Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
Building community through compassion and reason for a better tomorrow.
Our President, Douglas Berger, will be hosting a workshop about speaking up for Humanism in public — from print to invocations. There will be three connected sessions starting on January 16, 2025 via Zoom.
The workshop is being put on by the American Humanists Association’s Center for Education
Seats are limited. To register and for more information visit
https://bit.ly/SpeakUpHumanists
This is not an official SHoWLE program.
One of our community outreaches we’ve done, really since SHoWLE was founded, is sponsoring a family through the Lucas County Children’s Services. They match us with a family and we donate gifts to help make their holiday season a merry one. Now through December 8th we are collecting gifts. Check out the details below.
Thank you to all the donors for another excellent gift drive. Here is the result of our work:
We intend to participate in 2025.
Our current service project is to host a free movie and pizza for kids at the West Toledo Branch Library each month. We have had good turn out each time, averaging about 20 kids and some caregivers. We would like to continue this project into 2025. If you can help fund the project please do.
Here is message from our President Douglas Berger:
The first place I lived when I moved to Toledo 8 years ago was on Lewis Avenue in the Five Points neighborhood. The nearest library branch was West Toledo in Library Village. This is a classic Tudor style building and is busy much of the time.
Our co-founder Shawn grew up in the Library Village area and wanted to do a service project that was focused on the kids in the area. This area is moderate to low income area and with that people have money at the beginning of the month and by the end of the month not so much. Shawn hatched the idea of showing a movie and offering free pizza and other snacks for the kids at the end of the month.
We show movies from the Disney library and provide Marco’s Pizza and other snacks like baby carrots and bananas. We don’t talk about Humanism or our group since that is what churches tend to do when having free kid activities — proselytize. We just want the kids to come to the basement auditorium, sit back, and have fun for a couple of hours.
Shawn and several of us have funded the project through September but now we need your help. It can cost up to $100 for each event and we would like to continue the project for a year. We would need at least $300 to finish 2024 and $1200 to cover the whole of 2025. We will be looking for additional sources of funding but we hope you can help now.
To Donate, use the link below:
It is that time of year for membership renewals. All memberships purchased a year ago expire on 09/30/2024. We hope that those who memberships need to be renewed will do so.
You can start the process on our Members page on the website. Login and on the Account overview page click on the renew box. Not sure how to login to our website? We made a handy dandy tutorial linked below:
You can renew or upgrade your membership from the Account Overview page. We also ask that if you can, check the Auto Renew box so it will automatically renew your membership next year giving you the peace of mind that it will be renewed without missing a beat.
Here is a list of members who need to renew. If you feel you shouldn’t be on the list, login and check your status and if you are still concerned reach out to President Doug and he will verify your expiration date.
You can also update your contact information and preferences on the Edit your profile page.
Any questions feel free to reach out.
When we do presentations to other groups about SHoWLE, we talk about three well known Toledo natives who are or were humanists. Until today we didn’t promote them on our website. That oversight is fixed.
Starting today you can find short bios about the three humanists from the Toledo area we talk about: Gloria Steinem, Edward Lamb, and Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
Each page gives a short biography, their connection to Humanism and we tried to add a quote that fits the Humanist philosophy.
We hope this is just a start of a bigger project so if you know of Toledo humanists who should be added, let us know through our contact form.
Click on the image to go to the page:
One of the big events I’ve wanted to have for the members and friends of SHoWLE was a winter solstice gathering. Many Humanist groups around the country have one and my former group in Columbus had a catered banquet each year in December. I would like to announce we will be having a Winter Solstice Potluck on Saturday December 21, 2024.
I initially had plans for a Winter Solstice Potluck to happen in 2020 and we know why we didn’t have one. Then after the pandemic subsided SHoWLE did struggle to get its feet back under it. I am confident that in 2024 we are at least at the place we were at the start of 2020.
The catered banquet was used as a fundraiser for my Columbus group but through the years the costs of the banquet wiped out any “profit” from selling tickets to the event and people had a certain expectation when the event is catered. You buy a ticket to a dinner and you expect table service and beverages etc….
I like a potluck setup better especially for a Humanist group who gather as a community to observe the solstice.
We also don’t have to sell you tickets to attend and that way we can have something else to fundraise off of like door prizes or a raffle. And I can assure you there will be plenty of opportunities.
A potluck also keeps the event open and inclusive to the community at large. That way you don’t need to spend $30 a plate for dinner. It also helps us “cater” to people with special diets either they have a medical issue or they choose to be vegan for example, a potluck is a better way to have food for every type of diet.
The Winter Solstice Potluck is tentatively scheduled for December 21 at the Yager Center at Swan Creek Metropark. In the fall we will have more details and dish sign-up list to try to avoid too much duplication. Other details will follow soon after.
I am excited to have this event even I was sweat in the heat and humidity of June.
Mark this on your calendar. You can keep up on details as we add them on the event page on our website
Humanist and feminist Gloria Steinem will be our keynote speaker. She will appear via Zoom to say a few words. SHoWLE is thrilled she agreed to speak
Thanks to our donors we have raised Gloria’s speaking fee
Starting today you can find a SHoWLE community server on the Discord platform. Participation is free and open to anyone who wants to participate but it does require an invitation.
You need to create an account on Discord. You will need to install the Discord app or use the browser version to access the group.
The good news the invites are free. A limited time one is with this post. If it is expired feel free to reach out to us and ask for an invite. If you are a member of SHoWLE you get a special invite and get a special role on the server.
This is just another social media platform to have some discussions and fun outside formal meetings. It is moderated and there are some rules for the group.
https://discord.gg/PTJTP8b6 (this link will expire after April 4, 2024. Just reach out to us for another if it is expired or check the social media links menu.
On Tuesday 3/19, Lucas county Judge Stacy Cook ruled that the Sylvania City School District bus transportation plan for students of non-public schools doesn’t violate Ohio law or constitution.
Back in 2022, a couple of families that send their children to a catholic school in Sylvania, filed a lawsuit because their children had to be picked up hours before their school started, transported with older students, then dropped off at a high school to transfer to another bus, to arrive at their catholic school. The parents thought it was unlawful and violated the equal protection and religious freedom clauses of the Ohio constitution.
From the ruling:
“The evidence submitted by plaintiffs consist of several affidavits by the parties and a nonparty spouse. These affidavits recite that they choose Catholic education because of their personal Catholic faith. The affidavits also recite the various inconveniences the Plaintiffs and their children face because of the District’s transportation scheme. However, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have offered no evidence of any coercive effects on their religious practice: there is no evidence that the transportation plan has compelled Plaintiffs to do anything forbidden by their religion or that it has caused them to refrain from doing something required by their religion. Plaintiffs have also not offered any evidence that the transportation plan has compelled them to affirm or disavow a belief forbidden or required by their religion. Accordingly, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate any coercive effect upon their religious practice. The Plaintiffs have therefore failed to show that Defendants’ transportation plan violates their right to free exercise of religion under the Ohio Constitution.
The Court finds against Plaintiffs as to their claim that Defendants’ transportation plan violates their right to free exercise of religion under the Ohio Constitution. Again, the presumption that a legislative act is constitutional applies to the Board’s transportation plan. With this presumption the Court finds in favor of Defendants as to Plaintiffs’ free exercise claim.”
JENNIFER A SWIECH, et. al., v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE SYLVANIA CITY SCHOOL DIST., et. al.,
Both parties had asked for a summary judgement since the facts in the case weren’t in dispute. In the original lawsuit the families asked the court for an injunction to order the school district to “fix” the transportation plan. Judge Cook said the court couldn’t do that, it could only rule if the district’s act was lawful and not unconstitutional.
The original lawsuit was dismissed by the parents on August 30, 2022. Parents refiled on September 16, 2022 and asked for class action status and removed all references to the 1st amendment to keep it out of Federal court. The class action was never certified.
A lawyer for the families, who was one of the plaintiffs when the lawsuit had been filed in August 2022 but dropped out in September of 2022, stated they were probably going to appeal the ruling.
Additional information on this story is in the Toledo Blade behind a paywall. Images of the article is below.
We cancelled the in-person part of the meeting on 1/13 and we took that action close to the time of the meeting leading several people to show up at the venue. We also address a concern about not wanting to use Zoom:
During our members meeting, I was asked about a Student rate for membership. I said at the time we didn’t have a formal student level but we would never turn away a potential member who couldn’t afford the current full membership dues.
Today I announce we now have a Student/Fixed Income membership level. On the Join page, scroll down for the link then when you get taken to the sign-up page one of the levels available at the bottom is for Students and those on fixed incomes.
People won’t need to ask for the special rate and will be able to select it when they sign up.
The change needs to be confirmed by the Board so assume that level has all the same benefits of the full price. If the lower amount is still too much we also accept volunteer time and donations in-kind (like sharing a skill or donating an item you aren’t using).
– Doug
President of SHoWLE