Category: Outreach

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Having A Blast At Skepticon

This week­end I am attend­ing Skepticon 11 in St. Louis, MO with Shawn and Peggy. Skepticon is a free con­ven­tion for sec­u­lars and skep­tics.

Shawn and I are hav­ing a good time, meet­ing new peo­ple, get­ting new ideas, and com­muning with peo­ple who have sim­i­lar world views as we do.

I’ve learned how to make an awe­some pod­cast and how to per­suade peo­ple on issues I think are impor­tant. I also learned about the reli­gious right’s effort to have spe­cial laws passed in state leg­is­la­tures through their Project Blitz ini­tia­tive. Did you know Ohio has a chap­ter of the Prayer Caucus? It lob­bies state leg­is­la­tors in Columbus.

Shawn and I are bring­ing back meet­ing and event ideas for the com­ing year.

The only mis­step to this year’s con­fer­ence is it being sched­uled dur­ing the 5th Anniversary of the death of Michael Brown. He was shot and killed by a white police offi­cer just 10 miles away in Ferguson. Until one of the talks this evening, Skepticon made no effort to acknowl­edge the event. I hope they do bet­ter next time in mak­ing sure there are no con­flicts like that or at least ded­i­cate some time to mark­ing those kinds of tragedies.

Shawn walked around the area where our hotel is locat­ed and men­tioned to me she saw a lot of home­less peo­ple. It made me con­sid­er that a con­ven­tion like Skepticon should include a com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice project so par­tic­i­pants expe­ri­ence life out­side the hotel.

I do want to attend anoth­er Skepticon in the future. This type of con­ven­tion is need­ed by peo­ple in our com­mu­ni­ty.

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Berger Spoke At Lights4Liberty Vigil

On Friday evening, July 12th, at Levis Square in down­town Toledo, the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie (SHoWLE) co-sponsored the Lights For Liberty vig­il to End Human Concentration Camps.

Lights for Liberty part­nered with inter­na­tion­al, nation­al, region­al and local com­mu­ni­ties and orga­ni­za­tions who believe that human rights are fun­da­men­tal rights, are not nego­tiable, and are will­ing to pro­tect them.

President Douglas Berger was one of sev­er­al speak­ers, at the event in Levis square, who high­light­ed the human rights issue with the immi­gra­tion deten­tion camps set­up around the coun­try.

Continue read­ing “Berger Spoke At Lights4Liberty Vigil”
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Our Pride Booth Introduced The Group To Many New People

Our booth at Toledo Pride festival

SHoWLE had our first infor­ma­tion­al booth at the Toledo Pride Festival on August 18th. Doug, Shawn, Margarette, and Larry had over 50 peo­ple show inter­est in the group.

It was a beau­ti­ful day with a large crowd vis­it­ing all the booths in Promenade Park in Downtown Toledo.

“Having a booth takes a lot of time and effort to pull off,” SHoWLE President Doug Berger explained. “For our first time, we did a great job. I have a lot ideas on how to improve our booth for the future.”

If you be inter­est­ed in help­ing staff our booth at oth­er events let Doug or Shawn know.

Here for Good 2025: [Buy a T-shirt and Support SHoWLE](https://www.jupmodesupply.com/products/secular-humanists-of-western-lake-erie-here-for-good-2025)
Here for Good 2025: [Buy a T-shirt and Support SHoWLE](https://www.jupmodesupply.com/products/secular-humanists-of-western-lake-erie-here-for-good-2025)