CarePax -- Creative Service at its Finest

What do a small, Catholic bookstore, an inner city Episcopal church, a suburban Buddhist temple, a reform Jewish synagogue and a Muslim community center have in common?

Care for their neighbors - that's what.

Each of these institutions has agreed to host a CarePax barrel created at the Song and Spirit Institute for Peace in Berkley, MI. Each barrel contains at least 35 individually-packaged CarePax, which include a warm hat, gloves, hand and toe warmers, a pair of new socks, a snack and a list of metro Detroit area resources for the needy and homeless in the region. Those who visit any of the places above can pick up a CarePax to have in the back seat of their car when they come across someone standing roadside with a sign for help.

Items that fill the CarePax are donated by diverse individuals and groups throughout the tri-county area. Many of the warm items - including hats and scarves - have been made by hand. HatPax is one such item. This pattern for a simple, sewn fleece hat has been picked up by creative sewers all over town. Some people work on their own with scraps of fleece they have lying around. Others gather in groups, pool resources and make dozens of hats in one sitting!

A group from Troy, MI has gotten together twice to make HatPax. The first time they had a group of about ten friends, scissors, patterns, multiple sewing machines and a mound of bright-colored fleece. That first session provided more than 40 hats in one evening and everyone had a grand time. When one of the group members brought the hats over to the Outreach room at Song and Spirit, they noticed that there were big gaps on the shelves that held the dark colored hats and asked Bro. Al what that meant.

“Well,” he replied, “A lot of people who live on the street - or even just spend a lot of time walking around the streets at all hours - don't want to call attention to themselves. When we go to a shelter or do outreach directly to folks on the streets, we've discovered that - when given a choice - the majority choose darker colors like grey, black, brown, navy, or camouflage patterns. They seem to want to blend into their surroundings. It's a safety issue.”

Hmmmm….

The next time the group got together they had the same great time - making over 50 hats in the dark colors they now KNEW were most needed by the people they would serve! It was as if - somehow - knowing a little more about what the recipient really would like or would choose for themselves, was a great motivator for these creative volunteers.

Thanks to those who are acting as “the hands of God” among us, including Faith at Work Catholic Books & Gifts, Troy; Christ Church Detroit Episcopal; Midwest Meditation Center, Warren; Temple Emanu-El, Oak Park; Islamic Organization of North America (IONA), Warren; Wayne State University, Detroit; the Archdiocese of Detroit central office - and all those generous donors who make creating and caring for those in need such a rewarding occupation.

As we transition to “warm-weather” CarePax, the contents will change, but the need for creative compassion continues.

What's so important about having an Outreach program at the Song and Spirit Institute for Peace? We allow everyday people the opportunity to act as the hands of God - and they become people who make a difference in the world.

Blessing the Hands that Feed Us

One cold January day about three years ago, there was a knock at our side door.

“Is Brother Al here? Someone told me he might want to start a garden in that big field out there?”

We love giving people tours of the Song and Spirit Institute for Peace; but especially during growing season! By growing season I mean that wonderful time of year when our garden is in full swing! As I write, I know full well that Jim Greenwood, from the Neighborhood Garden Coalition, and his generous volunteers are only days away from beginning their work. They will turn the soil - preparing it to bear not only an abundance of organic delicacies, but providing us all with an elegant display of natural beauty!

We feel blessed to have such a garden on our property but, for certain, I know I’m not the only one!

You see, “Everyoneʼs Garden”--as it is called--benefits so many people beyond our little building. It offers a safe and creative environment for individuals of various backgrounds and religions to “rub shoulders” with one another. The Garden connects neighbors to each other and the benefits of eating locally grown food through the sale of Community Supported Agriculture shares. Every harvest day also provides much needed nourishment for local food banks and households otherwise unable to access fresh, healthy food. And, while all these things are good, there is another benefit the garden provides, one that I find particularly compelling. 

Every growing season some very special volunteers come to work in our garden on a regular basis. These individuals arrive with a variety of abilities and disabilities, some of which present particular challenges to engaging in activities like gardening. Well, at Everyoneʼs Garden, these neighbors of ours can “have at it” under the gentle and experienced guidance of both garden volunteers and attending counselors. Some of our visitors have come because they actually “started” some of the produce as seedlings in their classroom at the local high school. And, as always - there are creative experiences beyond the actual care of the Earth. No garden at Song and Spirit would be complete without art! Volunteers of all ages and abilities paint brightly-colored picket fences that line part of the perimeter and colorful raised garden boxes beckon those with walkers and wheelchairs - and make even these bleak winter months a bit cheerier.

Last Fall I happened upon a group of volunteers with disabilities as they headed home. While one young woman was having some difficulty making her way to the waiting van it did not prevent her from engaging in an animated and joy-filled conversation with the others about just how much the pumpkins had grown from the week before! She and her companions took great delight in an otherwise ordinary observation and looked forward to their return the next week.

As the van drove away and we waved good-bye to one another, I remember thinking to myself, if weʼve accomplished nothing else here at Song and Spirit this would be enough! (Dayeinu, indeed!)

I also remember thinking, I need to take more time checking out the pumpkins!

Br. Al

What’s so important about having a garden at the Song and Spirit Institute for Peace?  We provide people of all ages, ethnicities and abilities the opportunity to Care for God’s Creation. And they become people who make a difference in the world.

Soup's On!

It began (like many scathingly brilliant ideas) as a short conversation in the hallway at Song and Spirit. Bro. Al was carrying a large can of powdered chicken bouillon and stopped for a moment to talk about a new initiative he had in mind.

"Chicken soup for the hungry!" he said with great enthusiasm. 

 He continued, "A fellow I used to work with downtown found a recipe that uses canned chicken and chicken bouillon and we just have to add water, noodles and a little seasonings and we're good to go."

Hmmm... he'd lost us at 'canned chicken'....

"Don't we have friends at area synagogues who might want to pitch in to make"real" chicken soup? Who better to make chicken soup than our Jewish friends! All the Temples have such active Social Action committees and Teen Youth Groups - maybe they'd like to pitch in?"

Within hours, we had firm commitments from two area Temples with whom we had worked on many other projects. Both were delighted to find volunteers of all ages who wanted to participate in making homemade soups of all kinds to help their neighbors in need.

So nearly every week - for more than 4 months now - Song and Spirit picks up 5-gallon containers of hot, homemade soup made by volunteers at Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy and Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park. (A third Temple is coming on board soon!)

Outreach Coordinator, Greg Allen, works tirelessly with Bro. Al to deliver the huge, heavy pots to area shelters struggling to find enough to feed lunch to the many in our area who are in need.

And Greg never ceases to be amazed at the sincere gratitude of those he serves. "You know," he said after returning from a soup run on a frigid, winter afternoon, "All they had to offer for lunch today at the shelter was a single hotdog on a bun, and then we came in with five gallons of piping hot soup. Honestly, I don't know who was more excited - the people who got to serve the soup or the people who got to eat it."

He paused, thinking, "Then again - maybe it was ME!"

What's so important about having an Outreach program at the Song and Spirit Institute for Peace? We allow everyday people the opportunity to act as the hands of God - and they become people who make a difference in the world.

I AM... an Artist!

On any given day, the volunteers who create art in the Mosaic Studio at Song and Spirit might enter our work space in different ways - happy, anticipating a fun, creative experience, or preoccupied with worry about a sick friend or relative. They might come full of ideas or with little artistic motivation; embracing  a new project or pulling out one they've struggled with for several weeks. Some come in practically skipping(!), we've had others come during and after arduous cancer treatments, weak, but thrilled to see friends old and new.

And a few, like J., arrive with... nothing.

We were approached awhile back by a small nonprofit that assists young women who find themselves alone with an unplanned pregnancy. Might a few young ladies join our art tile volunteers for a morning or two each month while they await the birth of their babies?

And, that's how we met J.

She arrived a few weeks ago to a room full of strangers all laughing, snapping glass, discussing everything from the art in front of them to the news of the world. A very quiet 'hello' and a tour of the gift shop for inspiration and J. sat down to tackle an art form she'd known nothing about 15 minutes earlier.

She is an artist, choosing her colors carefully, afraid to make a mistake, but drawn by something she feels very deeply. When she sees her first effort grouted, buffed and polished - she sees a 6-inch square like every other piece in the room, but HER OWN in a way that is deeply important, even spiritual....  This first effort is given as a gift to her and she takes it back to the residence to share with the others - setting it in a place of honor where everyone can see.

She's back a week later - and selects a complicated Spanish tile image for her inspiration. Long-time volunteers have not tackled such a tile, but she was so excited to try that we didn't have the heart to suggest something else. She came back each week - for three weeks(!) - cutting tiny bits of glass, learning about contrast and color placement, growing more and more comfortable as an artist and, well, just as herself.

Finally, the last tiny piece of glass was dropped into place and the tile was put in a pile of others awaiting grout. Knowing how important this piece had become to its creator, at least six of us weighed in before we chose the grout color.... No one wanted to make a mistake....

J. arrived in the studio last Wednesday morning with two other young women in her program. She knows more people now - and took a few minutes to say hello. I was at my work table when I noticed someone coming toward me. I looked up to see J. - not the timid girl who had arrived a month ago, but a smiling - no, beaming(!) - confident, young woman who embraced me and cried out, "I AM an Artist! I am an ARTIST."

And, knowing that the sale of her tile would help support the mission and the people served by Song and Spirit touched J. in a way so deep, so powerful - the idea that she, who thought she had nothing to give - had something so precious to share after all....

What's so important about having an art program at the Song and Spirit Institute for Peace? We discover ARTISTS in everyday people - and they become people who make a difference in the world.