On behalf of our Outreach team- Feast of Lights!

[Lireina ni Dormerus t'al`Bearach]

What is the Feast of Lights?

Annually TarValon.Net, Inc. holds a fundraiser for an internationally focused not-for-profit organization. This fundraiser is known as the Feast of Lights. Unlike our other feasts and festivals- including previous Feast of Lights- this is not a festival where we open up the Faire Grounds and host games and competitions, although we will have games to entertain and draw awareness! This is an opportunity for our community to act collectively as Servants of All by donating to an organization doing work we admire. In the past we have raised funds for organizations like Heifer International, Doctors Without Borders, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
This year, like the previous three years, we will be doing things a little differently. Instead of choosing a single charity and collecting funds, we really want our members to don their Servant of All hats and go out in their local communities. We are asking out members to donate to their local charities of all kinds. This year, we opened it up to contributing to your local community in any way you choose!

If you are having difficulty finding a local place, here are a few organizations you could donate to: Feeding America which will point you to a local food bank in the U.S., Trussell Trust Food Banks in the UK, and Toys for Tots. These are only a few ideas. You can also use acts of service, donating your time is just as important as goods or money.
Lastly, we are asking for you to take a "selfie" of your good deed! We will put all of your photos on our social media. A selfie is NOT required to participate!
At the end of the fundraiser, we will a random drawing to determine the winner of our Fundraiser. The Feast of Lights will last from now until January 31st 2018!

What are the prizes for our Feast of Lights Fundraiser?
We're getting back to our roots of being Servants of All this year- three winners will be selected at random and will be awarded a $25 donation to be made on their behalf to the charity/cause of their choice!


How to Donate?
Simply donate in any way you see fit and snap a selfie. Upload your photo to a hosting site or email it to me Outreachactivities@tarvalon.net, and post directly in this thread to share with and inspire others! You can also post on social media your deed with any or all of the following hashtags:

#TarValonGives
#FeastOfLights
#ServantofAll

We understand that many of you do charity stuff with your work, which is wonderful! However, the spirit of Feast of Lights is to commit your acts of service on your own time.

Don't Forget:
Even if you are unable to donate, any act of service counts, including helping spread the word that Feast of Lights is going on. It's a great way to support this fundraiser- and a fantastic way to dress up your signature!

 

[Polegnyn Nemeara]

:joy

 

[Elania al'Manir]

So if we're not taking a selfie, like if we make a donation, do we just email something to Outreachactivities@TarValon.net?

 

[Alora Sionn]

Yeah tell us about your donation/act of service via email or share with everyone here in this thread

 

[Elania al'Manir]

Okay. I supported Ozarks Food Harvest, and I decided to post about it.

 

[Catt Heckathorne]

Does working for my own firm for helping fiscally struggling communities upkeep their historic cemeteries count for donating time if it is a volunteer service? Or does it need to be something more mundane as I can't do much of anything archaeology wise right now except finish writing a landscape survey?

 

[Alora Sionn]

If you aren't getting paid and you are helping a person, a family, a community, etc you are serving others in some positive way without monetary gain. Enjoying the work you do to help others is just a bonus I'd encourage you to explain in some detail what you are doing and how it is benefiting the community either here or on social media/email, it helps bring awareness to it at the same time

 

[Ajailyn Morrivinna]

I just started donating from each paycheck to Wayside Waifs. A no kill animal shelter in the Kansas City Metro area.

 

[Imzadi Hopewind]

Shouldn't it be FOL 2018? :shifty

 

[Catt Heckathorne]

Here is the form letter I use to describe the project. I am going to be doing a lot of community outreach this month for it. So far this month I have emailed a filmmaker in Buffalo who works for PBS, the county legislature, and two senators, and will keep track of the activities this month for it. All costs so far for it have been paid for out of pocket.

Spoiler

Hello,

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the Cemetery Records Keeper for my honetown in Cattaraugus County. When our cemetery association disbanded in the 1980s, the cemetery was, like so many rural cemeteries in Western New York State, handed over to municipal control. The responsibility of managing burials for Treat Memorial Cemetery thus fell upon the responsibilities of the town supervisors.

I am the first non-town supervisor since the 1980s to take over the job, which I have held since April 2014. For this position I have drawn extensively on my background in local history of Western New York, cultural anthropology, and my experience in graduate school with a cemetery studies fieldwork course. Unfortunately, a lack of a cemetery association has meant that the cemetery records have fallen into disrepair, and the cemeteries throughout the Town of Leon—including Treat Memorial Cemetery—are sorely in need of attention.

And it’s not a problem limited solely to Leon. Between 2010 and 2017 there have been over a dozen news articles in various small town newspapers across New York State that describe the fiscal plight of the small town cemetery, and what that means for not only the cemetery, but the community it serves. In fact, a law firm in White Plains, New York, recently wrote an opinion regarding the situation.

The New York State Division of Cemeteries states that communities can organize a volunteer maintenance program with assistance from the D.O.C., but even that isn’t enough to truly address the situation these cemeteries are in. Their board members do not have access to funds, and grants are sorely lacking for this type of historic preservation and cultural resource management work. The National Register of Historic Places does allow some cemeteries to enter its ranks, but by and large the cemeteries in our region have changed so much over the years that finding original landscaping within their boundaries is difficult, if not impossible, for the non-archaeologist or archaeology initiated. To date, New York State has no official program, unlike Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states, to directly address issues faced by historic cemeteries.

In July of 2016 I started taking steps with the Town of Leon to address this situation. I knew what Leon needed for the cemeteries there, and created a wish list. As I looked over the list, I realized that the easiest way to address the needs of these cemeteries was to create an organization directly addressing historic preservation and cultural resource management, and enlisted the assistance of the Small Business Development Center at Jamestown Community College. This organization was publicly launched on April 12, 2017 at the Fenton History Center’s 2017 first Brown Bag Lecture of the season. I spoke to an audience whose numbers surpassed only one other lecture in the entire history of the lecture series, and officially introduced the various small town cemetery associations of Western New York State to the Northeastern Coalition for Cemetery Studies, or NCCS, during that lecture. (Also called NCCS, this is on track to become the Northeastern Center for Cemetery Studies by 2019 or slightly later, once our corporate paperwork to become a nonprofit organization is filed and we can obtain the equipment we need to become a viable organization targeting the cemeteries in need.)

From the Fenton lecture, I was a guest speaker for an international archaeology blog organized by a field archaeologist associated with the University of Norway in Bergen, cookingwitharchaeologists.com; USA Today referenced NCCS as an authority on the topic in an article titled “As Cemeteries Struggle, Tombstones Sink Into Oblivion,” and I recently gave an interview for a reporter who writes for the Salamanca Press. This article is titled "Giving Neglected Cemeteries Much Needed Attention" and appeared in the newspaper on Halloween 2017.

NCCS since April 2017 has had requests from four states other than New York State for assistance (Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Ohio), one of which wanted to know if there was an Oklahoma chapter yet. The program is currently poised to be able to step in and take over where the State Historic Preservation Office cannot assist the specific needs of these cemeteries. We are also poised, once we have resources and methodology established, to be able to establish regional offices and potentially provide jobs to state residents.

NCCS proposes to become a center instead of a coalition and to act as a cultural resource management firm for abandoned and historic cemeteries in small town communities that have an overall poverty rate greater than 10% of the current Federal Poverty Guidelines. Unfortunately, for the 14 counties that make up Western New York State, that means that every county in this region is eligible for NCCS services. Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties, our home counties, are the 8th and 9th poorest counties in the entire state. Drive through any community, and chances are you’ll see at least one—possibly several—derelict cemeteries in varying states of disrepair. But, you can always tell which cemeteries and communities have the advocacy they need.

New Yorkers desperately need a program like NCCS to step in and act as a commissioner of sorts for abandoned and historic cemeteries. Currently there are only seven like minded state level programs in the entire nation and not many private organizations with the background necessary for this type of work. NCCS is poised to become a non-government program similar to the State Historic Preservation Office, but the difference here is that while the State Historic Preservation Office/SHPO doesn't typically address abandoned cemeteries unless the properties exhibit significant historic significance to the region, NCCS can step in and address those cemeteries that the SHPO cannot.

I am extremely interested in working with you in documenting the work being done by NCCS. If you are interested in learning more about NCCS, our website is www.northeasterncoalitionforcemeterystudies.wordpress.com and we are on Facebook.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to working with you on this important project.

 

[Lireina ni Dormerus t'al`Bearach]

Shouldn't it be FOL 2018? :shifty

Of course, and that's what it is.

:shifty

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

I forgot to take a selfie. What do I do to register my charity? The original post doesn't really say... Or I am blind

 

[Alora Sionn]

No worries! Selfies aren't required, you can either email me or post here to register your charity

 

[Lyara Tieran]

I volunteer every Thursday at our local food bank! Selfie time next week! :joy

 

[Imzadi Hopewind]

I work at least one day every afternoon (after work) at the deaf club and working with the archives there. Guess that's charity?

 

[Nymala Ingasy]

Today, I volunteered at my synagogue to sort clothes for Dress for Success, an organization around the world that helps women achieve financial independence through professional attire. https://dressforsuccess.org/

 

[Alora Sionn]

Thanks to everyone for your service! We have drawn three winners from the Feast of Lights entries which were emailed, posted here, and posted on social media and those three lucky winners are.....

Eren
Imzadi
Jeffan
!!!!!!

Congrats to the winners!!! :joy expect an email from me soon! Thanks to everyone for participating!

 

[Polegnyn Nemeara]

Congratulations, Eren, Imzadi Sedai, and Jeffan Sedai!

Eta: Corrected name

 

[Nymala Ingasy]

Awesome!

 

[Ahmyra al'Ruley]

Congratulations, Erin(?) Sedai, Imzadi Sedai, and Jeffan Sedai!

Eren is a new person to the site