May 10, 2007
(from our May, 07 PTFM Newsletter)
Port Townsend Friends who attended our Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting last month were delighted with the warm reception Freda, our Peace Dove, received. As in past gatherings, she sat just outside the dinning hall greeting all who came to meals or Meetings for Worship.
But Saturday afternoon’s Meeting for Business, where we offered her to visit other Meetings in the Quarter, was the highlight for all of us. Friend Clint read her lighthearted letter of introduction from our clerk, Hazel Johnson, to some sixty gathered Friends…to the sounds of chuckles and outright laughter throughout. (Reprinted in May's newsletter.)
Immediately, Nora Percival, PNQM Children’s Program Coordinator (and Seattle Friend) volunteered to transport her back to Puget Sound, assuring us she had plenty of room to “take Freda under my wing” since all of the kiddy snacks she’d hauled out to Quarterly would be long gone. Then, there was Judith Clark, of Sandpoint Friends Mtg., who quickly put in a bid for her…saying that they’d love to have her in Idaho after the Fall Quarterly.
Ultimately, though, it was Don Goldstein who took her home to his place in the Methow Valley. Don is an isolated Friend who will be participating in the five-mile “Mother’s Day Walk for Peace” from Oroville, WA to the Canadian border. There, Freda will be among such noted peace activists as Cindy Sheehan, mother of a son lost in the Iraq war, and the Olympia, WA parents of Rachel Cory, the young peace activist killed by military bulldozers in the Palestinian territories.
From this peace march, Freda travels back to the coast with Don to Seattle area and Eastside Friends Meeting. Their clerk, Elaine Webster, tells us that her Meeting is full of ideas of how to include her in their many community activities…including a late June Compassionate Listing Project for Peacemakers and an Autumnal Equinox festival they host yearly.
All in all, it was a grand send off for Freda’s new adventures. In the words of Don Goldstein, “Freda has laid a egg!” Well…maybe a golden egg?
Here's looking forward to future postings about our Friend Freda's adventures!
--Beth Cahape, PT Friends Mtg. Newsletter Ed.
