of The Ozarks

Recent Activities

Secular Sunday Meetings

Before long we will have the farmers markets and our Summer Speaker series. For those interested these are the types of things we discuss at our Secular Sunday Business Meetings. See Meeting Minutes for more details.

Tulsa Trip

The Spring has started out Strong, there were several from our local chapter who went on a Road trip to see 3 brilliant and delightful speakers talk about science mostly. The event was in Tulsa and had Seth Andres, Forest Valkai, and Erika “Gutsick Gibbon”. This event was the brain child of Seth Andrews. It warmed my Secular heart to see so many people (approx. 300), it was a SOLD OUT show. People from all over America came. There was an after party meetup hosted by the Atheist Community of Tulsa ACT members.

Our local chapter has hosted both Seth and Forest as part of our Summer Speaker series in the past.

A bit of Good news – Small Victory

Local news article about how Federal Judge rules on 10 Commandments in School. – We hope this sticks.

Court blocks law requiring Ten Commandments in public schools

Upcoming Events and Activities

Please join us for the first Road side clean up for 2026. Come out and help keep our stretch of road clean. The event is the last Saturday of the Month. March 29th. We also have many more activities coming in April.

March 29th (Sunday) – 7:30am to 10:00am

• Adopt-A-Highway Road Cleanup – Our first road cleanup of 2026 will start at Onyx Coffee (101 E Walnut Ave, Rogers, AR 72756) at 7:30am.  We will carpool from downtown Rogers at 8:00am.  The 1 mile section of road takes approximately 90 minutes to clean, and we anticipate returning to Rogers by 10:00am. Orange vests and trash bags will be provided by Benton County. For those able to join us, we recommend wearing long pants, gloves and hat (sunscreen and bug spray, if needed). We have plenty of “grabber tools” to borrow of these can be purchased online separately. Please come support the Ozarks Chapter of FFRF by doing good in our local community!

April 11th (Saturday) – 7:30am to 12:30pm

• Bentonville Farmers Market – our first Farmers Market event of 2026 takes place in Bentonville.  The Ozarks Chapter of FFRF will be set up in the designated “Free Speech” area (location TBD).  Come join us for an hour or two as we engage the community. 

April 19th (Sunday) – 10:00am to 11:00am

• Secular Sunday Meeting @ Onyx Coffee Lab inside The Momentary (507 SE E St, Bentonville, AR 72712) – join us as for our monthly get together as we talk business and get together for a quick tour of the museum after our meeting.  Take note of the new location!

April 25th (Saturday) – 7:30am to 12:30pm

• Fayetteville Farmers Market – The Ozarks Chapter of FFRF returns to the Fayetteville Farmers Market for the first time in 2026!  Come meet likeminded freethinkers and spend time chatting with fellow citizens of the Ozarks.

Updates to the Website

We have added our backlog of Meeting Minutes as well as the Newsletter.

Have added many links to both Linktree and the website. New Allies, new Friends more Secular connections.

Updated the Upcoming Events as well as links to support the local and national FFRF groups.

• Local Ozarks FFRF 2026 Membership
• National Membership – linked to Local Chapter

Our local chapter likes to support our community and one of the strongest relationships we have is with the NWS Woman’s Shelter Thrift Store. Our visit to the NWA Woman’s Shelter Thrift Store event in late January was a big success. We had 12 people help. We had scheduled from 10-1, but was able to wrap up early with so many hands. A few of us ate chose to eat some food at a nearby taco place, in shopping center after the event.

This was fun and invigorating to have so many people help, and make quick work, and over 30 hours of support in the time we were there. Chris Sweeny was even asked a few questions by local newspaper reporter who also took some candid shots of us working. I never was able to find the news article but it is not why we were doing the event but if you find it let me know.

Below is a few candid pics I took. We look forward to keep this relationship going.

Please join us for the upcoming roadside clean up.

March 29th (Sunday) – 7:30am to 10:00am

Adopt-A-Highway Road Cleanup – Our first road cleanup of 2026 will start at Onyx Coffee (101 E Walnut Ave, Rogers, AR 72756) at 7:30am.  We will carpool from downtown Rogers at 8:00am.  The 1 mile section of road takes approximately 90 minutes to clean, and we anticipate returning to Rogers by 10:00am. Orange vests and trash bags will be provided by Benton County. For those able to join us, we recommend wearing long pants, gloves and hat (sunscreen and bug spray, if needed). We have plenty of “grabber tools” to borrow of these can be purchased online separately. Please come support the Ozarks Chapter of FFRF by doing good in our local community!

I obviously take great pride in our local FFRF chapter. Many of the members I consider close friends and it was great to see them today at our Secular Sunday Meeting, in Fayetteville. We met at the Meteor and it was great to have 10 members present. For full meeting minutes please check them out here. Todays minutes coming soon…

Please join me in signing up for the local chapter. Local Ozarks FFRF 2026 Membership

All members of the National FFRF have free base level local membership. National Membership – linked to Local Chapter

2026 is going to be amazing! We will keep fighting for the separation of church and state issues. We plan on starting our cyclical cycle of the Farmers market in April. For full list of Events. See here.

Highlighted Upcoming Events

March 7th (Saturday) – 2:00pm to 5:00pm (Tulsa, OK)

Ozarks FFRF Field Trip! – Join Seth Andrews, Erika “Gutsick Gibbon,” and Forrest Valkai for three short presentations and roughly two hours of lively audience interaction at a freethought event right in the buckle of the Bible Belt.  Event is being held at OU Schusterman Learning Center – Perkins Auditorium in Tulsa, OK.  Tickets are $35 per person.

SOLD OUT – Let’s Carpool – possible Happy hour after with Tulsa Secular Community.

March 15th (Sunday) – 10:00am to 11:00am

Secular Sunday Meeting @ Onyx Coffee Springdale (100 E Emma Ave, Springdale, AR 72764 ) – Come join us for our monthly business and social meeting. 

Note: New Meeting Location!!!

March 29th (Sunday) – 7:30am to 10:00am

Adopt-A-Highway Road Cleanup – Our first road cleanup of 2026 will start at Onyx Coffee (101 E Walnut Ave, Rogers, AR 72756) at 7:30am.  We will carpool from downtown Rogers at 8:00am.  The 1 mile section of road takes approximately 90 minutes to clean, and we anticipate returning to Rogers by 10:00am. Orange vests and trash bags will be provided by Benton County. For those able to join us, we recommend wearing long pants, gloves and hat (sunscreen and bug spray, if needed). We have plenty of “grabber tools” to borrow of these can be purchased online separately. Please come support the Ozarks Chapter of FFRF by doing good in our local community!

Farmers Market Start in April 2026.

2nd Saturday in Bentonville.

4th Saturday in Fayetteville.

So much more…. to come….LET’S GO!!!!

Billboard

Summer Speakers Series

Pride Events

Holiday Festivities and more….

I wanted to share that we have distributed the FFRF Grant to the following organizations:

$350 was awarded to KUAF, the public radio station and NPR affiliate for northwest Arkansas, the Arkansas River Valley, eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri, whose mission is to be a leader in public media, serving our audience with programs that challenge, entertain, educate and inform.  Our members appreciate this resource, and in light of funding cuts to public radio stations, our group decided to increase our charitable contribution from $250 in 2024 to $350 in 2025 (No picture).

$350 was awarded to the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter, whose mission is to provide shelter and support at any hour for those affected by domestic violence in our community.  Our members volunteer annually at the NWAWS Thrift Store, and we are happy to contribute to the important work they do. 

For the first time, the Ozarks Chapter of FFRF awarded $300 to the OMNI Center to support their mission to educate, empower, and connect people to build a non-violent, sustainable, and just world.  This organization has many parallels with FFRF and we are excited to partner with the OMNI Center!  

Finally, on a side note, our group was able to install the “Bill of Rights” Nativity Display at the Capitol in Little Rock, AR, earlier this month.  LaDonnan and I will take it down on Saturday Jan 3rd.

Let’s have a few fun hike on New Years day. See events.

We all know and respect our local NPR station KUAF. Many of us listen daily, many of us are contributors as individuals. This is one of the reasons our local chapter has chose to give to KUAF as part of our charitable contribution the last 2 years running. 

Last Tuesday (Dec 2nd) KUAF decided to give back to the community to one nominated non profit. Nominate your favorite nonprofit for KUAF’s Giving Tuesday giveaway! https://share.google/fPtW7Upi7ZRWYl0yU

Great news – our organization was nominated for the KUAF Giving Tuesday nonprofit underwriting giveaway and was randomly selected. The Arkansas Chapter of Freedom From Religion Foundation! We will receive $1,000 worth of underwriting messages on KUAF over the next 12 months. Which will reach approximately 75,000 listeners across Northwest Arkansas, the Arkansas River Valley, eastern Oklahoma, and southwest Missouri.

The plan is to use this advertising to spread the word of out local Chapter and our upcoming 2026 Speaker Series. 

Please consider donating to KUAF if you have means. Support KUAF 91.3 FM https://share.google/2kuHXE5xCJ8W7MpQE

This weekend has been rather fantastic for our local chapter. Shortly I will make another post regarding the good news we got from KUAF. 

But for now let me discuss the trip that 4 of our members took yesterday [Saturday Dec. 6th] from NWA to the state Capital in Little Rock. George, Gail, Ladonna and I (James) all started our trip at 8AM to get to the capital by 11ish. It was a foggy morning drive.  

The plan was to meet up with another secular group – Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, and both set up our respective displays on the South lawn of the Capital. The FFRF Bill of Right nativity display and the ASF Winter Solstice Display was set up quickly. 

After we set up the dispay we met up at a local eatary – Blackberry Market Agrenta. It was good food but a bit crowded. We had a good chat with Chris and discussed how the year went for each group and plans for 2026. It was a really great day with great friends. 

Special thanks to the following people for various steps in making this possible.

Storage and Transportation of Display: Ladonna Powell

Acquiring display from FFRF: Chris Sweeny 

Purchasing of needed hardware:

Solar Lights – Ruth Stanfield

Post Driver –George Naidl 

Filling put Paperwork and getting state approval: Chris Sweeny 

Installation: George, Gail, Ladonna, and James

These displays will be up until Jan 3rd weekend. So if you are in the area and take a picture please post your pictures to Facebook or Discord Community . Alternatively email any pictures to Email (ozarksffrf@gmail.com) and we will add here on website. 

I know this year there have been many times and events that may have had us feel discouraged and sometimes overwhelmed.

Know that you are not alone, that there are many secular people and communities in the area. The local FFRF chapter has been focused on bringing the local secular community together.

I am very grateful and thankful for the community and the friendships I have built. I am thankful that our local chapter continues to grow and help the community. We have many more activities planned for 2026.

On July 13th we had Forrest Valkai (YouTube: Renegade Science Teacher) speak as part of our 2025 Secular Speaker Series. He spoke at the Fayetteville Library at 1pm.   Forrest presentation was on “How Learning Science Makes You A Better Person”.  This event was FREE and open to the public, but seating had limited. We were able to get the recording and I have been able to link it here for your viewing pleasure. Allowing any who missed it live to enjoy it now or revisit it.