Keeping our Oars in the Water:
Gathering to bear witness to experiences
and stories of vulnerability and resilience
When a small boat meets turbulent water, the best way to maintain balance and stay upright is to keep your oar in the water. It will become your stabilizing rudder, enabling you to maintain course and steer your vulnerable craft towards safety. We are each like that small boat.
HSA hopes that sharing our experiences, stories and ideas might be another stabilizing oar in the water for each of us. Please join us. Admission is free, although donations are appreciated.
OARS in the Water
September 25, 2024
7:00pm-8:30pm EDT
Hosted by Sara deBeer & Jennifer Zunikoff
Theme: Welcoming Peace
Join us as we explore where you have discovered peace. Whose presence gives you a sense of peace? What memories offer you a moment of peace? Together we’ll reflect on how we can welcome peace into our lives
OARS in the Water is a facilitated Zoom gathering that meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm Eastern Time. The Healing Story Alliance’s OARS in the Water offers a community listening space in which to share the experiences and stories that have emerged in turbulent times.
OARS co-hosts facilitate the evening and provide participants with a warm welcome and a meaningful theme which we hope will be healing, supportive and inspiring.
Format: A typical 90-minute meeting consists of a 20-minute, theme-based opening, followed by 20-minutes in breakout rooms, and then we reassemble for a whole group conversation. OARS is not recorded due to its nature of programming.
Admission is free, although donations are deeply appreciated and help support our programming. Your taxdeductible donation can be made here:
https://square.link/u/d9xbGN2I
We’ll gather via Zoom. Here is the NEW link:
About our Hosts for September 25th
Sara deBeer’s great love is telling traditional folktales from world cultures. Listeners discover the richness of each individual culture while also appreciating the universality of human experiences. Sara works in schools, libraries, synagogues, and independent/assisted living facilities, as well as a variety of other venues.
An experienced classroom teacher with degrees from Yale and Bank Street, Sara offers workshops on a variety of topics. Participants develop new insights about storytelling, guided by Sara’s expertise in both education and the arts.
Sara is also a published poet; she teaches poetry-writing classes for Beat of The Street (BOTS), a program for people who are homeless or who have experienced homelessness. Sara’s most recent book of poetry, “Traveling Backward Through Time,” is available at lulu.com.
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff is a Jewish storyteller, poet, educator, facilitator, and coach, based in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the founder and director of Grow Us a Jewish Story, where she leads and coaches a community of storytellers from across the United States. Jennifer is also the founder and director of The Golden Door: Storytelling for Social Justice, where she coaches and facilitates storytelling classes for educators and leaders from diverse backgrounds. She is the Storytelling Director at Teach the Shoah where she coaches, facilitates, and helps design storytelling courses, including classes for second and third-generation survivors. Jennifer is a published writer of poetry and Jewish stories.
Her CD, “The Growing Season,” was commissioned by The Macks Center for Jewish Education in Baltimore. Two of her stories are included in The “Mitzvah Stories” anthologies
2024 OARS Meeting Hosts & Dates
Jan. 10 Heather Forest & Lani Peterson (Tech: Elisa)
Jan. 24: Karianna Rosenberg & Kristin Pedemonti (Tech Elisa)
Feb. 14: Joe Doolittle & Elisa Pearmain (Tech: Heather)
Feb. 28: Sara deBeer & Anabelle Castano (Tech: Karianna )
March 13: Bob Kanegis & Liz Mangual (Tech: Elisa)
March 27: Jim Brule & Laura Simms (Tech: Noa)
April 10: Kristin Pedemonti & Robin Reichert (Tech Joe)
April 24: Heather Forest & Noa Baum (Tech: Elisa)
May 8: Elisa Pearmain & Joel Ying (Tech: Jim)
May 22: Lani Peterson & Jim Brule (Tech: Heather)
June 12: Sara deBeer & Renee Spears Emanuel (Tech:___)
June 26: Penny Post & Carol Ribner (Tech:__)
July 10: Sara deBeer & Sonia Bareja (Tech:__)
July 24: Karianna Rosenberg & Erin Johnston (Tech:__)
August 14: Heather Forest & Laura Packer (Tech:__)
August 28: Lani Peterson & Christine Carlton (Tech:__)
September 11: Elisa Pearmain & Yvonne Young (Tech:__)
September 25: Sara deBeer & Jennifer Zunikoff (Tech:__)
2023 OARS Meeting Hosts & Dates
Jan. 11: Galen Brandt & Jackson Gillman (Tech: Lani)
Jan. 25: Heather Forest & Lani Peterson (Tech: Joe)
Feb. 8: Sara deBeer & Donna Marie Kuczynski (Tech: Karianna)
Feb. 22: Lani Peterson & Linda Levinson (Tech: Elisa)
March 8: Elisa Pearmain & Faye Mogenson (Tech: Heather)
March 22: Penny Post & Joe Doolittle(Tech: Karianna)
April 12: Mike Seliger, Michael D. McCarty & Joe Doolittle (Tech: Elisa)
April 26: Heather Forest & Galen Brandt (Tech: Lani)
May 10: Bob Kanegis & Liz Mangual (Tech: Noa)
May 24: Sara deBeer & Donna Marie Kuczynski (Tech: Elisa)
June 14: Elisa Pearmain & Ai-Lin Chuah (Tech: Heather)
June 28: Jim Brule and Linda Schuyler Ford (Tech: Lani)
July 12: Noa Baum & Regi Carpenter (Tech: Heather)
July 26: Heather Forest & Sara deBeer (Tech: Karianna)
August 9: Karianna Rosenberg & Lani Peterson (Tech: Heather)
August 23: Elisa Pearmain & Diane Rooks (Tech: Joe)
September 13: Laura Simms & Sally Pomme Clayton (Tech: Heather)
September 27: Sara deBeer & Donna Marie Kuczynski ( Tech: Elisa & Noa )
October 11: Heather Forest & Lani Peterson (Tech Elisa & Galen)
October 25: Penny Post & Angela Lloyd (Tech: Heather)
Nov 8: Linda Levinson & Karen DeMauro (Tech: Joe)
November 22: Galen Brandt & Elisa Pearmain (Tech: Heather)
December 13: Sara deBeer & Ai-Lin Chuah (Tech: Heather)
December 27: Mike Seliger & Barbara Aliprantis (Tech: Heather)
2022 OARS Meeting Hosts and Dates
January 12th: Sara deBeer & Ruth Anne Faust
January 26th Kristin Pedemonti & Sarah O’Brien
February 9th Lani Peterson and Jyoti Pande
February 23rd Mike Seliger and Liz Nichols
March 2nd, Laura Simms and Lani Peterson offer a special holding space for Ukraine
March 9th Karianna Rosenberg and Jan Mullen
March 23rd Joe Doolittle & Phyllis Blackstone
April 13: Heather Forest & Lani Peterson
April 27: Elisa Pearmain and Nyanna Tobin (Tech: Heather)
May 11: Sara deBeer and Hearscrow (Tech: Elisa)
May 25: Wally Scott and Radhieka Al Hakawati (Tech: Joe)
June 8: Galen Brandt and Jackson Gillman (Tech: Heather)
June 22: Heather Forest and Noa Baum (Tech: Elisa)
July 13: Karianna Rosenberg and Penny Post (Tech: Lani)
July 27: ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING (Tech: Heather)
August 10: Joe Doolittle and Ai-Lin (Tech: Elisa)
August 24: Sara deBeer and Jyoti Pande (Tech: Lani)
September 14: Heather Forest and Megan Wells (Tech: Lani )
September 28: Lani Peterson and Karen DeMauro (Tech: Elisa)
October 12: Elisa Pearmain and Erin Johnson (Tech: Joe)
October 26: Mike Seliger & Regina Ress (Tech: Heather)
Nov 9th: Joe Doolittle & Penny Post (Tech: Elisa)
Nov 23: Elisa Pearmain & Usha Venkatraman (Kristin)
Dec. 14: Heather Forest & Jim Brule (Tech: Elisa)
Dec. 28: Laura Simms & Donna Jacobs (Heather)
2021 OARS Meeting Dates & Hosts:
September 22 : Hosted by Heather Forest & Lani Peterson
October 13: Hosted by Sara deBeer & Jean Hale
October 27: Hosted by Joe Doolittle & Mike Seliger
November 10: Elisa Pearmain & Laura Simms
November 24th: Heather Forest & Karianna Rosenberg
December 8th: Wally Scott and Carol McCormick
December 22nd: Kristin Pedemonti & Galen Brandt