Bakeoff Report

The Great Common Ground Bake Off Dessert Auction is complete! The planning committee would like thank everyone who baked, donated, ate, cleaned, and played bingo! All of your help has paid off and we raised over $1700!

This money will go into the general fund which will help pay the salaries, teaching, training and insight of our organizers and for our membership in IAF. Common Ground is owned and run by us, its members. We are the leaders and the ones who decide on the issues we want to work on. We need to sustain our power-building activities so we can expand on what we have already achieved and to continue our work in the future. 

There is always time to donate more! Perhaps you were out bid on a dessert? Well, you can still donate that amount to the fund. Or maybe you just want to make a personal commitment to our work. Please go to http://www.commongroundiaf.org/donate to make a contribution!

If we want to continue this work, we must keep building our community power. We have all the momentum right now so let's keep it up!

So what's next?

On December 9, from 6 to 8 pm at the HUB in Vallejo, we will have our last Leaders Meeting of 2021, where we will concentrate on planning the January delegates assembly. We will also have a nice send off party for Lizzy Gore, who has been our Organizer for the last 3 years, as she heads to continue her work in San Antonio, TX.

Thank you all again!

Virtual Faire Returns

Our ecumenical Global Holiday Faire committee made the decision to once again only have a virtual online Faire this year. While we discussed various ways to have the Faire in person with as many safety protocols in place, the concerns over the health of our shoppers and volunteers pushed us to cancel the in person portion of the Faire. But like last year, the virtual Faire is open! Visit globalholidayfaire.org now!

Last year, we raised over $8,700 with our online effort. Let's top it this year. On the website, in addition to all the organizations that were there last year, you will also find the links to two new groups, Project Have Hope and Azizi Life, two wonderful fair trade organizations. That brings our total to seven great places to shop for gifts for everyone on your list. For the person who has everything, you will also find two opportunities for alternative giving through Heifer International and Arbor Day Foundation. And be sure to look at the bottom of the page for information on how to support some local Vallejo charities which need the help at this time.

We are collecting donations for three of these groups — The dePaul Women's Center, The Amador St. Hope Center, and Genesis House. Covid has hit all of these organizations hard. If you want to make a donation to the Faire (100% of your generous donation will be split evenly between these 3), you have several options. There is a Donate button on the Faire website under the Neighbors in Need box. You can also donate through Tithe.ly, just make sure to select Global Holiday Faire under the Give To pull down menu. You can also send a check into the church. Make your check out to First Christian Church, memo it Global Holiday Faire.

A flier for the Faire went out to the Google Group. Please forward it to everyone you know. Post it on your social media. Print some out and hand them out to people. Without a physical in person presence, we need to get the word out about the website to as many people as we can. Please encourage your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors to skip Amazon for their online shopping this Holiday Season!

Also, the website isn't done yet. Check back regularly for updates as new organizations and coupon codes will hopefully be added soon! Thank you in advance for helping to make this Virtual Holiday Faire a huge success!