May 2, 2023 at Auditorium at The Clara in Sacramento
Offering an evening of hope and inspiration to our community, The Center for Cultural & Naturalist Studies, a Nevada County nonprofit service organization, is hosting a free multimedia event at the Auditorium at CLARA on May 2, 7 pm. The event will explore how service to others combined with inner work on consciousness can add meaning to our lives and be an uplifting force, particularly during these troubled times.
CCNS (Nevada County based for 25 years) volunteers just returned from their first post-pandemic trip: a one-month project in Oaxaca, Mexico where they connected with a local shelter and gave basic necessities to refugees on the migrant trail escaping violence, political oppression, and economic hardships in their home countries of Venezuela, Guatemala, Cuba, Honduras, etc. They followed that with a second stop at the San Luis, Arizona/Mexico border wall to offer the physically and emotionally exhausted asylum seekers water and snacks as they waited, sometimes for hours, to turn themselves in and be processed by the US border patrol. The upcoming event will feature these recent trips as well as give an overview of past trips to Thailand, Cambodia, India, and Turkey.
They also take on a variety of local projects, such as hosting free meals, supporting local fire stations and warming shelters, visiting the elderly at convalescent homes, and currently are helping Afghan refugees settling in the greater Sacramento area.
In addition to service work, the nonprofit members come together over a broad spectrum of activities, from music and art to business, construction, rural land care, and meditation. “In everything we engage in, we study ourselves and try to understand the obstacles we have that keep us from being more giving, loving people. So, this event will feature images and descriptions of our service projects, but we’ll also attempt to convey what we’ve learned about finding depth in human interactions and integrating this with an inner life,” offered project coordinator Renee French.
“We want to present an evening that people will find hopeful and encouraging, particularly during these times that seem so crazy. Our event will be unique—even including, by popular demand, a skit from our Puppet Theater of Consciousness.”