Monday, December 22, 2014

Solstice is the Reason for the Season!

Knowledge Tree
The annual MASH Ft. Bragg Solstice Celebration was a great success. 17 heathens enjoyed a pastafarian dinner of spaghetti, garlic bread, cookies, fudge and, of course, wine! We had fun decorating our Tree of Knowledge with ornaments of quotes from science rock stars like Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin, Einstein and Bill Nye. Other ornaments included pictures of Marie Curie and Galileo all capped off with a Cosmos tree topper. We'd like to thank Leigh-Anne, Jasmyn and Brenda for making the unique ornaments. Wendy brought a very cool Santaur ornament and 2 atheist themed stockings to hang on the Star Trek display with care! Lively discussion and good cheer abounded.
MechAbot greets our guests
MechAbot welcomed all to the Cookie decoarting station where folks were able to make their own unique designs on sugar cookies and gingerbread heathens.

We were very happy to welcome back one of our members, Charlie, who had recently suffered a heart attack followed by a successful triple bypass operation. He was looking good and rapidly on the mend!

Merry Solstice to all and to all a Joyous New Year in Reason!

Food Drive Donation

Brenda Germain, Paul Germain and Michael Cotten
MASH Ft.Bragg Food Drive ended Dec 19th when Brenda and Paul Germain dropped off the accumulated donations to Michael Cotten of the Southern Pines branch of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC. We were able to donate 124 pounds (which was approx $150 worth of food) and a check for $150. Thank you to all the MASH members who participated, you helped brighten Winter Solstice for the needy!!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

MASH Solstice Food Drive

MASH Ft. Bragg is kicking off it's fall fund-raiser, A Solstice Food Drive for the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. From now until our Solstice dinner on Dec 21st, we're asking our members to either bring food donations or cash donations to any of our events.

If you are not close to Ft. Bragg, you can make cash donations through our Paypal account

Please help us support the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and make the Solstice season a cheerful one for the less fortunate!

The Food Bank welcomes non-perishable products, sealed beverages, refrigerated or frozen items, or produce as well as non-food essentials such as hygiene items, cleaning items or paper products.
Our most needed items include:
  • Canned Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, and Soup (Pop-top cans and low sodium a plus!)
  • Whole Grain Pasta, Brown Rice, Dried Beans, and Cereal
  • Peanut Butter
  • For Infants: Formula, Infant Cereal, Diapers, and Wipes
  • For Kids: Fruit Cups, Juice Boxes, Granola Bars, Crackers, Popcorn and Sugar-Free Pudding Cups
  • Non-Food Essentials: Hygiene Items, Household Items, and Paper Products
*Please - No loose glass and plastic jars of baby food as they will have to be discarded due to health regulations

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Ferguson Easley School Supply donation

Paul, Dr. Hales, Brenda & Charlie
The Dr. Hales and the staff at Ferguson-Easley Elementary school are very happy with the school supplies donation MASH made to them on July 30th. Taking advantage of some awesome sales, Leigh-Anne, Charlie, Paul, and Brenda went shopping and then dropped off notebooks, pencils, crayons, rulers, glue sticks and colored pencils. This was in addition to the 144 pencils and 32 crayon packs provided through our ongoing Coke Rewards  fundraiser. We were able to provide a notebook and pencil for EVERY child in this school! Total dollar amount was over $260.

Schools supplies donation
Our final total donation tally:
    412 notebooks
    118 crayons (24 pack)
    480 pencils
     42 rulers
      8 glue sticks
      5 colored pencil set (12 pencils per)
     10 reams of multiuse paper
     50 packs of construction paper (2500 sheets, to be delivered next week from supplier)

Ferguson-Easley Elementary is the only STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) school in Fayetteville. In a poor neighborhood and predominately African-American, they treasure and truly need every donation. MASH supports this school because with the STEM curriculum, students learn valuable critical thinking skills crucial to producing rational and scientifically literate students. Something this area and the whole country can benefit from!

And who knows, perhaps they will produce the next Neil DeGrasse Tyson!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Farewell to Ian & Robyn and July 4th

We've been busy since Memorial Day. There were 2 parties to bid Ian and Robyn farewell, a dinner at Robyn's favorite Indian Restaurant and then Critical Drinking at her house. We'll miss both of them, but hope they will visit often!

July 4th, we celebrated in the boonies (my house) with sandwich makings, veggie tray, mac & cheese, chips-dips and fruit tray, and plans to watch the new Cosmos series. We watched some of Cosmos, but spent most of the time in various spirited discussions about the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision. We seem to do that a lot, get into interesting discussions and end forgoing the movie.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Memorial Day Cookout

Our Memorial Day Cookout was a great success, with 11 people showing up to enjoy good food, good times and great discussions. Burgers, brats, hot dogs, beans, salads, mashed potatoes and desserts were enjoyed by all!

Gary Guillen
March 19, 1951 - April 10, 2014
We took a few minutes to remember those who gave their lives in service to our country and to mourn the recent death of one of our members, Gary Guillen. Gary was a Vietnam Army veteran, who came to a number of our meetups over the last year. He was born March 19, 1951 and died April 10, 2014 at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. We are saddened by the loss of this MASH and FFRF member. Gary was a very nice, soft-spoken gentleman who added to our discussions with his unique viewpoint. He will be dearly missed by the members of our group.

For some odd reason, there was no obituary for Gary in our local paper or anywhere else for that matter, so members of MASH are working on getting more about Gary's life so we can have a proper obituary on our website. We are a bit short of pictures of Gary and information about his life, so if anyone has more info and/or pictures, please contact us.

Charlie brought some Boxtops for Education and Coca-Cola tops for our Ferguson Easley Elementary School fundraiser. Thanks Charlie! We now have over 2000 Coke Rewards points, but can always use more!

Thursday, May 8, 2014

FFRF Convention in Raleigh NC          

MASH Fort Bragg was represented at the Freedom From Religion Foundation's (FFRF) first mini convention in Raleigh, NC on May 2nd & 3rd by Brenda and Paul Germain. Close to 200 people were there from all over the US, one Irishman and one person who came all the way from France! Speakers included:  

Michael Nugent, founder and chair of Atheist Ireland. Michael flew in from Dublin giving an international flavor to the conference and talked about the growing number of blasphemy prosecutions around the world.  


Todd Stiefel, a Raleigh local, FFRF Lifetime Member and head of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. Todd’s speech was the importance of living Openly Secular. Openly Secular is seeking stories from atheists who have faced discrimination for their non-theism.  


Mandisa Thomas, founder and president of Black Nonbelievers, Inc., based in Atlanta. She encouraged more blacks to come out and stand strong as nonbelievers.  


We enjoyed Scott Burdick's latest documentary "Sophie Goes to Good News Club." This documentary is must see viewing for parents of children 4 to 14. What they are teaching children is horrific.  Both received awards from the conference.  


Paul & I were able to enjoy a great deal of networking with other atheists and made connects for more resources for our membership. Check out our Rational Resources and redesigned website MASH Ft. Bragg.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Dogwood Festival

MASH Ft. Bragg along with our parent organization, Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF), had our first ever informational booth at the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival on April 26 - 27, 2014. Our special guest, MAAF President Jason Torpy helped man our booth both Saturday and Sunday!


We had a great time interacting with all the people who stopped by our booth for more information and had a few chuckles at the reactions of some of the crowd. The overwhelming response to our booth was positive! There were a few "pickle pusses" and a couple of people who picked up our literature, then dropped it like they'd been stung by a bee when they realized we were atheists.

Thank you to all our members who volunteered their time to "man" the booth!
Ferguson-Easley Fundraiser (Ongoing)

MASH has an ongoing fundraiser via My Coke Rewards and Boxtops for Education for Ferguson-Easley Elementary School, a Science and Math public charter school in Fayetteville, NC. Help MASH Ft Bragg support early science education to encourage rational thinking in the next generation!

How you can contribute:

Bring Coke Rewards numbers (caps, wrappers and/or boxtops) and/or Boxtops for Education cut outs to any MASH Ft Bragg function and we will enter the codes for you. Coke Rewards can be donated directly from your Coke Rewards account to Ferguson-Easley Elementary School, Fayetteville, NC.


MASH President Featured in Freethought Today

Our president, Brenda Germain, was featured in the Freedom From Religion Foundation's June/July 2013 issue of Freethought Today in the Meet a Member section. Read the full interview.