Dedicated Offerings provide a way for our Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst community to recognize and financially support projects that reflect our guiding Unitarian-Universalist principles. One Sunday a month from September through May, we donate the proceeds from our collection basket to a worthy organization engaged in this work.

The Dedicated Offering’s recipient on September 30 will be the Picture Book Theatre, a local literacy project for children, founded by Therese Brady Donohue 10 years ago. Originally this puppet theatre brought to life the children’s books written by Eric Carle (e.g. The Hungry Caterpillar), but recently it has branched out to other local authors. This year the featured book will be The Littlest Matryoshka (Russian nested dolls) by Corinne Demas, with scenery and puppets by Donohue and adapted from the illustrations of Kathryn Brown. The Dedicated Offering will be used to provide two tickets and a book to about 20 children and a parent who otherwise would not be able to attend the puppet show.

Dedicated Offerings are suggested by both individuals and committees of the Society, and the program is managed by the Minister and the Dedicated Offering Committee. Our goal is to cover a wide range of areas of need in our area and in the larger world, including these categories: local, regional, national, international, environmental, medical, educational, animal rights, arts/music/culture, and different ages and genders. Forms for suggesting recipients are available in the Meetinghouse office.

Thank you for showing your support for the Dedicated Offering program, not only with your contributions to the DO recipients themselves, but also with your contributions to the Society on other Sundays when our budget counts on those receipts. Remember that no one is required to contribute to our Dedicated Offering recipients – this is a voluntary initiative.