The 5th Annual Mid Ohio Regional Atheist Picnic was held on July 21. The group gathered at Mohican State Park at the North Park Shelter. The location was not only secluded, but beautiful and scenic. They enjoyed sunshine all day long and spent the day with friends from all over Ohio.
Officially, there were 59 attendees for this year’s event. Guests visited locally from Mansfield, Ashland, the Columbus area, Kent, Toledo, Oberlin, Marion, and the Cleveland area. In addition to enjoying the conversations, they gathered donations for a charity drive, and enjoyed meeting our line up of speakers.
The charity drive was successful with a contest based on who could donate the most toilet paper, paper towels, or trash bags to local homeless shelter, Harmony House. These are items they often run low on and are not often donated. It was estimated that over $500 in products for Harmony House were collected. First prize was awarded to Barb William’s group, Great Lakes Atheists, from Toledo. Second prize included Jerry DeWitt’s new book, “Hope After Faith”, a Mid Ohio Atheist t-shirt, pens, buttons, and other items. The group seeks to make the world a better place for everyone.
Other highlight included a number of speakers. Dan Demura, from the Columbus area, spoke. Demura is a former pastor, he is part of the Clergy Project, group facilitator for the Columbus Chapter of Recovering from Religion, and is currently working on a book called “Discussions of Doubt” which also has a Facebook page. He spoke about “Life Beyond Faith”.
The group also heard from Rachel Johnson, a student at Kent State University, blogger (Godless Vagina), podcaster (The Pink Atheist), and writer for a the new Atheist magazine, The Celestial Teapot. She spoke on the topic of “Atheist Activism.” Douglas Whaley delivered a speech about “What atheism can learn from the LGBT movement.” Whaley is a long time LGBT activist, OSU professor emeritus, lawyer, and author of “Imaginary Friend.”
Finally, the director for American Atheist Press, Frank Zindler spoke about “Why only atheists can save the world.” The regional group speaks out for their cause.
