We’ve just wrapped up Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light’s Harvest Hoopla Tour! After three months, six cities, seven events, over 120 attendees, and almost $12,000 dollars raised, all of us at Earth Ministry/WAIPL have full hearts. We started this tour with several goals in mind:
Community Building
As some of our first in-person events since the beginning of the 2020 global pandemic, we wanted opportunities to reconnect with our community and for our community to get reacquainted with us. Additionally, the past two years have come with several staffing transitions for Earth Ministry/WAIPL. Long-time Executive Director, LeeAnne Beres concluded her official work with us. Multifaith Program Manager, Keah Calluccie, started and is helping us more faithfully live into our multifaith commitments through programming and outreach. Just this past May, I joined the staff and am still excited for the ways I can support the good work that has already been done and the good work that is coming. We were excited to meet all of you who were able to attend an in-person gathering or the virtual event and we look forward to continuing to develop collaborative partnerships across the state.
Celebration and Joy
We also set out on this state tour with hopes of building capacity for joy and celebration. So much of the work we do as environmental justice advocates is shaped by the realities of what is wrong, what needs to be changed for a vision of a healthy and sustainable world to come to fruition. While it is important to acknowledge what needs to be addressed, finding joy in community, in the trees, in creatures, helps buoy our resilience. At each gathering, we found that joy and celebration is alive and well. You all delight in one another and I have hope from hearing all your stories about the possibilities that are to come.
Fundraising for Our Collective Work
Our final goal was to raise money for our continued and collective work. The work of building capacity across our beautiful state, across traditions and communities, emphasizing shared common values, takes resources. Earth Ministry/WAIPL is a faithful steward of the resources you all contribute and we will continue to be. As we look to the future, we need your continued support to assist in making our mission come to life. Donations, regardless of the size, help us to continue showing up in your faith communities with education and support, promoting and publicizing common value advocacy measures, showing up in collation spaces as advocates for environmental justices, and so much more.
Make a gift to Earth Ministry/WAIPL today to help us reach our $15,000 Hoopla fundraising goal!
