UU walkers support Habitat and victim groups

For Immediate Release
NEWS
Dated: October 16, 2005

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Some of those who took part in the recent 13th annual Bud Rue Memorial Walk for Social Justice prior to the start of the walk, in the Beach Lake Community Center.

Unitarian Universalist walkers support Habitat for Humanity and victim advocacy groups

BEACH LAKE, PA. - Participants scanned the skies prior the start of the start of the 13th annual Bud Rue Memorial Walk for Social Justice on October 17th, hoping for fair weather. For the most part, they got their wish. Aside from a few drops, rain held back yet again - as organizers said it has in past years - until the route was finished.

More than two dozen UU members and friends took part with the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship's yearly five-mile trek along rural northeastern Pennsylvania's dirt roads with the aim of benefiting local charities in Sullivan County, N.Y. and Wayne County, Pa.

Local affiliate chapters of Habitat for Humanity in Wayne and Sullivan counties, Rape Intervention Services and Education (RISE) in Monticello, and the Victim's Intervention Program (VIP) in Honesdale will receive 100% of the proceeds of funds raised on the walk.

Since the first walk-a-thon held by the UU fellowship the small liberal religious congregation has raised more than $38,000. Past beneficiary groups, in addition to those named, have included Interfaith Outreach United of Callicoon, the Upper Delaware Land Trust, and the UU United Nations Office.

Named in memory of the organizer of the walk-a-thon which the fellowship held in 1993, Bud Rue, the fellowship's goal is to help meet community needs rather than merely serving its own membership, said to Tom Rue of Monticello, son of the walk's namesake who took part in the event with his wife Carmen Rue. During the 1993 walk, after having advocated in fellowship meetings for the congregation to raise money for Habitat and other charities, and then taking the lead in organizing that first event, Bud Rue died of an apparent heart attack during the walk. Since then, fellowship members - including members of the Rue family each year - have continued the tradition that he began, naming the activity in Bud's memory.

After retiring from teaching secondary mathematics, Bud Rue and his wife Ann devoted much of their free time to founding Wayne County Habitat for Humanity. Although Bud began the initiative for the creation of the local chapter which has since built a number of houses for people in need, during his life he gave credit time and again to the other Habitat volunteers in Wayne County without whom the chapter wouldn't have gotten off the ground. For more information about how to assist Wayne County HFH, see their website at rileycorners.com/habitat/.

A few years later, Sullivan County Habitat was formed and is currently starting their second house, according to chapter Diane Garry who took part in the walk-a-thon. For details on donating to or joining HFH in Sullivan County, their website can be found at home.hvc.rr.com/habitat4sullivan/. VIP and RISE and VIP offer counseling to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. A crisis hotline operated by RISE is available 24 hours a day at (845) 794-9595; and a similar hotline by VIP serves Wayne County residents at (570) 253-4401.

Information about activities of the Upper Delaware UU Fellowship can be found on the congregation's website at uduuf.org or by calling lay minister Laurie Stuart at (845) 252-6626. Sunday meetings are held at 10 AM at the Beach Lake Community Center in Beach Lake, Pa.