News & Information
April started with Humanists Doing Good showing the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition. The documentary illustrated the massive funding and organizational efforts provided by the Mormon church to influence legislation in the state of California. The documentary made it very clear that the Mormon church was interested in banning same sex marriage and that there can be severe personal repercussions for people who find themselves on the wrong side of such legislation.

We next held our annual meeting/volunteer recognition and enjoyed a barbecue in the park. We went through our many achievements of the past year, looked ahead to our future, announced that we have received a grant from the American Humanist Association, handed out certificates to our volunteers, and spent some time enjoying everyone's company. The event proved to be a great way to break out of the winter hibernation.

HDG then participated in the Community Action Open House. This was an opportunity for us to connect with local organizations and members of the community to let everyone know more about us and to look for ways to collaborate. The event proved to be a great way to network with people and it was inspiring to see the good things that people in our community are doing to help others. We offered the opportunity for people to fund a good deed, which took the form of purchasing gifts for nursing home residents. People could fund a good deed at a nursing home for $10 and we are working to connect with local facilities to fill needs as best as we can. We are planning to deliver the gifts and meet with nursing home residents in the near future. If you are interested in helping purchase gifts, meeting with residents or would like to help us deliver them, please let us know. We are also interested in suggestions of particular people in nursing homes or particular nursing homes that might most benefit from the gifts.

For Earth Day, our volunteers participated in a roadside cleanup of our adopted section of the I-70 Business Loop west of Mesa Mall. It was clear that our past efforts to clean the roadside are having a positive impact, as we were able to clean 2.4 miles of roadway in two hours and there was much less waste to remove than during previous cleanups. Jason won the award for the trophy find of the day during the cleanup. Afterward, our band of volunteers went to the Ale House and had some great food and big laughs that even our waitress joined in on.

Our final event for the month was "UniversiBee" and it was a presentation and discussion on bees and their importance to our world. We learned about ways we can help bees in our local environment, how to identify bees, habits of bees, viewed hives, learned about the role bees play in our food chain and more.
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