Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the wildfires that swept through
from 56th St. North to 61st St. North just east of N. Peoria Ave. and burned and
damaged several homes, caused some 200 homes to be evacuated, and was close to
burning down more of our area but for the great response of the local volunteer
Fire Dept. and area responders, local residents helping for hours, and a local
business contributing equipment and labor to make an important fire break. Our
Community Center was the first place for evacuations and Red Cross Center. Ever
since then we have met the first Thursday of the month to work on a disaster
response network of community residents and leaders, as well as exploring our
other infrastructure and community needs. We will be getting an update and
planning our first round of disaster response network community orientation
meetings when we gather tomorrow Thurs. Aug. 2 at 3:30 pm at our Welcome Table
Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave, for the next Grow Turley meeting.
But first tomorrow we have an opportunity for people to come help us give
out more than 3 tons of food to some 125 households during our Mobile Van Food
Giveaway at Cherokee School parking lot, 6001 N. Peoria It is going to be
another scorching hot excessive heat emergency day so we hope to get enough
volunteers to help so all can take breaks and not work for long as we sack and
bag the food to give away, and as we then start loading the cars and other ways
people will be getting their food beginning at 11 am. We will have plenty of
cold water and fruit for volunteers and the families. Other volunteers are
needed to help with traffic and hand out fliers and take the vouchers for the
food we have been handing out for the past two months through our pantry. Our
pantry is open every Tuesday and Friday mornings from 9:30 am to Noon;
volunteers are needed to help during those hours; some in the pantry, some in
the clothing room, some in the library and computer center.
Cooling Station for Far Northside and Turley at O'Brien Park
Recreation Center
During these excessive hot days, let people know that the Recreation Center
is a good place to go to stay cool, to use their facilities, materials in the
crafts and game room, etc. They are open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8 am
to 8 pm and Wednesday and Friday from 8 am to 6 pm. Located at 6147 N.
Birmingham Ave.
New Legal Resource Center Assistance and Spiritual Listening at our Community
Center
We are very pleased to announce a partnership with the Legal Aid Society of
Eastern Oklahoma, which has been providing some advisors to meet with our area
residents during the hours of our Food Pantry on Tuesday and Friday mornings
9:30 am to Noon, and have provided a good brochure center of resources for
people on a variety of family and civil and personal legal issues. They may not
be available at the Center every Tuesday or Friday so call to check first. Help
us spread the word to all who could use this important resource close to home. We have also been thrilled that many days during the Food Pantry being open we are blessed with the peaceful presence of the Rev. Debra Garfinkel, a spiritual director, who helps us greet and serve and listen to and with our neighbors.
Please come enjoy a "Super Spud Spectacular" benefit dinner and help raise
funds for us and our partners on the northside. We will have a baked potato
buffet dinner at the Lodge building, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., on Sat. Aug. 18 from
5-7 pm. $5 all you care to eat and children ten and under for free. Bring
friends. A good chance to share your projects and dreams for our community; help
us bring neighbors together in our multi-ethnic community by eating together.
Community Pancake Breakfast To Benefit Turley Volunteer Fire and
Rescue Dept, Sat. Aug. 11 8 to 10 am
Come help raise funds for our local fire dept. so they can help offset all
their water costs during the drought and fires of the season. Breakfast
sponsored by the Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave.
Mark it Now, part One: Our Foundation FundRaiser Community Benefit
Auction and FunFest Sat. Sept. 15 10 am
Come to our Auction at the Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and help
us raise funds for the Center, Food Pantry, and Kitchen Garden Park and Orchard
and many other projects and partners in the community. We have house and office
furnishings, appliances, books and tapes and building materials and much more.
Thanks to Jay Litchfield of BidLoud for his services during the auction. We will
have activities for children and community information. Great bargains and great
opportunity to give back and help us keep going and growing in service with our
neighbors.
Mark it Now, part Two: Far Northside Community Renewal Conference,
Sat. Oct. 13, at our Community Center.
Come be a part of our community building introduction to our neighborhoods
and the many issues, and many partners and projects underway to address them. We
will have an extensive tour of our service area, 46th to 76th St. North and
Highway 75 to Osage County Line, the McLain High School region, followed by
question and answer and free lunch and a keynote talk by Ann Patton, activist
and author of "Dan's War" about Father Dan Allen and his history of community
organizing in our area and founding of Neighbor For Neighbor, and with northside
business leader and activist Terry McGee, and small group work sharing plans for
the issues we surface during the event. Let me know now if you would like to be
a part of our planning group or will be coming, bringing others from your own
groups.
Pool Party, GardenPark and Orchard, Schools, and
More....
We were thrilled that the community pool party we helped organize with
O'Brien Park recently was so well attended and everyone had a great time; our
community needs chances to relax and come together and play together. Our 57
people was by far the most who attended the pool events at all of the county
parks. We are hoping to do more in order to show the county officials how
important and needed our pool is to our area that has suffered so many closings
lately from schools and post office....
We enjoyed buying the Welcome Back Lunch for the new The LightHouse Academy
Charter School that has gone in where the former Horace Greeley Elementary
School was at 63rd and N. Cincinnati Ave. and getting to meet the new faculty
and staff and talk about ways to partner with them in the coming year. They will
be joining our partnering with Gilcrease Elementary School at 56th and N.
Cincinnati Ave. and with our work with the McLain High School Foundation. If you
would like to help us be a partner in education, please let me know and we will
find ways to connect your passions with the schools.
We continue even in the heat to harvest from our community gardenpark, and
have received fresh vegetables also from vendors at the farmers market and from
our friends at The Living Kitchen Farm. Come help us garden and harvest every
Saturday beginning at 7 am; call Bonnie Ashing at 918 346 3475 to verify or ask
how you can help. Bring cardboard if you can. Stop by during the week to help us
care for our chickens which are giving us fresh eggs for our pantry....And
support our partner North Tulsa Farmers Market which meets indoors during these
hot days at Tulsa Community College Northeast Campus, Apache and Harvard, from 9
am to 2 pm. Also go by the house under renovation at 1370 E. 53rd St. N. on
Saturdays at 9:30 am to help the good folks with Sarah's Residential Living
Center in their mission of renovating abandoned houses into small intimate homes
for seniors living together.
Worship with Missional Community
This Sunday we will begin a month of Sunday gatherings in August around the
theme of exploring other faith communities, and drawing from their rich
traditions. This Sunday Deb Carroll will lead us in exploring the worship by the
Women Religious Leadership Network of Roman Catholic nuns and others as they
share their worship and mission. It will be our way as progressive Christians
and others to show solidarity with their work and struggle. We begin at the
Community Center on Sundays at 9:30 am and include conversation and common meal
as well as our worship. This month will be a fun church with other churches
focus. Don't miss out.
How You Can Help....beyond coming to see, to share, to
serve
We can do all of this only because we get the support of people like you,
and sometimes thank you from you yourself, who donate to our programs and
events through online contributions at www.turleyok.blogspot.com, or by
sending a check to A Third Place Community Foundation at 5920 N. Owasso Ave.
Turley, OK 74126. To experience more about us add me, revronrobinson, on
Facebook; and besides the website just mentioned, check out www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com,
www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com,
www.missionalmonastics.blogspot.com,
and www.uuchristian.org.
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