Programs & Events

News from the Kitchen

by Sherry Conklin, Community Kitchen Coordinator

After 2½ years of serving pre-packaged to-go meals, in October we switched our Community Meal to dine-in only. Our guests are very much enjoying the ability to sit inside and dine. Most arrive at 4:30 to sit, have some coffee, and warm up. The pantry, diaper program, and hygiene program are growing every month. We are seeing more and more homeless people as the code enforcement continues to close buildings and evict people.

Hygiene pantry supplies delivered as we stock up for the monthly hygiene product giveaway days, the 3rd Monday & Wednesday of each month.

On Monday morning, the products were shelved and ready to give to our guests.

And Wednesday night after the giveaway days, the cupboard is nearly bare again!

The meal has four new volunteers from the Raymond Corporation in Greene. These women have had drives at work and have donated cases of hygiene products, feminine products, and long underwear, socks, hats, and gloves. We are all so grateful to them for doing this as well as volunteering on Tuesday once a month for serving the meal. We are still looking for donations of men’s long underwear, coats and jackets, gloves, and hats if anyone would like to donate any of these items. And the pantry can always use lots of reusable grocery bags. I am so grateful to all the volunteers we have recruited locally, from the university, and from Greene.

In September, Sherry and Pastor Becky took part in Binghamton University’s Community & Civic Engagement fair. We were glad to recruit several students who signed up to volunteer for the pantry and the meal.

Improving air quality for our Pantry & Community Meal guests:

After worship on October 16, a group of about 10 of us built Corsi-Rosenthal boxes for the Tuesday meal waiting area and dining room. What are Corsi-Rosenthal boxes? We’re glad you asked! Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are unassuming (some might even say “janky”) cubes made of four or five filters and a box fan. They are as effective at cleaning air as they are aesthetically unappealing.

Once the airborne transmission of COVID-19 became evident, people started wearing masks and building managers rushed to upgrade their ventilation systems to include filters that would trap the virus. At United Presbyterian, we placed high-efficiency HEPA filter machines where people were gathering. A HEPA filter works by capturing virus-laden particles: Air is forced into a porous mat, contaminants are filtered out, and clean air passes through. The catch is that these are quite expensive and we had to keep moving them around and maintaining them.

Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to the rescue! Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are cubes consisting of four or five off-the-shelf furnace filters (rated MERV 13 or higher) topped by a standard box fan blowing outward. Once sealed together with tape, it can sit on a floor, shelf, or table. The fan draws air through the sides of the cube and out the top. The units are simple, durable and easy to make, and are about as effective as a HEPA filter and more effective than simply placing a single filter in front of a box fan. With minimal technical expertise, it took us about an hour to build six of them. The total cost was between $80 and $100 in materials that are available from any home supply store (we got our filters from www.texairfilters.com and our fans from Target).

If you are interested in making your own, we recommend following the instructions here, here, or — best of all — here.

Supporting Mexico–U.S. border ministry

by Dave Ruston

We sold over $500 worth of merchandise from our friends in Sasabe (Sonora, Mexico) and hope to continue to support the women’s sewing group there. We will have handbags and other crafts available for sale to support this important mission in the future. Dave and Greg will be supporting the Tucson Samaritans again from January to April. We look forward to visitors from Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York City, who will join us for a couple of weeks in February, and we would welcome anyone else who might want to share this experience with us. Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters making this dangerous journey along the borderlands.

Bill & Joyce show some of the items we’ve sold to support Casa de la Esperanza’s work.

We held a retreat in October where over a dozen folks from UPC joined Greg and Dave at their cabin in the hills of Harpursville to consider the challenges of global migration and how UPC can support those facing these challenges. We hope this can be an annual event and send out a heartfelt thank you to those who took the time to consider these issues and how we can help.

UPC’s “Zoom room”

Modern technology is marvelous! Thanks to the Zoom meetings system, we can gather virtually even when it’s difficult to be together in person. We’ve used our “Zoom room” for worship but also for prayer groups, book studies, hymn sings, and social times.

You can join our meetings and worship services online via your computer, tablet, or mobile device by going to https://upcbgm.org/zoom. If you’ve never used Zoom before, you’ll be prompted to download the Zoom meetings app, which will ask for permission to use your microphone and your camera. We use our “Personal Meeting ID” for worship and most of our programs, so they’re always in the same familiar place.

You can also call in over the phone, if you don’t have a microphone on your device or you can’t join online. To join as a phone, call dial 1-646-558-8656, then enter our Meeting ID: 865 274 8433 #

If you have questions or need help using Zoom, feel free to call the church office for assistance.

Bible Study

Mondays, 12:30–1:30pm, Chapel or Zoom room

During Advent, our Bible study group is looking at the stories found in Matthew and Luke with the help of The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. Dr. Crossan will be teaching a webinar using the book as his text, so we will have the opportunity to listen to his lectures as well as discuss the book.

We’d be delighted to have you join us for this brief study if you are interested, and will be glad to make more copies of the book available to any who are interested. The online class starts on Monday, November 28, and will continue for 4 weeks. Speak to Pastor Kimberly or Pastor Becky to join the fun!

Sewing Group: Wednesdays, 10am–1pm
(with Zoom lunch hour, 12pm–1pm)

by Cindy Chadwick

Ready, Set, Sew!

We’re not sure who counted them all, but statistics indicate there are between 9 and 11 million quilters in the country. Our bet is that very few have been together as a group for more than a half-century like the Wednesday Sewing Group! Gathering each week to craft crib- and lap-sized quilts for the community, the group also makes “carry bags” for use on walkers, mittens, hats, scarves, pillows, and more. In the past year, the group made more than 70 quilts.

Sunday, November 20 marked the annual “Blessing of the Quilts” in preparation for distribution to area organizations during the holiday season. Locally, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, the YWCA, the Relocation Assistance Program, and others receive the hand-crafted items. Hats, mittens, and scarves are also provided to our UPC food pantry, community meal, and lobby guests during the winter months.

The sanctuary was decked out with many colorful quilts as we blessed all the work of our congregation on Sunday, November 20.

Throughout the year, quilts are given to newborns in our church community and to others for special remembrances. UPC’s quilts even reached other places in the Northeast, with donations hand-delivered by Chris and Cindy Burger to Camp Sunshine, an organization based in the State of Maine which provides a retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Sewing Group member Nancy Walter began a new tradition this year of naming each quilt based on its color, theme, and individual personality. Soon, “Pretty Posies,” “Celestial,” “Creamsicle,” “Cookie Monster’s Birthday,” “Birds of Paradise,” “Porkchop,” and “Marsh Madness” (with lily pads and a cute frog pattern) among many others will find a home within the community. Most of the fabric used is generously donated by those who have an ample supply or no longer sew.

Sewing Group members Janet Hoover, Jean Hill, Ellen Hancock-Berti, and Ann Cobb.

The Sewing Group is interested in expanding, and encourages folks to join the fun on Wednesdays from 10am to 1pm in UPC’s Upper Lounge, second floor. At noon, it’s “needles down” for an hour of food, fellowship, and Zooming (for those unable to attend in person). Bring your own lunch; chips, pickles, tea, and cookies are provided. Please know that sewing skills aren’t a requirement as there are plenty of non-sewing jobs to do. If Wednesdays don’t fit your schedule, you can pick up a quilt to work on at home.

Sincere in its mission to provide warmth, comfort, and care to others, Sewing Group members gain much in return. As aptly said by Ann Cobb, a 50-plus-year member of the Sewing Group, “Where there is love, there is hope, and we love what we do.” Pardon the puns, but the cohesiveness of this group mends their souls and keeps them in stitches as they work to help others. Please join! Reach out to the church office if you’d like more information.

Zoom Happy hour: Friday evenings, 5–6pm

Bring your own beverage, “Zoom in”, and join the fun as we catch up on the events of the week and share how we’re doing. It’s a great way to keep in touch while it remains complicated to be together in person.

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