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Some resources as our community navigates the effects of the recent flooding:

• If you are looking to volunteer for disaster relief, please sign up here.
• ​​​​​​​If you need housing resources or you have damages to your property or vehicle, call 2-1-1.
• For a collection of the most current local resources visit the UWLC Flooding Resources page
• You can donate now to UWLC’s Flooding Relief Fund.

Dear JCOGS family,

On Tuesday, like hundreds of others in Morrisville, I walked down to the edges of the Oxbow park, the hub of summer activity for the community.  The Lamoille River was finally receding, yet still ravaging the park.  We all came to behold the power of Mother Nature in awe and terror.

Many of our members gather at the Oxbow weekly for the farmer’s market and music.  I have pushed my children on the swing set innumerable times, and played soccer with them in the fields.  

On the adjacent basketball court, I had never seen cement upended like that.  The community garden where many grow their fresh produce was completely gone.  I was already mourning the loss of this sacred community space, knowing it will be years with our town’s limited resources until it is as it was.

Two towns over in either direction, Johnson and Waterbury were underwater.  We won’t easily forget the images of Montpelier and Barre, among other Vermont towns.  Recovery will take a great deal of time, community effort, and resources.  

This week and this year, the climate crisis has come home to roost.  Recent flooding across Vermont, wildfire smoke from Canada, “unseasonably” warm winters for the past several years… the effects of climate change are upon us.  And they are devastating.  And it feels like just the beginning. 
 
Around midnight Tuesday night, Rev. Becca Girrell of the United Community Church of Morrisville wrote to some local community leaders: “What’s literally keeping me up at night tonight is the do not drink order.”  She was worried about the 30 (often unsheltered) people that were coming for their Breakfast on Us program, a program they run every weekday morning.  Thankfully, Hannafords had some water, and I bought eighteen 24-packs of water to bring over there.  Our own member and president of the Greater Stowe Interfaith Coalition, Patti Rubin, has been helping to spearhead water collection at their church’s “water library” where people take and give as needed.

Members are already out in the community volunteering and fundraising for the cause.  Our JCOGS lay leadership has been in contact with many in our community and it has been heartwarming to hear community members reaching out to each other.  We thank all of the road, police, EMS, fire departments, and regular citizens who have already done so much in this emergency.  Please sign up here to volunteer in the state.  And if your JCOGS community can do anything for you, reach out at 802-253-1800 or jcogs@jcogs.org.  

I end with a prayer:
Ribbono Shel Olam, Master of All Worlds, 
Hear our plea for support and aid.
Help us to ask for what we need 
and to work to relieve each other’s needs.
Bring us together to provide a safety net
for those most impacted and those most vulnerable.
Allow us the wisdom and courage
to uproot the self-made causes of these natural disasters.
Amen.

Tihiyu bri’im, may you be healthy and safe.  Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi David

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