I recently became the co-chair of the Building and Grounds Committee. What I “knew” all along has become painfully clear to me now: Our beautiful building is aging. It needs maintenance. In order to maintain and improve May Memorial, the physical structure, we need to give it our loving care, both our sweat equity and our cash. In a word, our stewardship.

To facilitate the former the B & G Committee sponsors workdays almost every month. We welcome your stewardship help on a Saturday for a few hours of work and fellowship. To facilitate the latter, we ask that you pledge generously this month during the 2008-2009 stewardship drive.

Our beautiful building was designed and built in the early 1960s when electricity and natural gas were cheap and plentiful. Much must be done to make our energy use more efficient. One effort that is already underway is replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). In some cases we will be replacing entire light fixtures. This is expensive now, but will be less costly in the long run.

The building is now nearly 45 years old and needs middle-age care. The walls, windows, floors, kitchen, plumbing and lighting fixtures all need increasing maintenance or replacement, as do the sidewalks, the driveway and the bridge on the east side of the building. We have many talented people on the committee and in the congregation at large. We do a lot of repair ourselves, but sometimes we need professional help or new, expensive parts. And the costs of day-to-day cleaning, plowing, mowing. lighting and heating are also increasing. The building is seeing increasing use, which is wonderful, but the wear and tear is showing.

Please give as generously as possible of your time and treasure to help to maintain and upgrade our religious home.

~ Don MacKay
Co-Chair, Building & Grounds Committee