Crook County’s summer “vacation”‏

Every summer we see several human dignity groups take the opportunity slow down, recharge, and do what they need to keep their families happy and healthy, from camping to gardening to canning.  During these slower moments, many groups consider ways they can remain active and visible in their communities, and here is a great examples from Human Dignity Advocates in Crook County!  Read all about what they did while they were “on a break” this summer below, and don’t forget to let ROP know what your group was up to during those summer months!

HDA Pie in the Park

The Human Dignity Advocates Update

From Kathy Paterno, HDA member
The Human Dignity Advocates (HDA) decided to relax and take a break this past summer.  How did that work out for us?  We found ourselves showing up all over the place!  We thought HDA was all about politics, but it turns out we’re really all about pie!  “Pie in the Park” that is.

We thought we might get some visibility in the community if we showed up at the kickoff of Prineville’s summer music series. So everybody baked pies (and cakes and cookies).  We set up a booth, decorated it with our HDA banner and posters of our activities, pulled up our lawn chairs and enjoyed the music.  Oh yes, and we gave away our yummy goodies – for a small $1 donation.

Our handyman Ken built easels to display our good works as designed by Barb.  Kim brought and set up her Farmer’s Market tent.  Laquita brought latex gloves (a nice touch) and ice water for thirsty people.   Denise (in her apron) and Bill danced to the music.  Steve bought us pizza!  (We found that you can’t live on pie alone.)  And we all used our baking talents (you really must try Gary’s peanut butter pie!)
HDA Scare CrowSome people paid a dollar and some people paid $10!  Before we knew it, our delicious giveaways brought in 80 bucks!  We had a great time, and as we were packing up, everybody agreed, “Hey, that was easy, let’s do it again!”

“Pie In The Park” (not “pie in the sky” as Margret likes to call it) and HDA made three more appearances through the summer and netted nearly $400!

Along with all that fun, HDA decided to test our creativity by entering a scarecrow (on the left) in the Crook County Fair scarecrow competition.  We created a “down and out neighbor” to highlight the ever-present issues of poverty and homelessness in our community.  Also a fundraiser-on-the-sly, our “down and out” scarecrow was generously given $8.35 by fair-goers.All in all, HDA’s “break” turned out to be a time to recharge by foregoing some of the heavier planning and meetings, but staying connected and visible in the community through fun summer activities.  It was a very worthwhile “summer break!”
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