Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
Building community through compassion and reason for a better tomorrow.
September 24 @ 6:00 pm — 8:00 pm
Our Humanist Happy Time is a quarterly dinner date at the Fortune Inn restaurant. Join us at the big table for great Chinese food and merriment. RSVP below just to let us know you plan to attend.
Here is a link to find the restaurant’s menu:
https://fortuneinnrestaurant.com
July 25 @ 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm
We return to the West Toledo Library Branch Auditorium for a kids movie and FREE PIZZA and other snacks.
This free event is aimed at kids but we welcome families and care givers to join us as well.
The auditorium is in the basement.
August 8 @ 3:00 pm — 9:00 pm
Join us for a late summer social event as we have a bonfire at the Farnesworth Metropark. Bring a camp chair or other seat and bring snacks or treats you would like to share.
There is no formal program. This is just a time to relax and enjoy a social activity out in the country.
Farnsworth is south of Waterville on S. River Rd. Enter at the Farnesworth Boat Launch drive and jog to the right. We will be at Group Campsite #1
FREE and open to the public. This event is weather dependent so if it rains we may have to cancel.
September 13 @ 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm
Come out Sunday afternoon and meet Fish Stark, the Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. He will talk to us about the problem of Christian Nationalism and what we can do to address it in our community. He will also mention some the plans for the organization and projects they are working on. This will be followed by some questions and answers. We will have light refreshments.
Fish Stark is an organizer, educator, social entrepreneur, and lifelong humanist. Fish has spent his career turning big ideas into bold action in service of belonging, flourishing, and social justice for all people.
Prior to joining the AHA as Executive Director, Fish was the Head of Program + Curriculum at Legends, an educational technology startup, where he led research and implementation teams to create products that helped children build self-confidence, positive mental health, and critical thinking skills.
Previously, Fish served as the Director of Programs at Peace First, a global nonprofit that provides training and funding to youth social justice activists, where he led a global team of organizers who empowered thousands of youth grantees in 140+ countries to make lasting change in their communities, and worked with organizations such as the Red Cross and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation to develop youth leadership programs.
Fish’s other professional experiences include managing progressive political campaigns, leading a mentorship program in the West Virginia coalfields with the American Friends Service Committee, building a nationally recognized peer-to-peer bullying prevention program, and teaching students from pre-school to high school.
A self-proclaimed developmental psychology nerd who is passionate about giving everyone the tools to live lives of meaning, service, and self-determination, Fish holds a Master’s in Education with a concentration in child development and psychology from Harvard University, and a Bachelor’s from Yale University with a certificate in Education Studies. While at Yale, Fish served as a student board member of the Yale Humanist Community and received a Dean’s Prize for his work to build a stronger relationship between Yale and New Haven.
Fish lives in Annapolis, Maryland, where he is President of the Speaker Mike Busch District 30 Democratic Club, is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, and serves on several nonprofit boards. He moonlights as an award-winning stand-up comedian and has performed in 13 states.
This event is FREE and open to the public. We will pass a hat for donations to support SHoWLE and you will have to opportunity to join our group.
We now have a potluck sign up form for the picnic on June 21st. This just to avoid duplicate food but feel free to bring whatever you want to share.
SHoWLE will have a limited number of hamburgers and hot dogs as well has cold soda and water to drink and plates and utensils to use. Feel free to bring any games you want to share.
More information about the picnic can be found the events page.
The evening of December 21, 2024 was a magical night and I don’t even believe in magic. My group the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie held our first Winter Solstice event at the Yeager Center at Swan Creek Metropark. When planning the event I did want to have something special like a special speaker but our group is still pretty small. Our co-founder Shawn suggested inviting Gloria Steinem to speak over Zoom. Gloria is a feminist icon, 2012 Humanist of the Year, and grew-up in Toledo. I didn’t believe it would happen. This is Gloria Steinem, one of the most famous activists in the world and we are a lowly Humanist group in the Black Swamp of Northwest Ohio. But we tracked down her speaking contact and I sent an email.
The day I got the response was emotional — her people said she was considering our request. Holy S*it!!!! It might happen. I was so excited and then got more excited when we agreed on a speaking fee and signed the contract — It was going to happen.
25 people joined us on December 21. Several of them had donated to Gloria’s speaking fee and many more joined us to hear from Gloria. The food spread was so generous that we had to break out another table to hold it all. There were some adult beverages drank and coffee made and we were all having a good time.
As it came time for Gloria’s visit my 10 year old lap top decided to be difficult and it wasn’t going to boot up and be ready to go in time. Oh did I tell you the Yeager Center doesn’t have WI-FI?? I was preparing for a huge melt down because of tech issues. Shawn saved the day because in trying to play a music playlist from their phone to the TV we discovered they could screencast to the TV. When I couldn’t get my laptop fully booted up I used my phone to start the Zoom session and Shawn joined the meeting and hosted as originally planned. Then once we figured out to make it full screen the tech issue was gone and we enjoyed our short time talking to Gloria *Freaking* Steinem as she sat at her desk in her brownstone in New York City.
We had some questions prepared and took a few from the audience. One person asked if there were any younger political women she admired and she mentioned Amy Richards but what she did next blew my mind. She asked us who the up and coming political women in Toledo were and we called out some like Dr. Michelle Grim, Erika White, and Katie Moline and Gloria WROTE their names down. I hope she reaches out to them in some fashion. I wish we had some more names ready. Gloria still cares about her hometown even though she left before she graduated from high school.
As we closed she wished us well and hoped to stay in touch and Shawn told her if she was ever in the Toledo area to let us know and we would setup and event or something for her.
Shortly after the call, the potluck formally ended as we held the drawing for a large gift basket donated for the occasion. It was won by our member Colette C.
And I was able to make in home in time to catch the Ohio State football game against Tennessee which turned out great as the Buckeyes won.
Like I said it was a magical night and we are already talking about having a Summer Solstice event in the coming year.
Thanks to all our members and friends who attended and donated toward this potluck and made it a great success and I wanted to thank again the members of the Potluck committee for this six month odyssey — Shawn and Anne E. and our setup and clean up helpers Bev and her friend Anne B.
If you attended please feel free to send us feed back by email or use our contact form — let us know what you liked or didn’t like the event.
This post was written by SHoWLE President Douglas Berger
Here is a montage of the night:
Although due to the contract we signed, we were not able to record or livestream the visit, Zoom did provide a summary created by AI. After some light editing here is the summary:
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
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.