July 2018 Volunteer of the Month – Jane Jackson

Jane Jackson is the July Volunteer of the Month.  Jane came to UUCSS in 1984 with her husband John Acton searching for a community in which to raise their two-and-half-year-old daughter.  They chose UUCSS because their upbringing conditioned them to go to the closest church.  The first service they came to was  on Canvass Sunday, and they heard Rev. Paul Johnson preaching the Sermon on the Amount.  They stayed and found UUCSS a place where they could raise their family in a liberal faith and community, and Jane can’t imagine doing it otherwise.  Jane, who is a Buddhist UU, describes UUCSS as a place that meets part of her spiritual needs and that allows her to search elsewhere for the remainder.

Jane’s first memorable volunteer experience was completing Allan Savadkin’s term on the board as a nursing monther.  She brought her son Tim Acton as a baby to Board meetings.  She has taught children’s RE many times, and served on numerous committees.  More recently she taught both yoga and mindfulness meditation for Adult RE.  When she retired in January she intended to do more volunteering.  So, although it wasn’t what she had thought of or where she felt her natural proclivities lay, when John Henderson asked her to co-lead the Annual Pledge Drive, she said yes.  She really enjoyed working across the generations with her co-chairs Jeremy and Ashley Holt, who are the same age as her daughters.  For Jane, it is really important to be embedded in a community of people with common intentions, particularly these days—it is hard to be strong alone; at UUCSS we can be strong together.