Author: Breeze Richardson

Throughout the past several months, the children of 57th Street Meeting have learned about being resourceful and reusing materials with Chip, how adults and children may see the world differently with Bruce, appreciation and giving when they baked tea cakes for the Meeting with Contessa, and this month about volunteer service with Eli. I continue to believe that having these Friends share something important to them – connected to their Quakerism – is a valuable way to teach Quaker identity to our Meeting children.

Eli Rorem is an important member of the 57th Meeting community. He is probably the adult our Meeting children know best, outside the parents, for his loving attention to their presence. Eli can often be found giving one of them a hug, and asking them questions about their day.

One thing important to Eli is his service as a volunteer firefighter in Kankakee, IL where honestly, loyalty, trust, and integrity are core values to the City Fire Department. When I asked Eli if he would come be our guest at First Day School he arrived with all his equipment to share with the children. As you can see in the photos, they all loved his helmet the most. After telling of his experiences and getting dressed, the older children were willing to pose for a photo, however the younger children were a bit more cautious regarding the transformation.

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I recently read this blog post by another Quaker mom wondering how to tackle the challenge of teaching a religion with no creed or dogma. She raises all the questions I’ve been asking myself for the past few years. I don’t know the answer – far from it – but I am convinced that two things couldn’t be more important: I want my children to know the Quakers around them so that they can explore this faith tradition through its people, and I want to live community, equality, integrity, simplicity and peace alongside them so that they can learn these testimonies through their own experiences.

“Meeting 57th Street Friends” is a special project at 57th Street Meeting (Chicago) that took place Oct 2010 – March 2011 where non-parent adult Friends visit with the Meeting children each month to share their reflections on Quaker life & identity today by exploring something they hold dear. A childhood memory, a story, a life lesson or a life passion – by sharing our experiences across the generations we are living in community.  Learning from each other about our lives is a way to move towards better understanding and our testimony to peace.