of Harborview Road on James Island. Despite mud and rain, their ten volunteers collected twelve bags of trash. With their multiple methods of volunteerism and dedication to their community, SHL is a strong example of what great works an organized Beyond Belief Network team can achieve.

Team of the Month recognition is a benefit provided by Foundation Beyond Belief to our Beyond Belief Network teams. In order to be considered, your group must be a Level One Beyond Belief Network team and you must submit at least one event report during the month. Team of the Month selection is based on the number, length, variety, and documentation (e.g., submitted pictures, blog posts, videos, etc.) of events.

Teams can only be Team of the Month once per calendar year. If your local group does great service work, but isn’t a member of BBN, you can join anytime! In addition to recognition, your team can qualify for free t-shirts and grants. If your local humanist group doesn’t volunteer, but you’d like to start, we’d love to help! For teams new to secular service, we offer tons of ideas, event guides, and advice.

Congratulations to the Beyond Belief Network’s September Team of the Month, the Humanist Community of Ventura County. The Humanist Community of Ventura County was chosen for this honor because of the amazing volunteer activities they’ve been doing, and the great pictures and reports they’ve been submitting recently. This year, the Humanist Community of Ventura beautified a park and restored a wildlife area for the Ventura Hillside Conservancy, hosted a blood drive, and volunteered at the Conejo Valley Days Poker Tournament fundraiser. They’ve helped renovate an elderly woman’s house with Habitat for Humanity, cleaned out a classroom for a secular preschool program, and weeded, watered, and harvested vegetables at the California Lutheran University community garden.

Although they only joined Beyond Belief Network this summer, they’re already showing that they’re an experienced group of dedicated humanists. They’ve logged nearly 200 volunteer hours to date and have already told us about their upcoming Light The Night walk and community outreach at the Thousand Oaks Street Fair (if you live in the area, visit their booth at the fair).

As you can see, they take incredible pictures during their events!

Team of the Month recognition is the latest benefit provided by Foundation Beyond Belief to our Beyond Belief Network teams. In order to be considered, your group must be a Level One Beyond Belief Network team and you must submit at least one event report during the month. Team of the Month selection is based on the number, length, variety, and documentation (e.g., submitted pictures, blog posts, videos, etc.) of events.

Teams can only be Team of the Month once per calendar year. If your local group does great service work, but isn’t a member of BBN, you can join anytime! In addition to recognition, your team can qualify for free t-shirts and grants. If your local humanist group doesn’t volunteer, but you’d like to start, we’d love to help! For teams new to secular service, we offer tons of ideas, event guides, and advice.

By Kelley Freeman

The Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry are an active and great group based out of Charleston, South Carolina. They’ve been instrumental in helping start Camp Quest South Carolina, which had its first camp session last July—and is already full for this year’s camp session! Not only that, but they do a fantastic job of maintaining regular service activities.

So far this year, they have done two highway cleanups, volunteered at a pet shelter, collected and organized clothing at the Lowcountry Orphan Relief, and volunteered with the Palmetto House family shelter.

At the pet shelter, they cleaned cages and organized donated material, which the pet shelter most certainly appreciated.

When they worked at the Palmetto House family shelter, they managed to serve two meals, build a pergola, and paint a flower box. The pictures from before and after are pretty amazing. Good work, y’all, and keep it up!

Our international Light the Night team is a third of the way to our $1 million goal (including matching donations courtesy of team captain Todd Stiefel and his family) with a little less than two months to go in 2012. Many teams have started sending us pictures of their walks.

CFI Michigan raised almost $2,000 from individual donations, a kickoff event at McFadden’s restaurant, and a partnership with their local Culver’s restaurants. They walked on October 6 in Grand Rapids, MI.
 

The Chicago-Area Secular Student Alliance Group, consisting of affiliates from Loyola, DePaul, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago raised $1,255 and walked on October 20 in Chicago. 

Walking with the Chicago-Area SSA teams on October 20 was the Chicago-Area team, which raised $3,332.

Camp Quest and Humanist Community of Central Ohio raised nearly $1,200 from individual donations and walked on October 27 in Columbus, OH.

Secular Student Alliance National Staff raised more than $700 from individual donations and walked on October 27 in Columbus, OH.

Minnesota Atheists raised $700 and walked on September 23 in Minneapolis, MN.

CLU SSA & The Humanist Community Thousand Oaks raised more than $700 and walked on October 27 in Woodland Hills, CA.

Birmingham Temple beat their $2,000 goal by another $200 when they walked in Troy, MI, on September 22.

Secular Student Alliance at the University of Michigan raised $700 from a Send-an-Atheist-to-Church fundraiser and individual donations. They walked in Ann Arbor, MI, on September 29.

The Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island raised $2,500, beating their goal by 25% from team and individual donations. They walked on October 12 in East Meadow, NY.

Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation raised more than $1,600 from individual donations and walked on October 21 in Glenview, IL.

It’s not too late to donate! Don’t forget, donations are being matched up to $500,000 by the Stiefel family and support the incredibly good work being done by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Second-quarter education beneficiary the National Center for Science Education gave us this report about how they are using the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. NCSE was one of our first Encore Beneficiaries, having been our featured education charity in the second quarter of 2010. Members donated $3,630 to NCSE last quarter.

Evolution in the Balance
By Glenn Branch, Deputy Director, National Center for Science Education

In the seven-year period between February 2004 and February 2011, there were thirty-nine “academic freedom” antievolution bills introduced in state legislatures across the country. Seven years, whether fat or lean, and (not quite) forty bills—there’s something almost Biblical about the statistics.

And there’s something almost Biblical about the sponsors and supporters of these bills, too. These bills claim to be extending “academic freedom” to K–12 teachers in the public schools to teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution. But the true aim is to undermine the teaching of evolution—and to encourage the teaching of creationism.

• In New Mexico, the leader of the creationist group supporting House Bill 302 told a newspaper that evolution was a “dogma” pushed by “a priesthood whose underlying philosophy is scientific materialism.”
• In Tennessee, the chief lobbyist behind House Bill 368 and Senate Bill 893 insisted that those bills would allow teachers to recommend intelligent design as “a theory that many scientists are beginning to consider and hold.”
• In Oklahoma, the sponsor of Senate Bill 554 proclaimed that his bill would require “every publically funded Oklahoma school to teach the debate of creation vs. evolution.”

As the only national organization wholly dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools, the National Center for Science Education was tracking the “academic freedom” antievolution bills from the get-go.

But we’re not just tracking these bills. We’ve worked, and are working, with local groups to rally opposition to them. We’ve worked, and are working, with national scientific and education organizations to help to educate their members about the problems with “academic freedom” antievolution bills. And we’ve extensively discussed and documented the problems with them in publications for the general public and for the scientific community.

These bills are only the latest challenge to come down the pike, and we continue to defend the teaching of evolution whenever and wherever necessary. To do so, of course, we need the support of people concerned with the integrity of science education. We are thankful for the invaluable support of Foundation Beyond Belief and its members, whose generous donation will help NCSE prepare for the next onslaught of antievolution bills in 2012—likely to include a bill in the Tennessee senate and two bills in the New Hampshire legislature at the very least.

Roots & Wings International, our current Education beneficiary, continues to bring educational opportunities to the indigenous poor of Guatemala through university scholarships, computer literacy programs, and after-school tutoring.

Twelve-year-old Manuela Tambríz Chox participates in RWI’s computer literacy training and after-school tutoring program. In Guatemala, 60 percent of the population does not graduate from elementary school, so RWI has designed these programs to help children aged 5 to 11 remain in school and successfully complete elementary school.

Manuela’s father Manuel works as an agricultural laborer, while her mother María works in housekeeping. Although her parents earn less than US $2 per day, they have made the commitment to enroll Manuela in school with the hope that an education will provide their daughter with a more promising future. Manuela is a hard-working fifth-grader who aspires to be a doctor one day.

RWI includes a specific non-sectarian statement on its website: “Roots & Wings Int’l is not affiliated with any church or political organization, and we do not promote any religious or ideological perspective. Our goal is to encourage students to develop their own world view based in their own culture and life experience” — a perfect fit for Foundation Beyond Belief.

Learn more about RWI:

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In the HUMAN RIGHTS category for the first quarter of 2010, our members are supporting BERGEN COUNTY SANCTUARY COMMITTEE, a coalition of religious and nonreligious communities, human rights organizations, and affiliated groups and individuals who have joined together to provide humanitarian support and advocacy for political asylees.

Members, don’t forget that you can change your donation amount and distribution at any time by clicking on MANAGE YOUR ACCOUNT in the right sidebar. And help us choose the next beneficiary in HUMAN RIGHTS by adding your voice to the FBB Forums.

Thanks!

Lindsay Loken
Charitable Giving Coordinator