The Button Room
February 7th, 2025
Dear Saint John’s,
I wanted to share some thoughts about the Button Room and the Arts & Crafts Co-Op as this chapter at SJB comes to an end.
We will be having a Garage Sale on Sunday, February 23rd, after the 10:30 service in our downstairs space. There are still lots of crafting and sewing materials, including fabric, notions, sewing machines, cards, books and magazines, and a few real treasures. Please stop in and see if there is anything that catches your eye. We are asking for free will donations so all you have to do is pay what you think is a fair price for what you take (cash or check). Whatever money we take in will go directly to Elise Johnstone’s discretionary fund. Feel free to invite a friend. For many of us it will be a trip down memory lane, and you can look at our photo album and remember some of our early sales. After this last sale everything will be donated to several different organizations.
I started the St. John’s Arts & Crafts Co-Op in 2009 when Peter DeVeau was still here. We were a small group who gathered on Tuesday evenings (across the hall from the Threads of Love ministry). We tried hard to use all donated materials, and after our yearly sales we gave our proceeds to outreach, either locally or globally. Our last sale was in December 2019, and we gave $2000 to Kate Wesch’s discretionary fund. I will always be proud of this. Then the pandemic came along and our small group disbanded.
The Button Room was started in June 2022 as an invitation to children and youth to learn sewing and crafting in a group setting. After a while it became an open invitation to any age to gather for creative play.
For the last fifteen years we have had a classroom on the lower level that has served as an open studio, overflowing with resources and materials, and a place where many different people have gathered for creative play in a faith-based group setting. Friendships have been formed, new things have been learned and created, and it has been the most wonderful thing. It is bittersweet to have it come to an end, but the time is right, and I know that God is at work here. Sometimes it’s right for something to come to an end. It’s good to miss something. And when one thing ends it creates a space for something new to begin. I am deeply grateful to Elise for her recognition and celebration party in December. And I want to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone who has been part of these ministries over the years.
I plan to continue making the nametags and other things with the used greeting cards that people put in the marked box in the narthex. Please keep up the good work of saving your cards instead of tossing them. I think of this as “recycled good will” and find many different things to do with them, including the Christmas ornaments that you received if you attended the 12th Night Party in January.
In closing, some people may think that I’m leaving SJB, but I’m not going anywhere and you are stuck with me! I remain passionate about finding new ways to be in community with others at church, and to help our children and youth navigate this very challenging world we live in. One of my mottos is “Church is what you make it”, and I truly believe this. Thank you again for fifteen wonderful years of creative play.
Faithfully,
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