ASK News and Events

Feeding Our Neighbors – Mother’s Day, 2024

🎉 Exciting News! 🎉

We’re happy to announce that ASK has partnered with Magnolia UMC for the third time! Together, on Mother’s Day, we recently volunteered to serve 24 trays of delicious baked ziti, accompanied by fresh salad, mouthwatering cookies, and garlic bread.

This collaboration highlights the power of unity and compassion in our community regardless of difference in beliefs. It’s inspiring to see how working together can make a meaningful impact!

A huge shoutout to all the volunteers who dedicated their time and effort to make this event a success. Your contributions are truly appreciated! We also want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated to support this endeavor.

Our next event to feed our neighbors is on June 9th, and we’d love for you to join us! Please reach out if you want to volunteer or donate. Stay tuned for additional opportunities to get involved and make a difference. Let’s continue to support each other and spread kindness wherever we go!

ASK Easter Sunday 3/31/24

🌟 Exciting News from ASK! 🌟

We’re thrilled to share that the Atheist Society of Knoxville (ASK) again joined forces with the United Methodist Church (UMC) for a heartwarming Easter initiative! Together, we embarked on a mission to spread kindness and compassion by feeding the hungry in our community. And what a success it was!

UMC graciously donated seven spiral hams and three trays of banana pudding. With the remarkable contributions from ASK members, which included trays of deviled eggs, six delectable cakes, an abundance of cookies, 240 pieces of fried chicken, a hefty 50 pounds of potatoes, and delicious baked mac & cheese, our impact on Easter Sunday was substantial. We were able to provide quite the feast!

The spirit of unity and collaboration was truly inspiring, and we couldn’t have achieved such success without the support of UMC and the dedication of our ASK members. Your kindness and generosity have made a real difference in the lives of those in need, and for that, we are immensely grateful.

Thank you, United Methodist Church, for opening your doors and hearts to us. We are honored to have partnered with you on this meaningful endeavor. Together, we’ve shown that compassion knows no boundaries, and by working together, we can create positive change in our community.

Let’s continue to spread love, kindness, and generosity wherever we go. Together, we can make a difference!

ASK bowling night 3/24/24

ASK organized a group outing to go bowling, and it was a fantastic experience for all involved. We had a great time hitting the lanes, enjoying friendly competition, and cheering each other on. More importantly, it provided us with an opportunity to come together as a community, and simply have fun in each other’s company. These group activities are invaluable in fostering a sense of belonging and camaraderie within ASK, and we look forward to organizing more events like this in the future.

ASK Volunteering to help feed hungry – 3/31/24!

On February 18th, ASK answered the call from Magnolia UMC to help feed the hungry and houseless. As UMC was one of the few churches to open as warming centers, ASK was happy to step up to help provide because we believe in good. We prepared over 40lbs of mashed potatoes and 32lbs of green beans to serve along ribs and mac and cheese provided by other generous volunteers.

UMC has once again reached out for us to return to Magnolia UMC to prepare and serve and we have a date locked in. On March 31, 2024 we are looking for additional volunteers to step up and help provide to our Knoxville neighbors in need. We already have several lined up but would love all the help we can get even if you just want to prepare and drop off items. Join our Facebook group to sign up for the event and add your prepared items to our google doc or use our contact form to reach out. We’d love to fill their kitchen with ASK members so UMC gets a night off of their weekly continued efforts.

ASK is Supporting Mutual Aid

This year, Atheist Society of Knoxville has decided to support local mutual aid groups. Our first is First Aid Collective Knox. This group has been helping people in our community struggling with houselessness, drug addiction, rental assistance, and many other things. We will be receiving a shipment of Narcan in about a month and will put together 50-100 safe-use kits for the First Aid Collective to distribute. We would also like to put together snack packs and menstrual packs for them. We are asking for your help for this part. We are collecting donations for any of the items listed below. You can also send money through PayPal @Knoxvilleatheists and we will purchase them.

Needed Items:

  • Cereal Bars (or any other soft pre-packaged ready to eat snacks)
  • Fruit
  • Drink mixes
  • Candy
  • Menstrual pads
  • Tampons

Items can be dropped off at Barley’s from 5-7 at the ASK table. You can also contact the page and we can try arrange a pick up.

Camp Quest Smokey Mountains is looking for volunteers!

Camp Quest Smoky Mountains is a secular, gender inclusive, residential camp for children and youth ages 8-17 held one week each summer.  It’s staffed and run entirely by adult volunteers (ages 18 and up) who take a week off of work or school to guide, challenge, listen to, chase after, and play outside with a big group of energetic, freethinking kids (and adults!). Most Camp Quest volunteers love the experience so much that they keep coming back year after year.

CQSM is currently seeking volunteers for its 2021 session from July 17th-24th. Meals and housing are provided during camp. First year staff are usually “cabin counselors” and are assigned to a cohort of campers with whom they spend much of the week.

You can learn more at cqsmokymountains.org, apply at campquest.configio.com, or ask questions by e-mailing cqsmokymountains@gmail.com. 

We’re resuming in person meetups!

It’s been a long year friends! But enough of our members have been fully vaccinated that we will be resuming our Barley’s meetup beginning May 11th at 5:30PM.

Where before we would meet up inside, we will now, for the time being, be dining on the outside patio. To comply with COVID restrictions the tables will be limited to 10 people but we will have the tables near each other and you can always move around.

We take our member’s health seriously and while we won’t be checking vaccination cards, we do ask that you only consider coming out if you are fully vaccinated.

We look forward to seeing everyone that wishes to come back out! See you soon!

First 2021 Meeting of the Board

Hey Heathens! We will be having our first meeting of the board this Thursday, the 21st from 6:30PM and ending at roughly 7:30PM. For the first time ever, we will be opening up this meeting virtually via Zoom. If you would like to participate in this meeting and offer suggestions and ideas, please use this form, or contact us via Facebook on our official page to get the link to the meeting ID.

January Secular Open Space

Sunday Assembly Knoxville is changing format! Starting on January 26 we will be hosting a monthly “Secular Open Space” bringing together the diverse groups in Knoxville’s secular community for a brunch-time potluck full of socializing, community organizing, intellectual discussions and family fun!

Sunday Assembly Knoxville is hosting at our amazing venue The Concourse, with represented organizations including the Rationalists of East Tennessee, the Atheist Society of Knoxville, the Freedom From Religion Foundation of East TN, and the Satanic Ministry of Knoxville. Learn about their missions and upcoming events, meet their members or get involved in secular activism!

Come at 11AM if you’d like to help set up. Doors open at 11:30 and we’ll have announcements and start the potluck brunch at 12. At 2PM there will be a closing announcement to start winding down and cleanup with everyone out by 3. Don’t worry if you need to come late, leave early, or if you don’t have a dish for the potluck!

The Secular Open Space is also adult friendly—with Mimosas and Bloody Mary’s to help provide conversational lubrication! The Concourse bar will be open thanks to our wonderful bartender who has offered to work for tips so tip well!

Each month we’ll have a theme to help stimulate the conversations. To kick us off this month it’s “Cross-Pollination” and we want to focus on networking between our members, upcoming issues and actions for 2020 and how we can work together to be a more potent force for secularism in East Tennessee.

The event will be based on the concept of an “Open Space”. Anyone can volunteer to lead a discussion on a topic they propose, and attendees can join whatever discussions that they find interesting. Everyone is strongly encouraged to obey the “Law of Two Feet” to get up and move around to different conversations as your interests dictate, ensuring ample cross-pollination. For more information on open spaces check out this summary: https://www.openspaceworld.org/files/tmnfiles/2pageos.htm

If you like the idea of Sunday Assembly but hate waking up too early, being forced to sing, or generally being reminded of going to Church, then you’ll love our new Secular Open Space! Hope to see you there!