Our parent group has undergone several evolutionary steps. We first started about ten years ago by meeting before church once a month and discussing parenting issues, or we had speakers, like from Planned Parenthood. Since we had poor attendance, we decided to go for more of a social route. We started taking turns hosting a pot luck Friday night meal once a month. This garnered more interest and solidified us as a group. After a few of these, we branched out and did some Christmas caroling (for our shut-in members), family canoe trips, backyard, campouts, and game nights. We interspersed these between once-a-month Friday night suppers at church. Sometimes a pot luck, sometimes pizza or lasagna or whatever. After we fed the kids, we separated between the two sides of our RE area. Kids were cared for by paid babysitters. Sometimes an activity, sometimes a video was provided. During this time, the parents had a chance to either hear a presentation (once our school superintendent) or share parenting tips. Once we even did a two- or three-session course on consumerism.

For a few years, our parent group was a bit dormant. This year we have had some renewed interest. So, at a Friday night gathering in May, we planned out an activity each month for the year. Almost everyone has a different parent responsible (I consider myself the coordinator, because I can’t do it all). So far our calendar looks like this:

• July: watched city-sponsored fireworks on the 4th (parents and children)
• August: planned an overnight trip to include tubing down a river -- didn’t happen
• September: parents only saw a movie (foreign, not a mainstream one), snack/coffee after October: parents doing an all-church adult Halloween party (no kids, just costumes)
• November & December: may take a break, but we have some possibilities
• January: backyard campout for parents (this is Florida)
• February: wine-tasting for parents
• March: game night
• April: boat ride, probably weekend day
• May: picked produce from local farm for distribution to shelter, Saturday daytime