Five projects received funding for activities which took place between July - December 2002. 

Obon, August 10, 2002
This event, which the Blue Mountain Lotus Society is organizing, is a celebration of the Japanese Obon festival, which honors family and universal peace and harmony. The festival was held at the Fort Hunter Centennial Barn Conference Center and outdoor picnic and stage area from 3-7 p.m. It included drumming, story-telling, children’s activities, and arts demonstrations. Bon dancing, where dancers enact events from their lives through the dance-song, entertained both children and adults. The activities and artistic traditions of various cultural communities living in the Harrisburg area were also a part of the Obon festivities. A Zenga, Zen painting, participatory worshop was led by the Blue Mountain Lotus Society’s Virginia Cohen Parkum.

The Blue Mountain Lotus Society is a non-profit organization, founded in 2000, that is devoted to presenting the universal teachings of the Buddha and to fully participate in the Harrisburg area community through community service, education, and the arts. These services include low-cost/no-cost counseling to families and individuals, anger management for youth, and arts-related presentations to children and adults. All of these services are open to the community.

Interfaith Center of Greater Harrisburg
Cynthia Mara started this center after September 11th in response to the heightened awareness in the community of the need for people of different faiths to relate to each other from a standpoint of understanding and respect. The Interfaith Center holds monthly gatherings and every other month the focus of the gathering is on a specific faith. Each faith is presented through and “interactive introduction,” which includes not only presentations by members of that faith, but also an emphasis on question and answer. On the alternate months, the Interfaith Center holds interfaith services that are meant to appeal to people of all faiths. The time for socialization following the services and introductions provide an opportunity for members of many different faiths to get to know each other as people, which is an important step to understanding.

Unitarian Church/Program for Female Offenders
The Unitarian Church of Harrisburg along with other area churches, are working together on a social action project involving female in the criminal justice system. The specific project is the creation of a garden on a small plot located behind the Community Center of the PROGRAM for Female Offenders, Inc. The planning and creation of the garden will be done by church members along with PROGRAM staff and interested women served by the PROGRAM. Work to maintain the garden will continue for several years.

The Unitarian Church of Harrisburg started in 1928 with the principles of self-governance and freedom of individual belief. Action for social justice has always been important to the Church and many members are involved in social action. This year the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg has approved an all-church social action project, Applied Prison Reform for Women in Prison, through a congregational vote.

PA Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Network -- Cookbook Kickoff and Reception
The PA Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Network has spent several months planning a cookbook of traditional recipes and personal stories about each recipe. The cookbook serves to highlight the importance of the contributions women make to their families and communities by paying attention to the traditionally women’s domain of cooking. It also is a method to share the traditions of different cultures through food and stories. The kickoff of the PA Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Network cookbook will bring the community together to introduce to each other ethnic foods and explore each other’s cultures, as well as celebrate a project that the community worked hard to complete.

The PA Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Network was founded in May 2001 by Ho-Thanh Nguyen. The Network brought together monthly ten women from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds living in the Greater Harrisburg Area, with the purpose of assisting these women in becoming leaders in their own communities. The mission of the Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Network is to educate, refer, network, and empower women within immigrant and refugee communities so that they can help strengthen their own communities, which will allow those strong communities to contribute the larger society.

Rhythm Station and Drum Circles
Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason along with the Tri-County Association for the Blind, the Posey Child Development Center, and the Steelton Senior Center will start a traveling Rhythm station; an interactive drumming station of youth of all ages. The youth will learn drumming/percussion and about rhythm and then present this Rhythm Station and drumming circle for a local senior center and childcare center. The program will also have a drumming session with poetry and a radio program recording with drums and poetry for the blind through the Tri-County Association for the Blind.

Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason was founded in January 2000. It is an arts-based youth group with the goal of promoting self-confidence, leadership skills, teamwork and public speaking through training programs, mentoring sessions and performance programs, including workshops of public speaking, poetry, dance and drum. The youth showcase what they have learned through performances of hand drumming, poetry, song and dance. Rhythm, Rhyme, and Reason also has a performance troupe that has traveled throughout Pennsylvania.

The Tri-County Association for the Blind is an organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for those who are visually impaired in the Tri-County region by helping each person achieve his or her full potential and maximum independence. The Association also provides prevention of blindness services to the public.