Success at VOICE Action Sunday 1/29

Twenty-six people from UUCR attended the VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) Dental Action on Sunday afternoon, January 29th. Thanks to each of you who participated! I am so proud of our congregation. Our very own Steve Ewart took to the stage at the high point of the action to ask State Senator Janet Howell and Sharon Bulova, Chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, to report back on their progress and make commitments to continue to work with VOICE to locate the remaining funding we need to match the $100,000 donation VOICE was given to fund a dentist at a clinic in Sterling for the next two years. Morris Kaplowitz and his wife, Boo, showed up early to help get people into seats and signed in, and Steve Whitfield represented our church at the roll call.

However, our support for this action began prior to Sunday. Steve Ewart, Myles Flint and Morris Kaplowitz attended the many meetings that brought this action to fruition. They met with Senator Howell to invite her to join in our efforts to secure funding, Steve and Morris attended a handful of leadership meetings with members from other houses of faith to plan the action, and Steve attended VOICE planning meetings last spring to discuss the need for dental care.

For those of us gathered, we got a glimpse into what is possible in OUR community when we build relationships beyond our church walls and join with people in other religious and civic institutions. We weren't in Woodbridge or Arlington, we were right here with people in our community. We committed to our local politicians that we would turn out 200 people for this action and instead 356 people showed up focused and concerned about the inability of many to afford dental care in Fairfax County. Over 200 of these people were some of our Spanish speaking neighbors who attend St. John Neumann.

We heard from a local woman who went to the emergency room for dental care. Without this emergency care, she shared that she would have died from the infection. We heard from Rev. Becca Messman, Associate Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian in Herndon, about a local man who pulled out four of his own molars when he could no longer stand the pain and he was not able to afford the dentist's bill. We all agreed Fairfax County can do better than this!

Thanks to all those at UUCR who helped make this happen. I am proud of the ways we showed up and showed our neighbors that we care about social justice in Reston and are willing to take action!

Yours in faith,

Rev. Erin

VOICE Success

Friends, V.O.I.C.E. had a great success today in Western Fairfax. Over 350 people from St. John Neumann, UU Reston, Trinity Presbyterian, and N. VA Hebrew COngregation, along with St. Thomas a Becket and a scattering of representation from V.O.I.C.E. congregations in Fairfax & Arlington (UUCF, UUCA, Fairfax Presbyterian & St. Mary of Sorrows were sighted!)  announced that V.O.I.C.E. has put some new power on the map in Western Fairfax County.

Leaders at St. John Neumann have led the effort since May to raise $200,000 to put a full-time dentist in the N. VA Dental CLinic in Sterling using private funds. They have worked with VOICE Dental Team leader Joe Pettit, and came into today's action with a $100,000 anonymous challenge grant, and $40,000 already pledged to match it.

GOOD LESSON:  Organized People, PLUS Organized Money delivered!!!

Today Sen. Janet Howell and Chairman Sharon Bulova brought in another $10,000 from INOVA and pledged their support to the effort. Congratulations to this broad-based group of mostly new leaders. St. John Neumann alone turned out over 200 people, many of them Spanish speaking and the entire action was bi-lingual with a talented team of translators from within the congregations. More to come but for now thanks to leaders from these congregations; they are leading the way in achieving the V.O.I.C.E. 2011 goals of MORE LOCAL ACTION to deliver on our V.O.I.C.E. agenda.

Kathleen O'Toole, Senior Organizer, V.O.I.C.E.

Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement, an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)  www.voice-iaf.org