Chapter 9 - Giving something back

Innisfree, 1970-1998

By Tom Rue

Chapter 9 - Giving something back

Innisfree at 1049 River Road, Milanville — Pictured in June 1997, a year before it was sold, a sign points to the Innisfree recreation hall building where the Upper Delaware Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (UDUUF) was formed ten years before this photo was taken. Three months after this photo, the dorm, to the left of the main house, was damaged in a fire. (Photo by Tom Rue.)

Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

Now (2024) in its 38th year of existence, very few of its current active members of the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (UDUUF) still remember meeting at Innisfree. Around 1996, the fellowship moved to the Beach Lake Community Center after the Milanville camp was sold. For nine years, the UDUUF met rent-free every Sunday morning in Innisfree's rec hall, contributing only toward the cost of heating the building one day per week as well as (for a time) for a portion of the rising cost of public liability insurance for the meeting space. During those years, though the fellowship did not enjoy exclusive use of the rec hall, the walls were decorated with banners and documents identifying it as a UU meeting space.

To this day (2024), although no longer at Innisfree, the UDUUF remains a vibrant and spiritually diverse liberal religious congregation committed to the celebration of human potential and to encourage meaningful connections among its members and outward in service to the community.

The UDUUF's early organizers often met before weekly services to plan upcoming Sunday programs. The order of service of UDUUF meetings when they were held at Innisfree generally resembled the following (which is still the Sunday morning format today): opening words; candle-lighting to share joys and concerns; announcements; opening words; free-will offering; sermon or visiting speaker; questions and dialogue; closing words; and (of course) refreshments.

On March 13, 1990, the UDUUF incorporated under the laws of the State of New York, and August 12, 1991 received a certificate of authority to do business in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The charter incorporators were: Margaret Bryant, Deborah Lazarus, Clyde B. ["Bud"] Rue, Glen Pontier, Thomas Rue, Barbara Pontier, and Jay Shames. At the organizational meeting of the newly incorporated nonprofit group, By-Laws and a corporate seal were adopted. Initial elected officers for the new nonprofit included: Thomas Rue, president; Margaret Bryant, vice-president; Ann Rue, secretary; Carmen Rue, treasurer; Barbara Pontier, member-at-large (1 year); Jay Shames, member-at-large (2 years); and Deborah Lazarus, member-at-large (3 years).

Prior to affiliating with UUA, the local congregation drafted and formally resolved to adopt the following Statement of Purpose:

We, the members of the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, are gathered into a committed relationship:
TO MAKE POSSIBLE a caring and supportive community in which each individual will feel free to chart his or her own spiritual journey in the search for ultimate meaning in life;
TO CREATE an atmosphere in which each person will be able to share convictions, express doubts, and explore new dimensions of truth and reality;
TO PROVIDE a community in which there will be no divisions because of class, ethnic origin, race or sexual orientation;
TO OFFER a place and climate for regular worship, which include such things as fellowship, meditation, learning, and a free and open pulpit;
TO WORK for the vision of a better world by standing for the cause of social justice and human rights, support efforts for world peace, and seek to protect the earth's environment through our respect for the interdependent web of all living things;
TO JOIN with others in the tradition of free and open religion in affiliation with the Unitarian Universalist Association;
TO BEAR WITNESS to our convictions as Unitarian Universalists in this entire region by giving our support to the Upper Delaware fellowship through the dedication of our energies, time and finances, knowing that unless the local group is strong and healthy little else can be accomplished.
-- Adopted June 17, 1990 --
Meeting at Innisfree, Milanville, Pennsylvania

Unitarian Unitersalists eye formal organization — Scranton Tribune, Aug. 13, 1987

The fellowship continues to offer itself as being open to all who support the aims and programs of the local group and the principles and purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association (uua.org). UUA was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association, established in 1825, and the Universalist Church of America, which dates to 1793. The UDUUF first met in August 1987 at the home of the late Rev. Ray Pontier then of Narrowsburg (1914-2004), who had then recently retired from full-time UU ministry in Lakeland, New Jersey, after Rev. Pontier wrote a letter to the editor of The River Reporter inviting local readers who shared common UU values of justice, equity and compassion in human relations to meet. A handful showed.

Panel discussion on education — The Scranton Tribune, August 25, 1987

"I believed in the need for a liberal religious group in this strongly conservative region," Rev. Pontier said in a letter the next year. "When I first organized the Fellowship, I stated that it would have a future only if enough people really wanted it -- and if it developed the leadership to carry on by itself."

River School receives grant from UUA, December 5, 1991.

Apparently, enough wanted it because the UDUUF is still (2024) here and many believe it still has a future. After that 1987 meeting in the Pontier living room, the group met Sunday mornings at the Innisfree recreation hall in Milanville, use of which was donated by Innisfree Corporation. On March 13, 1990, the UDUUF filed a Certificate of Incorporation with the NYS Secretary of State and soon thereafter officially affiliated with UUA. Later, the group moved to the Beach Lake Community Center and in recent years has continued to meet (as of 2024) at the Narrowsburg Union and online.

The River School

From its inception, fellowship members committed their collective energy to supporting human services, education, healthcare, in a society where all are welcomed, while emphasizing concepts of bodily and personal autonomy and choice, human rights, and "an atmosphere in which each person will be able to share convictions, express doubts, and explore new dimensions of truth and reality."

When a local parents' group asked for help starting a parent-run Montessori elementary school in 1991, they met with the UDUUF board of directors and negotiated Articles of Agreement under which the UDUUF gave corporate sponsorship to The River School, providing the unincorporated parent group with some exemption from taxation and government regulations on schools (because it was "church sponsored"), which also met also at Innisfree. The fellowship continues to look for ways to support like-minded charities in furtherance of spiritual ideals of human freedom, health, learning, and equality.

Renovations underway at Milanville River School — The Wayne Independent, August 8, 1991. The parent-run Montessori elementary school was entirely run and built by parents of the school's children in the Inifree dormitory, winterizing the building for the first time.

The initial River School governing board consisted of Bill Klaber of North Branch (co-coordinator), Alyce Van Etten of Monticello (co-coordinator), Gerry Bilick, M.D. of Jeffersonville (treasurer), Marion Brandis of White Sulpher Springs (secretary), Alice Christov of Narrowsburg (finance chair), Allison Smith of Narrowsburg (enrollment chair), Mary Darcey-Martin (curriculum chair), Zeke Boyle of Callicoon (construction chair), Jean Kammer of Honesdale (teacher), Andrew Darcey-Martin of White Lake (teacher), and Carmen B. Rue (UU representative).

Nonprofit youth hostel faces insurance woes, SCD 6-17-1986 — SC Democrat 6/17/1986

This school was entirely independent of Innisfree Corporation (which was the landlord), but was sponsored by the UDUUF. Church-sponsorship had the effects of streamlining The River School from the usual regulatory requirements with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, but all curriculum and staffing decisions for the school were made by its own parent-run board of trustees. The River School was required to provide officer and director liability insurance naming the UDUUF and Innisfree Corporation as additional insureds. The school operated successfully for two years until disagreements arose among the parents running it over the maximum age of kids to be served by the school. Some students went on to other Montessori schools in the area. Others went elsewhere.

Wayne County Habitat for Humanity

Another organization that was born at Innisfree, and which was nurtured at the start, and which has received financial contributions from the UDUUF since its early years, was Wayne County Habitat for Humanity (HFH)

Habitat home building slated for Wayne, 11/15/1989 — Scranton Tribune, November 15, 1989, by Andrea Henley Heyn.

Bud Rue's letter to the UDUUF executive committee — UDUUF co-founder Bud Rue wrote this letter to the executive committee, which was recently discovered in the fellowship's organizational archives, pushing the group to do MORE for the LOCAL community.

Meeting of Wayne County, Pa. and Sullivan County, NY chapters of Habitat for Humanity with an HFHI volunteer at the Tusten Theater in Narrowsburg, September 17, 1989.

Even with all community activities at Innisfree, in a spring 1992 meeting of the fellowship's board, Bud gave his opinion at UDUUF board meetings that that the religious group was not contributing enough to the local community. Hosting interesting sermons and guest speakers each week was not enough. Inviting interesting speakers every week was not enough to justify the time commitment. "We ought to try to give something back," he urged. No one disagreed, but it was not until the following year that the idea of a walk-a-thon came up. The fellowship agreed to sponsor the 1993 walk and Bud became the event's most active promoter.

Tax-deductible donations to the 2024 Bud Rue Memorial Fund for Social Justice may be addressed to "Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship" (mark the memo portion of the check "BRM Fund") at PO Box 47, Narrowsburg, New York 12764.

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