Thursday, September 19, 2013

Good News from Franklin Federated Church

Hi Steve -

I thought you might be interested in including a piece in Franklin Matters about the new bench in front of Franklin Federated Church. There is an interesting story behind it.
 
Franklin Federated Church - Sidney Maxwell bench
Franklin Federated Church - Sidney Maxwell bench

Early in the year, the church lost a beloved member Sidney Maxwell.  Sidney was very wll known in the church for his calling to care for the environment, and after his death, The Rev. Charley Eastman challenged each member of the congregation to find "one substantive way to give health to the Earth in Sidney's honor."

A member of the church, Deb Colella, took him up on that and decided to sign the church up for the Trex Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge.The goal was for the church to collect more than 30,000 plastic bags for recycling in a six-month period from Feb. 15 to Aug. 15. This included grocery bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, packaging film,, etc. The idea was not to encourage church members to use plastic, but rather to show how much of it comes through our lives and how important it is to recycle it. 
Church members and friends brought the bags to worship each week, and delivered them to Colella, who with the help of family and friends counted and then recycle them all. The Sunday School children got involved counting them (and sometimes popping bubble wrap, much to their delight).The church beat its goal by one month, collecting over 30,000 bags by mid-July. 
Trex awarded the church the composite bench (made partially from recycled plastic) which was recently installed on the lawn in front of the church. 
I'm attaching a photo of the bench, although you may want to take a better one yourself when you are out and about.


Tiffany Vail Miller
Communication Coordinator
Franklin Federated Church


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