Blog

"Big Why" Fall Lecture Series: Enriching Our Lives by Facing Some of Life & Our Community's Big Questions

By Rev. Melanie Nord on October 3, 2025

We are excited to announce our fall Lecture Series. With the success of our spring “Leading through the Valley” Lenten Lecture Series, we are excited to carry the momentum into the fall. Our fall...

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Finding Meaning: Outdoor Encounters

By Nathan Bolls on October 2, 2025

The Bushman people of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa speak of two hungers: the Small Hunger of finding food and the Great Hunger of finding meaning in life. From what I’ve read and heard, it...

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Outdoor Encounters: Seeing Beyond

By Nathan Bolls on August 7, 2025

One June day a few summers ago, I saw something beautiful, something profound, something too rarely practiced, something whose ramifications are too rarely considered. I did not see the ultimate...

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Supporting Life, One Wing at a Time: Native Prairie Butterfly Gardens & Monarch Waystation Comes to Meadowlark's Trail

July 17, 2025

The Outdoor Committee is proud to announce the establishment of a Native Prairie Butterfly Garden & Monarch Waystation along the Meadowlarks walking trail. This vibrant pollinator haven is...

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Speedy PD Race for Parkinson's Disease: 17th Annual Event

By Sarah Duggan on July 11, 2025

The 17th annual Speedy PD Race for Parkinson’s Disease is Saturday, Aug. 23, at Tuttle Creek State Park. The race features a Half-Mile Walk/Run, Don Rasmussen 5K, and a 10K race. This year, we are...

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Independence Day in Chicago Long Ago

By Nancy Kopp on July 4, 2025

Come back with me to the1940s era in Chicago. During the first few days of July, my younger brothers and I walked to the neighborhood Woolworth’s store to buy a very important item for our Fourth of...

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Became a Mule Whacker & Drove On: Tales from My Grandfather

July 3, 2025

by Noel Stanton My grandfather Fred Sheldon drove things for a living. At age 17, he was already driving a horse trolley through the streets of Oneonta, a small city in upstate New York. When the U....

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Tending a Garden: Outdoor Encounters

By Nathan Bolls on July 3, 2025

Always honors Mother Earth. Bend, sow, and receive - NJB Webster’s definition for the word “garden” just about covers everything: a plot of ground, usually near a house, where flowers,...

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Across the Pond: Hiking Across England in 2008

By John Walters on June 19, 2025

Janet called me out of hiking retirement before we were actually married. She arranged for us to go on a Sierra Club organized hike in North England, from St. Bee’s Head on the Irish Sea, to Robin...

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There Are Falls & There Are Falls

June 13, 2025

by G. Kent Stewart

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