On Friday, October 29, we gathered for our first hybrid event. After many months of waiting to be together in person, we finally did it! It was wonderful to see people, both new friends and old buddies, in real life. This gathering was really an idea that blossomed from St. Francis of Assisi Church in Raleigh. They were having a staff service day and asked if it was possible to partner with L’Arche NC. With this invitation, we decided to host a gathering not only for some of their staff and L’Arche friends but for the whole community.
The morning was really two “events” in one. We started with painting pumpkins. For this activity, we joined a Zoom with L’Arche Jacksonville in Florida. L’Arche Jax gave us a quick tour of their beautiful Rainbow Room Workshop. Seeing this large building with so many different rooms, activities, and crafts was inspiring! What if L’Arche NC one day had such a space to welcome so many friends, volunteers, and community members? We had fun getting to meet some of the Core Members from this community, too.
After the pumpkins, we took a quick break outside while some volunteers got the room ready for the next round of autumn fun… Decorating cookies! Everyone was invited to choose two cookies, with options including a leaf, witch’s caldron, ghost, pumpkin, or a cat. We all joked that many of the cookies had more icing and sprinkles than there was cookie. Can you have too much icing? nah!
One of our friends in North Carolina could not make it to Raleigh, so before our event, we delivered some pumpkins and cookies to his house so that he could join us on Zoom. While we decorated our cookies at St. Francis, we passed around a laptop and each person present was able to meet and chat (virtually). Technology is such a blessing — it is great to be together while we are apart.
At the end of our gathering, we learned that one of our friends that joined us in person had moved to North Carolina during the pandemic. This event was his first outing since moving here. This was his first time meeting new friends in North Carolina. We are so grateful that we were able to host this gathering and offer an opportunity to build a community of friendships.
