Unlike adult morning seminars, children’s RE, and youth programming where you commit for the week, afternoons at SI are more “come and go as you please.” You don’t sign up for these workshops but enjoy the offerings, or exercise, (or nap!) as the spirit moves you. Early afternoon workshops are from 1:30 to 3 each afternoon. They are intergenerational and designed to be experienced by families together. Please remember to be responsible for your children during that time. Late afternoon workshops are from 3:15 to 4:45 and are age specific.
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Children’s Choir (12:45 to 1:25)
Joe Schafer
SI Children’s Choir is back for the eighth year. The choir offers children the opportunity to have fun with music while singing about our UU values. Director Joe Schafer has led the West Shore UU Church Junior Choir for over 25 years. He will bring back the songs from the SI choir’s first seven years, and add a couple of new ones as well. The songs are easy to sing, there are no words to memorize, and all kids are welcome and encouraged to join us, starting at 12:45. (Please be prompt in picking up your little one at 1:25.)
Early Afternoon Workshops (1:30– 3:00)
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Dance: Tall and Small
Susan English
This gender-free old-time community dance pairs young people (ages 6 and older) with teenage and adult partners. We will dance to lively jigs and reels in big circles, longways sets, squares and other formations. Together we will build an intergenerational community through music and movement. The goal is for everyone to feel empowered and energized.
Susan English taught her first dance class on a rooftop in China in 1980. She uses music and dance to build cooperative teamwork and a strong sense of community. -
Water Kickball
Joey Marfy
Similar to last year’s kickball workshop, which contained various games of kickball, but with one new component. The playing field will be scattered with sprinklers and hoses. It’s sure to be a wet and wild time!
Joey Marfy is a youth who has been attending SI for 11 years now. He is fun loving and easy going. -
Body Art
Jane Dirks
Summer Institute is a place where you can stretch your soul…so how about your style, too? Come to Body Art for a new tattoo, a hair wrap, sparkly nails, or purple hair: it’s all temporary! This year at Body Art we will offer mini-courses on hair wrapping, body painting, and more. All are welcome; remember, kids: caregivers WANT you to paint on them!
Jane is an anthropologist, a member of Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church in Pittsburgh, and a long-time SI Body Artist. Jane views SI more as a vision quest than a vacation, and finds that it gives her new answers to Life’s questions every year. -
Art Space and Duct Tape
Lauryn Straubhaar, Alexandra Cottoms & Sara Beech
Art Space is an SI tradition. This year we will continue to grow and continue that tradition! We will once again feature a craft of the day for both adults and kids to encourage the entire community to get involved and show off their artistic side. We will also focus heavily on repurposing everyday items into fun new things. Come and join us for a week of art-filled fun!
Today’s Duct Tape has many more use then just use the tape to repair things At the work shop you can make a wallet, jewelry shopping bag, flowers, and many more items. Come to the Duct Tape work shop and learn how you can make things with all cans of colors and pattern out of Duct tape. Your imagination is the sky when using duct tape so please brings your ideas to the work shop.
Lauryn is a member of the Kent church and a long time SI goer. She owns her own henna business and loves art of any kind. Ali is a member of the UU Church of South Hills and is also a long time SI goer. She is currently getting her masters degree in science education so she can become a teacher.
Sara Beech has been making things with Duct Tape for years and has been a big crafter for many years with Duct Tape.
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Poetry for a Summer Day
Dean Hazelton
This is workshop in reading and appreciating poetry (not writing poetry). We will read aloud and discuss poems on a variety of topics, probably including nature, love and loss, poetry and art, and poetry about poetry. We will probably spend a day discussing the poetry of Seamus Heaney, who died recently.
Dean is not an academic. He has led a poetry group at the UU Church of the South Hills for about 10 years. He believes that great poems are the best teachers, and we can learn best from each other. -
Dungeons and Dragons
Jon Bores & Reid Parsons
Enter a world of pencil smudges and eraser dust. A world of kingdoms, and those who would overthrow them. A world of dice and coins. A world of heroes… and villains. D&D is a what’s known as a Role-Playing game, directed by a game-master and governed by dice. Players take the role of an Adventurer, with their own backstory and desires, paving their way into a grand tale, as the Dungeon Master pulls the strings from behind the scenes. Players of all skill levels are welcome. Some materials will be provided, but anything players can bring for themselves will help things along. Most campaigns will be playing version 3.0 or 3.5.
Reid Parsons and John Bores have been attending the D&D workshop and running D&D Campaigns for the past five years, and look foreword to hosting this years workshop! -
Ready, Set, Go
Conni & Steve Wagner
Calling all kids ages 5 to 11 to play! Bring your wiggles, fun ideas and a bathing suit (or clothes that can get wet) and a towel. We will be doing all kinds of fun things with water in addition to games, building forts on the lawn and running around as much as possible! Parents are welcome and encouraged to participate!
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Tie Dye
Lexi Staples & Nicole Hayman
Tie-Dying has been a Summer Institute tradition for as long as most of us can remember and this year the tradition continues. We will be ready for the projects you bring along and be set up for some new projects you may not expect! The Tie-dye Workshop and its trusty volunteers will help you create your individual wearable art. Let’s Twist, Tie + Dye. And Un-Dye! Bring your favorite colored shirts to make a positive or negative image and rock your SI pride! This year’s Tie-Dying just got that much cooler! And we have a couple new tricks up our sleeves so pay attention to announcements for extra exciting activities!
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Play with Me! Art and Whimsy for Caregivers and Kids
Colleen Thoele
This workshop will feature a new art project for each day at SI designed for adults and children to do together. We will be using many forms of media and exploring our lives through art. Take this opportunity to connect with the young ones in your life through play. You might be surprised at how much fun it is to just create together. Bring the kids you came with, bring other people’s kids or come on in and adopt a kid for the day. All ages encouraged. Colleen Thoele is a child advocate, mom of two small UU’s and the religious education assistant at UUCK. Mostly though she just really enjoys spending quality time with the next generation and showing adults how much fun it is to slow down and create art with kids.
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Folk Orchestra
Pat Lorei
folk (fok) n. 1.An ethnic group, as a tribe or nation. orchestra (or ki stra) n. 1. A large group of musicians performing together on various instruments. The SI tribe of instrumental musicians will gather in late afternoon to make ready some sounds supportive of adult vespers services (and maybe a morning worship service as well).
Suggested for tribal participation: 1. having an instrument 2. playing of aforementioned instrument 3. music reading ability about middle school level. Leader (hereafter known as “mediator”) will really, really try to keep music in the F-C-G neighborhood.
Late Afternoon Workshops (3:15—4:45)
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Beer Hunting
Cal Frye
There are many craft brewers just in the Ohio-Meadville district. This year the Beer Workshop tours the CER and beyond. We’ll sample beers, talk about styles, and help you navigate the strange notations seen on the chalkboard at your local brewpub.
Cal Frye is “the Beer Guy at SI.”
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Deep Water Exercise
Amy Collins
Make a splash at SI as you stay cool and get fit while enjoying exercise in the pool. You won’t even know you’re sweating! We will be in the deep end of the pool, using a variety of pool exercise equipment including hand weights and “noodles”. Good for a range of fitness levels, but must be able to climb out of the pool using the ladder in the deep end, as there is usually no access to the shallow end of the pool!
Amy Collins is the Commissioned Lay Leader at the UU Society of Cleveland, and teaches water aerobics classes at her local YMCA.
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Fiber Action Network
Mary Spicer
Crochet hooks and knitting needles become implements of barrier destruction as we develop and sharpen skills in the needle arts. All skill levels — including beginners! — are welcome in circle. Patterns, ideas and basic supplies for single-skein creations for fund-raising or donation will be available.
Mary is a member of the UU Church of Meadville who started her career as a fiber artist the day she joined a 4-H knitting club as a fifth-grader.
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Lego, Lettuce, and Fun: Take 2
Gavin VanWinkle-Bright
Legos Lettuce & Fun offers time to be creative and exploring your building and creative energies. Come and build with legos, zoobs and more. You supply the creativity, we will supply the building blocks. No need to bring your own Lettuce — it is included in the workshop!
Gavin is an avid SI-er involved in creative arts, including music, drama, duct tape, Dungeons and Dragons and more. He enjoys interacting with folks of all ages and creative abilities.”
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An Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation and Movement
Karen Jepsen
Are you always rushing from one thing to the next? Misplacing your keys? Dropping simple items? Is your mind 3 steps ahead of your body? Come learn from Happy Panda how to be a Mindful Monkey. “Mind-full, like your mind is full of the present, full of right now.” (Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda, Lauren Alderfer, 2011) Karen will introduce the concept of mindfulness through movement, demonstration and engaging activities such as mindful eating. Mindfulness has proven to be beneficial in many areas, including stress management, schoolwork and the ability to focus. Come see for yourself and give your “monkey mind” a rest! Appropriate for ages 10ish and older. Will reference Thich Nhat Hanh’s Mindful Movements: Ten Exercises for Well-Being (2008) …
Karen Abel Jepsen could never decide what she wanted to be when she grew up because there were just too many fascinating things to try! Join her on this latest adventure….
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Ultimate Frisbee
Seth Sykora-Bodie & Ryan Haker
Seth and Ryan have been running the Ultimate Frisbee workshop for a lot of years between them. It is their favorite part of SI and they love getting to interact with all of the youth, young adults, and adults that come on out for the games. They are really into the whole intergenerational aspect of ultimate and get a kick out of how it brings down to the fields people who have never ever played, just to watch and enjoy the spectacle. This is one of if not the, most popular workshops at SI with around forty participants a day, so make sure not to miss out!
Seth and Ryan have been playing ultimate for years, first learning at SI and eventually leading the workshop after honing their skills around the world. When they’re not tossing a disc in Ohio, you’ll most likely find them doing so on beaches in the Caribbean and Hawaii where they like to get discs flying!
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S. I. Choir
Hal Walker
This year promises to be the SI choir’s best year ever! Hal Walker has been busy writing, arranging and seeking SI friendly choir music. This is not your average church choir. This is SI choir 2014! After years of building together, we are ready to blast the roof off * Hall with our sonic beauty! We are ready to bring summer camp choral music to a whole ‘nother dimension. We rehearse twice daily, at 7:45am and during late afternoon workshops. If this interests you, please show up on Monday morning at 7:45 am. If this seems too early, go buy yourself a good alarm clock and be ready to come alive. “Unleash the Beauty! We are SI CHOIR 2014!”
Music director at the UU church of Kent, Hal Walker returns to Summer Institute for his 17th year of music leadership. Hal recently stated, “If there’s such a thing as Learning New Things Anonymous, I’m definitely a candidate.”
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Theme Talk Back
Rabbi David Horowitz
Delve more deeply into a discussion about the topic of the day with our theme speaker, Rabbi David Horowitz