NAMI support group monthly meeting
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Friends and Family Support Group will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6, using the following zoom link: zoom.us/j/442169680.
Vashon Senior Center closes for onsite activities, for now
Due to the current COVID infection surge, Vashon Senior Center has closed its building to onsite activities for the time being. The decision was made in consultation with Vashon’s Medical Reserve Corps and will be re-evaluated week by week.
Visit the Senior Center online at vashoncenter.org.
Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma book event
Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, a local author, poet, performer, and teacher, will appear virtually at Elliott Bay Bookstore next week, with his newly published translation of the classic Tamil masterpiece, “The Kural,” or Tirvalluvar’s “Thirukkural” (Beacon Press).
Joining Pruiksma in the conversation about his book will be University of California professor and translator Archana Venkatesan, who also wrote the introduction to this book. Find out more, purchase the book and register to attend the book launch event at tinyurl.com/2c8k78hc.
Sign up for health insurance, other programs
Islanders can take advantage of the current enrollment period, which ends on Jan. 15, for health insurance coverage from the Affordable Care Act, at a sign-up/renewal event from 12 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan 8, inside Vashon Library.
All are encouraged to attend, as their eligibility might have changed in the past year and it is also an opportunity to change providers that come with the insurance. Coverage starts in February. Also at the event, islanders can apply for food stamps and Orca Lift (Metro’s reduced fare program, covering Metro, water taxis and Sound Transit, and free for a year for those who qualify for Apple Health).
Is Saturday not convenient? Call or email Miguel Urquiza at 206-477-6965 or 206-491-3761, or email miquel.urquiza@kingcounty.gov for bilingual assistance in Spanish or English.
Learn more about reparations
Carl McCargo, convenor of the Unitarian National Reparations Task Force, will speak to the Vashon Island Unitarian Fellowship at 11 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 16. Everyone is invited to attend virtually at viuf.org/sunday. The title of his sermon is “The Complexity and Challenge of Reparations and our Roles in It.”
In notes for the sermon, McCargo wrote, “We must remember that chattel enslavement was not an overnight phenomenon. It took hundreds of years for it to be ‘perfected.’ Therefore, this issue will not be easy … It is my perspective that yes, those “legalized” aspects of chattel enslavement are over, and has been over for many years now, but there are vestiges of it that are as brutal as its legalized origins.”
Find out more about Vashon’s Unitarian community at www.viuf.org.
