The Miracle Among The Ruins: A Third Place Community Foundation: Creating The Welcome Table Community Center, GardenPark and Orchard, Corner Store Free Pantry, Art Studio, Clothing/ThriftStore, and Supporting Renewal in the 74126 and 74130. Click on the Donate button or Subscribe button below for options to support our projects. We are a grassroots volunteer 501c3 nonprofit. Center located at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. Gardens at 6005 N. Johnstown. Contact us at 918-691-3223, 430-1150, 794-4637
Friday
Breaking News: Protest Rally Sat. Sept. 24 to Bring Back Turley Post Office. Come to Warehouse Market show support
Late breaking news: Come to a protest rally and petition drive at the Warehouse Market in Turley tomorrow, Saturday Sept 24 and support the local postal workers who are supporting our community.
SAVE OUR MAIL SERVICE!
TULSA POSTAL WORKERS TO EXPOSE
EFFECTS OF CLOSING WEST TULSA & TURLEY STATIONS
Event Will Highlight Hardships Imposed on Citizens, Businesses, Local Economy
WHEN: Saturday, September 24, 2011, Noon – 6:00 PM
WHAT: Tulsa’s local postal workers will distribute information and launch a petition drive to inform citizens and the media about the Postal Service’s plan to close the West Tulsa and Turley Branches
WHERE: Warehouse Market, Turley
Corner of Southwest Blvd. & S 33rd W Ave, West Tulsa
WHO: Mark Coyle, Retired Letter Carrier, and local postal workers.
MORE: Closing the Turley & West Tulsa Branches, which are part of a nationwide plan to eliminate post offices in hundreds of communities like ours, would deprive citizens of easy access to crucial services and hurt local businesses. Closing these stations would create a hardship – especially for senior citizens, those with handicaps, and our neighbors who rely on public transportation. Postal workers are informing local citizens about the proposed closure – and what they can do to stop it.
***These rallies are being held in conjunction with the “Save Our Service” Rally which will be held on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 outside John Sullivan’s office. Petitions signed on Saturday will be presented to Congressman Sullivan. Representatives from all three postal unions will be there.
Thursday
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Next Week: Spaghetti Dinner, Turley Meeting, New Health Survey & Free Supper & Movie
Three Straight Days of Big Events in Turley next week.
Begin on Monday, Sept. 26 from 5 to 8 pm with the Spaghetti Dinner to benefit the recent fire victims, to be held at the Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy, $5 per person. Great deal, great cause.
Then on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 7 pm at O'Brien Park Recreation Center, the monthly public town hall meeting for Turley area residents. come meet local officials, hear about activities and plans coming up, bring your concerns and celebrations and commitment to helping your community improve our quality of life.
Then on Wednesday, Sept. 28, come to the community center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., behind the tag agency, from 3:30 to 5 pm and help us partner with the Tulsa County Health Dept. on a new health survey for our area; this is a new and different one from the one we did with OU recently; come take the 15 minute survey and stay for a free supper at the center, and also at 6:30 pm stay for our monthly movie; this month it is "October Sky" based on the memoir called Rocket Boys, about the struggles of poor kids in a poor community fighting against stereotypes to follow their dream and change the story of their life, thanks in large part to the dedication of a good public school teacher who believed in them and pushed them to greater expectations. Part of our September focus on Education.
Also remember we have every Saturday morning community garden Teach and Taste and Help at The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., and also on Wednesday evenings beginning at 6 pm. Come see the emerging park and catch the vision of growing and sharing healthy food in our zipcode which has a fourteen year lower life expectancy than in midtown tulsa just a few miles away.
For other events in community coming up see the post below at www.turleyok.blogspot.com.
Begin on Monday, Sept. 26 from 5 to 8 pm with the Spaghetti Dinner to benefit the recent fire victims, to be held at the Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy, $5 per person. Great deal, great cause.
Then on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 7 pm at O'Brien Park Recreation Center, the monthly public town hall meeting for Turley area residents. come meet local officials, hear about activities and plans coming up, bring your concerns and celebrations and commitment to helping your community improve our quality of life.
Then on Wednesday, Sept. 28, come to the community center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., behind the tag agency, from 3:30 to 5 pm and help us partner with the Tulsa County Health Dept. on a new health survey for our area; this is a new and different one from the one we did with OU recently; come take the 15 minute survey and stay for a free supper at the center, and also at 6:30 pm stay for our monthly movie; this month it is "October Sky" based on the memoir called Rocket Boys, about the struggles of poor kids in a poor community fighting against stereotypes to follow their dream and change the story of their life, thanks in large part to the dedication of a good public school teacher who believed in them and pushed them to greater expectations. Part of our September focus on Education.
Also remember we have every Saturday morning community garden Teach and Taste and Help at The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., and also on Wednesday evenings beginning at 6 pm. Come see the emerging park and catch the vision of growing and sharing healthy food in our zipcode which has a fourteen year lower life expectancy than in midtown tulsa just a few miles away.
For other events in community coming up see the post below at www.turleyok.blogspot.com.
Monday
Exciting Events in Turley Community Coming Up For All
TURLEY AREA COMING EVENTS For All---Please Share With Others...
@ Community Center/Library/FoodPantry/ClothingGiveaway/Chapel, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. or other neighborhood places 918-794-4637 or 918-691-3223 or 918-430-1150 for more information.
Community News: Thanks for all who came to celebrate or to support Turley Day on Sat. Sept. 17. Let us know if you want to work on a team to sponsor the event next year; it only happens if we get people to agree to work on it.
1. Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal. Come help raise needed funds to go for those affected by the August fires.
2. Turley Area Community Association, Tuesdays, Sept. 27 and Oct. 25, 7 pm O’Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham. Meet local officials, hear what is going on and how you can help.
3. Come to the Community Center from 3:30 to 5 pm on Wednesday Sept. 28 and help our area have a voice in the new county health department being built in our area at 56th and Cincinnati. If you take about 15 minutes to help the health department with a survey of residents, we will provide you with an after school meal or dinner, and then you are invited to stay and watch the acclaimed movie October Sky about boys from a poor town in West Virginia who defy the odds and stereotypes and follow their dreams of launching rockets. Movie starts at 6:30 pm.
4. Turley Area Alliance Against Crime: Personal, Home, and Neighborhood Safety meetings last Thursdays Sept. 29, 6:30 pm at the center.
5. Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, working on small area plan and on incorporation, Thurs., Oct. 6, 2 pm, at the Center. We have been informed that now the Red Cross will be able to use the O'Brien Recreation Center as the community evacuation center in case of future fires or other needs; now we will be working on setting up community resource response and a communication network of how to let people know; we are still trying to work on getting a tornado shelter in our area with a mobile home park without one. This is not a town hall meeting but a working session for community leaders and those who wish to take on work for the community....We are also working on Cherokee School use, revisioning ways to use it for new community uses, working with OU Graduate Design School, and also ways to bring back a post office which recently closed after a century here....We will be working with others to do visioning celebrations and to show possibilities for new economic and community life in abandoned shopping areas in our area.
6. First Fridays Townhall with Rep. Seneca Scott, Catholic Charities, Apache and Harvard, Oct. 7, 5:30 pm, Community Coalitions Connection.
7. Plan It Now. Mark it on your Calendar. Don't Miss It and let your neighbors know about the Free Community Dinner, Third Annual Taste of North Tulsa, Better Choices and Healthy Living, Thu. Oct. 13, 6 p.m., community organizations fair, health screenings, at our community's McLain High School and Junior High School, 4949 N. Peoria Ave. Great Jazz Band, local restaurants featured. Some of the best food will be cooked by area restaurants and available for free.
8. Movie Night, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 6:30 pm at the Center, we will be showing an important for our area Documentary “Living Without: youth of incarcerated parents tell their own stories” followed by discussion. We hope to partner with area organizations who are focusing on helping our children and youth whose parents are incarcerated.
9. Families and Communities Empowered For Safety Presentation and Conversation with Sherry Clark, founder of F.A.C.E.S. Free Supper Program, 5 pm Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Center. This will be a chance to help our community prevent and respond better to one of our most prevalant problems, Domestic Violence, and will also be focused on other issues of safety as well. Come to the supper presentation at the Center and then go to O'Brien Park for the monthly community meeting.
10. Community Free Halloween Party, Sat. Oct. 29, 6 to 8 pm, at The Center.
Weekly Events:
11. Bluegrass Jam, Every Monday, 5 pm, at the Community Center.
12. Community Garden Taste and Teach Gatherings Every Saturday 8 to 10 am and Every Wednesday, 6 pm to ?, the Welcome Table Community Park, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. Come celebrate and connect and help us grow healthy food in this healthy food desert, meet new friends, come take on a garden bed for yourself, your family, your church; or come and enjoy the views and the emerging new garden park that has been created by local residents.
13. Recovery 12 step Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center
14. Turley Water Board Public Meeting, LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT. 6108 N. Peoria Ave.
15. Turley Fire Dept. Meetings THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.
16. Small Group Worship Circle at the Welcome Table Community Center, Sundays 11 am, bible study, communion and common meal, Rev. Ron Robinson. for more on The Welcome Table church go to www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com.
@ Community Center/Library/FoodPantry/ClothingGiveaway/Chapel, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. or other neighborhood places 918-794-4637 or 918-691-3223 or 918-430-1150 for more information.
Community News: Thanks for all who came to celebrate or to support Turley Day on Sat. Sept. 17. Let us know if you want to work on a team to sponsor the event next year; it only happens if we get people to agree to work on it.
1. Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal. Come help raise needed funds to go for those affected by the August fires.
2. Turley Area Community Association, Tuesdays, Sept. 27 and Oct. 25, 7 pm O’Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham. Meet local officials, hear what is going on and how you can help.
3. Come to the Community Center from 3:30 to 5 pm on Wednesday Sept. 28 and help our area have a voice in the new county health department being built in our area at 56th and Cincinnati. If you take about 15 minutes to help the health department with a survey of residents, we will provide you with an after school meal or dinner, and then you are invited to stay and watch the acclaimed movie October Sky about boys from a poor town in West Virginia who defy the odds and stereotypes and follow their dreams of launching rockets. Movie starts at 6:30 pm.
4. Turley Area Alliance Against Crime: Personal, Home, and Neighborhood Safety meetings last Thursdays Sept. 29, 6:30 pm at the center.
5. Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, working on small area plan and on incorporation, Thurs., Oct. 6, 2 pm, at the Center. We have been informed that now the Red Cross will be able to use the O'Brien Recreation Center as the community evacuation center in case of future fires or other needs; now we will be working on setting up community resource response and a communication network of how to let people know; we are still trying to work on getting a tornado shelter in our area with a mobile home park without one. This is not a town hall meeting but a working session for community leaders and those who wish to take on work for the community....We are also working on Cherokee School use, revisioning ways to use it for new community uses, working with OU Graduate Design School, and also ways to bring back a post office which recently closed after a century here....We will be working with others to do visioning celebrations and to show possibilities for new economic and community life in abandoned shopping areas in our area.
6. First Fridays Townhall with Rep. Seneca Scott, Catholic Charities, Apache and Harvard, Oct. 7, 5:30 pm, Community Coalitions Connection.
7. Plan It Now. Mark it on your Calendar. Don't Miss It and let your neighbors know about the Free Community Dinner, Third Annual Taste of North Tulsa, Better Choices and Healthy Living, Thu. Oct. 13, 6 p.m., community organizations fair, health screenings, at our community's McLain High School and Junior High School, 4949 N. Peoria Ave. Great Jazz Band, local restaurants featured. Some of the best food will be cooked by area restaurants and available for free.
8. Movie Night, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 6:30 pm at the Center, we will be showing an important for our area Documentary “Living Without: youth of incarcerated parents tell their own stories” followed by discussion. We hope to partner with area organizations who are focusing on helping our children and youth whose parents are incarcerated.
9. Families and Communities Empowered For Safety Presentation and Conversation with Sherry Clark, founder of F.A.C.E.S. Free Supper Program, 5 pm Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Center. This will be a chance to help our community prevent and respond better to one of our most prevalant problems, Domestic Violence, and will also be focused on other issues of safety as well. Come to the supper presentation at the Center and then go to O'Brien Park for the monthly community meeting.
10. Community Free Halloween Party, Sat. Oct. 29, 6 to 8 pm, at The Center.
Weekly Events:
11. Bluegrass Jam, Every Monday, 5 pm, at the Community Center.
12. Community Garden Taste and Teach Gatherings Every Saturday 8 to 10 am and Every Wednesday, 6 pm to ?, the Welcome Table Community Park, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. Come celebrate and connect and help us grow healthy food in this healthy food desert, meet new friends, come take on a garden bed for yourself, your family, your church; or come and enjoy the views and the emerging new garden park that has been created by local residents.
13. Recovery 12 step Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center
14. Turley Water Board Public Meeting, LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT. 6108 N. Peoria Ave.
15. Turley Fire Dept. Meetings THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.
16. Small Group Worship Circle at the Welcome Table Community Center, Sundays 11 am, bible study, communion and common meal, Rev. Ron Robinson. for more on The Welcome Table church go to www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com.
Saturday
Turley Area History, CleanUp, Garden, Food Drive Day Sat. Sept. 17
Turley Area History & Garden & Clean Up & Food Drive Day
Sat. Sept. 17 8 am – 2 pm
@The Welcome Table Community Center
5920 N. Owasso Ave. behind the tag agency, one block west of Peoria
Free Lunch For Volunteers: Come For As Long As You Can. All Ages Welcome.
Food Drive For Community Pantry….
Litter Pickup from our streets: free bags, gloves, water provided….
Yard Sale. Take what you need, give what you can.
Children’s Activities, Jump….
Free Plant & Seed & More Garden Swap begin from 8-10 at Welcome Table Park, 6005 N. Johnstown; see the new orchard; Taste and Teach weekly gathering; enjoy the views; celebrate and connect; grow healthy food for yourself and for and with others in our healthy food desert; then it will be moved from 10-2 down to the Community Center….
Live Music….10-Noon
History Sharing and Talking About the Future: Noon-2 pm: Bring Stories, Photos, Yearbooks & More. Honor Our Elders.
Brought To You By your local TulsaNorth/Turley TNT northside volunteer grassroots A Third Place Community Foundation: Renewing Community in Abandoned Places, Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoods, through small acts of justice done with great love.
Please donate and surprise the world; see the button at the top of the page.
Call 918-691-3223, 794-4637, 430-1150 To Help Plan and Participate
Come to our A Third Place Community Foundation planning meal, Monday, Sept. 12, 6:30 pm at the Center.
Monday
New News and Views and Coming Events
Hi all.
First, it is with heavy hearts that we pass on the news of the sudden illness and pending removal of life support from our friend, board member, and co-conspirator for love and justice Gwen Goff. Prayers for her, her family, all of her community connections; her spirit still guides us and will be present in all of these gatherings mentioned below.
Coming so soon after the death of our other partner Steve Eberle, and this past Spring of Michael Niles, one of our partners and husband of our president, and then more recently the fires, the break-in, the breakdown of AC and plumbing which closed us for a while (which is now fixed), the closing of the post office pending in a few days, and the start of this school year without students at Cherokee/Turley for the first time in a hundred years, and the continuing heat wave, and it has been a rough summer of grief and stress. We are looking toward September. It is time to celebrate, to be with one another, to commit and to connect.
And so we continue to be a presence for justice, for community renewal, for growing healthy lives and neighborhoods. Please come to these following events and pass on the news to others, and look for ways you can partner with us in these and so much more. After the events, be inspired by a quote from someone who captures well what we do here...
TURLEY AREA COMING EVENTS For All
@ Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. www.turleyok.blogspot.com
1. Don't Miss this opportunity...We are partners helping to coordinate The University of Oklahoma Turley/NorthTulsa area Community Health Summer 2011 Project: Take a health attitudes survey and get a free Visa gift card to use at local northside stores. Throughout this month, our community health focus month, we have been conducting surveys and handing out gift cards at various events. We are about to finish the project which we have been able to extend. So....Come to the Turley Area COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION Public Meeting, Tuesday Aug. 30 at 7 pm to be held this month here at The Community Center to participate. Must be 18 or over and not taken the survey before, and live in the 74126 or 74130 zipcodes or nearby to them. Meet local officials, join in neighborhood planning groups, find out what's going on.
2. Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, Thurs., Sept. 1, 2 pm, and first Thursdays of the month at the Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso. Followup to the fires, continuing to pursue small area planning to help us get sidewalks, lights, incorporation, and followups to school closings and changes.
3. Benefit Bean Dinner for Turley Fire Department, in response to the recent fires, Sat. Sept. 3, Noon to 5 pm, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria. Help support those who support and save and protect us.
4. Free Back to School Workshops and Conference For All Families in elementary, junior, and senior high, Sat. Sept. 10, 8:30 am to 1 pm, McLain School, 4949 N. Peoria, for more info call Andrea Walker 918-830-7016, walkean7@gmail.com. Thank you to Metropolitan Baptist Church for sponsoring this event. Also our McLain Foundation will begin meeting again this week on Tuesday at 4:15 pm. And Plan now to help us help others at the Back to School Night, Horace Greeley School, Tuesday, Sept. 13. We were blessed to have the opportunity to feed all the staff and teachers before school started, which was so vital as the school is merging staff as well as students this year, and eating together is a way to build relationships and morale among staff that will benefit our children. We hope to do more of this with them during the year, and with other schools in our area. September will be Education Focus Month here at the Center.
5. Turley Area Litter Clean-Up Day and Heritage Lunch, bring stories and photos and honor our elders and learn the history of our area, and Planning Groups and more, 8 am to 2 pm, community center, 5920 N. Owasso; free trash bags, bottled water, free lunch for volunteers, workshops, community information.
6. Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal.
7. Movie Club, Education Focus Month, “October Sky” Wed. Sept. 28, 6:30 pm, community center, free pizza popcorn. Come be inspired. Come discuss how we can help children who no one else believes in.
8. "Taste and Teach" events at our Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark where the new orchard is, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., come every Wednesday from 6 pm to ?, or on Saturdays from 8 am to 10 am, meet others who wish to learn, to grow, to serve, to celebrate, to connect. This is why the park is being developed, so share with others and see how the miracle among the ruins is continuing.
9. Recovery Groups, Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous and 7:30 pm Alcoholics Anonymous, at the Center.
10. Other public meetings. TURLEY WATER BOARD PUBLIC MEETING LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT…. and TURLEY FIRE AND RESCUE MEETINGS THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station.
11. Worship Circle, Welcome Table Church, a free universalist christian missional community, write to revronrobinson@aol.com for times of gatherings at the center or gardens or other places, or follow on facebook at www.facebook.com/revronrobinson, or at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com or www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com. We have been worshipping with others lately, but we will be back at the center beginning Sept. 11 for special worship; contact me 918-691-3223 or by email to find out more about where and how we will gather. See recent sermons at the sites above.
Commentary: Here is one of the best depictions of what we are up to, and why, and what our vision is. It comes from Mary Lou Kownacki and "A Monk in the lnner City":
"What do I do here? I listen. I get to know my neighbors, really know them. I listen to their hopes and dreams for decent jobs, decent homes, a safe place to raise their children. They are worried about their children, especially their teenagers, who can see no future except minimum-paying jobs, lockup, or dropping out on the streets...What do I do here? I plead a case for presence, beauty, community, and a call to follow God into the wilderness.
"Once upon a time men and women who wanted to seek God relocated themselves in abandoned places. These "wilderness places" often associated with the desert [like our healthy food desert], gave the seekers a unique perspective and freedom. Living on the margins of society, stripped of the trappings of social expectation and pressure, they began to see differently. Immersed in the word of God, they began to listen differently. They put on the broken heart of God and spoke the truth on God's behalf for the poor, the victims of injustice, the suffering.
"Their location in the wilderness gave them great freedom. Why? Because no one paid attention to them. Because they were not the movers and shakers of the city. Because they had no political influence, no one cared what they did. No one even noticed their quiet works of transformation among the poor until suddenly "the desert and parched land bloomed with abundant flowers."
More to come, blessings, thanks, Ron
First, it is with heavy hearts that we pass on the news of the sudden illness and pending removal of life support from our friend, board member, and co-conspirator for love and justice Gwen Goff. Prayers for her, her family, all of her community connections; her spirit still guides us and will be present in all of these gatherings mentioned below.
Coming so soon after the death of our other partner Steve Eberle, and this past Spring of Michael Niles, one of our partners and husband of our president, and then more recently the fires, the break-in, the breakdown of AC and plumbing which closed us for a while (which is now fixed), the closing of the post office pending in a few days, and the start of this school year without students at Cherokee/Turley for the first time in a hundred years, and the continuing heat wave, and it has been a rough summer of grief and stress. We are looking toward September. It is time to celebrate, to be with one another, to commit and to connect.
And so we continue to be a presence for justice, for community renewal, for growing healthy lives and neighborhoods. Please come to these following events and pass on the news to others, and look for ways you can partner with us in these and so much more. After the events, be inspired by a quote from someone who captures well what we do here...
TURLEY AREA COMING EVENTS For All
@ Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. www.turleyok.blogspot.com
1. Don't Miss this opportunity...We are partners helping to coordinate The University of Oklahoma Turley/NorthTulsa area Community Health Summer 2011 Project: Take a health attitudes survey and get a free Visa gift card to use at local northside stores. Throughout this month, our community health focus month, we have been conducting surveys and handing out gift cards at various events. We are about to finish the project which we have been able to extend. So....Come to the Turley Area COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION Public Meeting, Tuesday Aug. 30 at 7 pm to be held this month here at The Community Center to participate. Must be 18 or over and not taken the survey before, and live in the 74126 or 74130 zipcodes or nearby to them. Meet local officials, join in neighborhood planning groups, find out what's going on.
2. Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, Thurs., Sept. 1, 2 pm, and first Thursdays of the month at the Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso. Followup to the fires, continuing to pursue small area planning to help us get sidewalks, lights, incorporation, and followups to school closings and changes.
3. Benefit Bean Dinner for Turley Fire Department, in response to the recent fires, Sat. Sept. 3, Noon to 5 pm, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria. Help support those who support and save and protect us.
4. Free Back to School Workshops and Conference For All Families in elementary, junior, and senior high, Sat. Sept. 10, 8:30 am to 1 pm, McLain School, 4949 N. Peoria, for more info call Andrea Walker 918-830-7016, walkean7@gmail.com. Thank you to Metropolitan Baptist Church for sponsoring this event. Also our McLain Foundation will begin meeting again this week on Tuesday at 4:15 pm. And Plan now to help us help others at the Back to School Night, Horace Greeley School, Tuesday, Sept. 13. We were blessed to have the opportunity to feed all the staff and teachers before school started, which was so vital as the school is merging staff as well as students this year, and eating together is a way to build relationships and morale among staff that will benefit our children. We hope to do more of this with them during the year, and with other schools in our area. September will be Education Focus Month here at the Center.
5. Turley Area Litter Clean-Up Day and Heritage Lunch, bring stories and photos and honor our elders and learn the history of our area, and Planning Groups and more, 8 am to 2 pm, community center, 5920 N. Owasso; free trash bags, bottled water, free lunch for volunteers, workshops, community information.
6. Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal.
7. Movie Club, Education Focus Month, “October Sky” Wed. Sept. 28, 6:30 pm, community center, free pizza popcorn. Come be inspired. Come discuss how we can help children who no one else believes in.
8. "Taste and Teach" events at our Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark where the new orchard is, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., come every Wednesday from 6 pm to ?, or on Saturdays from 8 am to 10 am, meet others who wish to learn, to grow, to serve, to celebrate, to connect. This is why the park is being developed, so share with others and see how the miracle among the ruins is continuing.
9. Recovery Groups, Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous and 7:30 pm Alcoholics Anonymous, at the Center.
10. Other public meetings. TURLEY WATER BOARD PUBLIC MEETING LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT…. and TURLEY FIRE AND RESCUE MEETINGS THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station.
11. Worship Circle, Welcome Table Church, a free universalist christian missional community, write to revronrobinson@aol.com for times of gatherings at the center or gardens or other places, or follow on facebook at www.facebook.com/revronrobinson, or at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com or www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com. We have been worshipping with others lately, but we will be back at the center beginning Sept. 11 for special worship; contact me 918-691-3223 or by email to find out more about where and how we will gather. See recent sermons at the sites above.
Commentary: Here is one of the best depictions of what we are up to, and why, and what our vision is. It comes from Mary Lou Kownacki and "A Monk in the lnner City":
"What do I do here? I listen. I get to know my neighbors, really know them. I listen to their hopes and dreams for decent jobs, decent homes, a safe place to raise their children. They are worried about their children, especially their teenagers, who can see no future except minimum-paying jobs, lockup, or dropping out on the streets...What do I do here? I plead a case for presence, beauty, community, and a call to follow God into the wilderness.
"Once upon a time men and women who wanted to seek God relocated themselves in abandoned places. These "wilderness places" often associated with the desert [like our healthy food desert], gave the seekers a unique perspective and freedom. Living on the margins of society, stripped of the trappings of social expectation and pressure, they began to see differently. Immersed in the word of God, they began to listen differently. They put on the broken heart of God and spoke the truth on God's behalf for the poor, the victims of injustice, the suffering.
"Their location in the wilderness gave them great freedom. Why? Because no one paid attention to them. Because they were not the movers and shakers of the city. Because they had no political influence, no one cared what they did. No one even noticed their quiet works of transformation among the poor until suddenly "the desert and parched land bloomed with abundant flowers."
More to come, blessings, thanks, Ron
Friday
Coming Events in Turley Area: Health Survey Gift Cards, Public Meeting, Heritage Lunch, CleanUp Day, Movie, Gardens, Schools, Benefit Dinners, More
TURLEY AREA COMING EVENTS For All
@ The Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and elsewhere in the area, 918-794-4637
The University of Oklahoma Turley/NorthTulsa area Community Health Summer 2011 Project: Take a health attitudes survey and get a free Visa gift card to use at local northside stores. Come to the COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION Public Meeting, Tuesday Aug. 30 at 7 pm at The Community Center to participate. Must be 18 or over and not taken the survey before, and live in the 74126 or 74130 zipcodes or nearby to them. Meet local officials. A community health month project of Turley's local nonprofit A Third Place Community Foundation.
Turley Area Disaster Response Planning, and Community Leadership Coordination, Thurs., Sept. 1, 2 pm, and first Thursdays of the month at the Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso. We will be joined by leaders of Tulsa Partners to discuss development of a local disaster response plan, and continuing issues of incorporation, area planning, and response to the recent fires, needs for sidewalks, lights, and more.
Benefit Bean Dinner for Turley Fire Department, in response to the recent fires, Sat. Sept. 3, Noon to 5 pm, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.
Free Back to School Workshops and Conference For All Families in elementary, junior, and senior high, Sat. Sept. 10, 8:30 am to 1 pm, McLain School, 4949 N. Peoria, for more info call Andrea Walker 918-830-7016, walkean7@gmail.com. Sponsored by Metropolitan Baptist Church.
Back to School Night, Greeley School, Tuesday, Sept. 13. Help us help the students, teachers, families, 63rd and N. Cincinnati (Martin Luther King Blvd) Ave.
Turley Area Litter Clean-Up Day and Heritage Lunch and Planning Groups and more, 8 am to 2 pm, community center, 5920 N. Owasso; free trash bags, bottled water, free lunch for volunteers, workshops, information. Come pick up the trash off our streets, have fun, free lunch, do planning of future events, share stories of Turley area past.
Benefit Spaghetti Dinner for Fire Victims, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., All Welcome, Monday, Sept. 26, 5 pm, $5 meal.
Movie Club, Education Focus Month, “October Sky” Wed. Sept. 28, 6:30 pm, community center, free pizza popcorn. A movie about the real story of the 1960s Rocket Boys of West Virginia who proved their world wrong about what they were supposed to do with their life, thanks to a supportive teacher who believed in them.
Community Garden Gatherings Every Saturday 8 to 10 am, Park, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. …Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center…TURLEY WATER BOARD PUBLIC MEETING LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT…. TURLEY FIRE AND RESCUE MEETINGS THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station.
Sunday
National News on Turley and Us and the Response to Heat Wave and Fires and More
CBS Radio just interviewed us about Turley about a story on Oklahoma heat wave (http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-100_162-296.html?tag=hdr;wnav), after AP did yesterday (see http://hosted2.ap.org/MAQUI/ENTAPNEWSTICKER/Article_2011-08-20/id-41612cd9dcf346e2b31bef2110d79629), about our community center response during the heat wave, fires, and all here in our community lately; no news story is able to capture all that needs to be said and just one little sentence or two barely scratches the surface...
about life in poverty areas especially when heat wave makes it even tougher on folks without ac, without cars, without access to malls, who walk without sidewalks to grocery stores and schools, and then the shutting down of post office coming after shutting the school, and the fires and home losses and depletion of resources for the fire department and the community center....and those with AC, like our situation, are having theirs breaking down and not able to replace; fortunately schools going back here this week so kids will have a cool place, though for many walking back in the heat is tough.
and then our center which acts as cooling station in afternoons and provides water, food, TV computers, games, etc. has its own AC wear down from so much use and eventually this past week wear out, plumbing breaks, and the breakin after the fires takes computers, phones..
....so with all that hard to contain to a cute blurb and hard to shut me up, but I do appreciate very much of the national news and attention, helping people perhaps to see what they don't in normal run of their day see or experience; like how hard it is for people in the heat wave who work day labor outdoors and rely on mowing lawns and small day jobs, working in heat or not being able to find work like they used to; worrying about paying electric and water bills so not eating but very little to save up for the bills to come....
but like we said at worship in the park this morning, being here is what counts, and doing things poorly but doing them is what counts and what lasts; so tomorrow we will be taking again the ice chests of bottled water out to the streets, and hope to get AC replaced asap and then find ways to pay for it later....and to learn from this summer and disasters how to be present even more and better; we will be meeting at the center thursday sept 1 at 2 pm, if AC gets replaced, with area leaders and those from Tulsa Partners about the disaster response plan ideas and process for next time we have mass evacuations from fires or possible floods tornadoes etc. And we are still out promoting all community events like the fund raiser for the Turley Fire Dept. Sat. Sept. 3 noon to 5 pm $5 per person bean dinner at the fire station 6408 N. Peoria; don't want to miss that chance to help and get some good food....And we will keep hosting community celebrations to remind us of the abundance of life together even in the midst of the things that try to drive us to thinking only about ourselves; and we have a community history and heritage lunch planned at the center for noon on Sat. Sept. 17 after a morning of service cleaning up our community. and our Sept. focus will be on educational justice, and our movie will be "October Sky" Wed. Sept. 28 6:30 pm.
...we will continue to look at the deeper systemic issues of justice at the same time we do the daily response of one to one needs that comes up; we will be talking Tuesday Aug. 23 at 1:30 pm with politicians about trying to get the post office to work with us to staff our own postal center with their help here in the center or with a local business interested in it ...On Wednesday Aug. 24 we keep our focus on Community health month here with the movie "Sicko" and discussion and free food at 6:30 pm and hope we can do it in the center but if AC not replaced by then will find another place for it...Then thursday evening Aug. 25 we host the local neighborhood leaders safety and watch meetings of the turley area alliance against crime...
....and speaking of community health month, we found out we can extend for a few more weeks our summer health survey program with OU where we give out to local residents gift cards to use for their time taking the surveys with us; so we get more data, can reach more areas of the community, and pump more money directly back to the people here in our neighborhoods, and build connections to our projects and one another at the same time; we hope to have more health events at school, community meeting, and again at the north tulsa farmers market to reach people living here on the northside....another reason to get our AC replaced in time for our the community meeting next week and the community leadership meeting....
...Even when the Center is shut down because of the AC out we take the Center to the Community as we did this past Wednesday providing a pizza and salad lunch for all the teachers at the Horace Greeley Elementary School, now our closest school; it was a time to promote reconciliation of teachers from two schools that had merged due to the closing of Cherokee school; allowing teachers time and place to eat together and visit all together is a rare thing for a school where schedules and more keep all so busy and apart, but we want to do more of this and find ways to promote teachers building relationships with one another in order to help foster that among the students who are going through all the changes of closed schools and new schools too.
....finally while all of this is the arms and legs hands and feet and body of the church being the church int he community for the community and with people of varying faiths and no faith communities, our worship circles, like this morning at the park in the relative cool of the early morn, are the heart, and we have real, relaxed, and relational times, sharing life, getting in touch with all that sustains us, so that we can share and be the church in many ways while we are out in the world....So this Thursday we will be sharing worship with Phillips theological Semianry, 905 N. Mingo, at 11:30 am followed by lunch as some of us in the Unitarian Universalist sphere provide the chapel liturgy for communion. You also get a good homily from PTS President Gary Peluso-Verdend....Then next Sunday The Welcome Table Universalist Church will go on the road to Stillwater as I will be preaching at the UU Church there; we will carpool and caravan and then have some fun in Stillwater after the fun of worship of course.
will try to post more links and updates at www.turleyok.blogspot.com and www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
Tuesday
Turley Community Health FunFest Sat. Aug. 13 9 am to 1 pm; celebrating community after the fires
Come to the community center at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. behind Turley Tag Agency this Saturday as we celebrate community, especially after the fires and evacuations from last week when our center was turned into a Red Cross response station. Thanks to all who helped then and continue to help now.
We will have live music at 11 am by Johnny Cervantes and The Oklahomans; we will have free community resources and information tables to help your families with many issues; we will have classes and conversation on getting better health care led by a Medical Doctor; we will have clothing and more giveaway, book sale, and OU Community Health and Social Work partners will be here giving health care attitude surveys for us and we will be giving out $10 gift cards to Quick Trip for those who take the surveys, while they last. And we will have free pizza at noon. And children's activities.
Plus come hear about our Community Orchard and Gardens to grow healthy food for our area which has the lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa area, and most poverty; plus come hear and see the vision of what the community center can be and become. Bring Food for our Food Drive. See the Muhammad Ali Peace Garden. And more...All are welcome. Spread the news.
We will have live music at 11 am by Johnny Cervantes and The Oklahomans; we will have free community resources and information tables to help your families with many issues; we will have classes and conversation on getting better health care led by a Medical Doctor; we will have clothing and more giveaway, book sale, and OU Community Health and Social Work partners will be here giving health care attitude surveys for us and we will be giving out $10 gift cards to Quick Trip for those who take the surveys, while they last. And we will have free pizza at noon. And children's activities.
Plus come hear about our Community Orchard and Gardens to grow healthy food for our area which has the lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa area, and most poverty; plus come hear and see the vision of what the community center can be and become. Bring Food for our Food Drive. See the Muhammad Ali Peace Garden. And more...All are welcome. Spread the news.
Friday
Channel 6 Story on $25,000 Grant For the KitchenGardenPark
http://www.newson6.com/story/15213874/grant-volunteers-create-turley-community-garden
We have already begun making big transformations clearing out the old trash and debris to make room for the orchard and the garden beds, but with this grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank, with the help of Turley's Freedom Bank, and the Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District, you will really be able to see a transformation and creation of a new place to grow healthy food together, to meet and greet neighbors, and make connections to change our community for the better. Information is available at the site at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. on how to be a part of the Garden. Or call 918-430-1150, 918-794-4637, or 918-691-3223. Thanks for all the helpers already.
We have already begun making big transformations clearing out the old trash and debris to make room for the orchard and the garden beds, but with this grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank, with the help of Turley's Freedom Bank, and the Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District, you will really be able to see a transformation and creation of a new place to grow healthy food together, to meet and greet neighbors, and make connections to change our community for the better. Information is available at the site at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. on how to be a part of the Garden. Or call 918-430-1150, 918-794-4637, or 918-691-3223. Thanks for all the helpers already.
Thursday
Post Office Set To Close Sept. 10: Help Us Protest and Plan A Free Community Post Office here at the Center
Even though Turley was left off the list of 3700 post offices being closed that was published in the Tulsa World, the post office has confirmed that Turley's post office will be closed on Sept. 10. We are trying to find out if we can get a "village post office" for our area, perhaps in our community center. The Tulsa World is set to run a news story on the closing of Turley and others that were left off the massive list provided by the post office recently. It should be published on Sat. Aug. 6.
We believe:
It is not right to close the post office in our area where we have the poor and the elderly without the means to get four miles away to the other post service; do it where this is possible;
It is not right where the residents affected are not the ones with computers and internet service as an alternative which is the reason the postal service says volume is down; do it where computers are prevalent,
It is not right because where volume is down here it is because the hours of service have been being cut over the years making it difficult to people to use the existing location, and there has been no public signage or promotion of the office and where it is to attract newcomers. One of the first acts we did when we set up our community center was protest the neglect of the post office which was located next door to where we were because the American flag at the post office was torn and tattered; it was replaced, but was a sign of neglect;
It is not right because the people in this area do not have access or means to an alternative like fedex or ups offices as they do in other parts of the Tulsa area; do it where there are alternatives.
Let your federal official representatives know how you feel about this. Contact information through their websites Rep. John Sullivan http://sullivan.house.gov/Contact/, Senator Tom Coburn http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactsenatorcoburn?p=ContactForm and Senator Jim Inhofe http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=contact.contactform and ask them to do the right thing and keep the post office open where it is needed the most, which is what government resources are meant to do, filling in the gaps.
Stay tuned for news of organizing and protesting meetings and exploring options.
We believe:
It is not right to close the post office in our area where we have the poor and the elderly without the means to get four miles away to the other post service; do it where this is possible;
It is not right where the residents affected are not the ones with computers and internet service as an alternative which is the reason the postal service says volume is down; do it where computers are prevalent,
It is not right because where volume is down here it is because the hours of service have been being cut over the years making it difficult to people to use the existing location, and there has been no public signage or promotion of the office and where it is to attract newcomers. One of the first acts we did when we set up our community center was protest the neglect of the post office which was located next door to where we were because the American flag at the post office was torn and tattered; it was replaced, but was a sign of neglect;
It is not right because the people in this area do not have access or means to an alternative like fedex or ups offices as they do in other parts of the Tulsa area; do it where there are alternatives.
Let your federal official representatives know how you feel about this. Contact information through their websites Rep. John Sullivan http://sullivan.house.gov/Contact/, Senator Tom Coburn http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactsenatorcoburn?p=ContactForm and Senator Jim Inhofe http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=contact.contactform and ask them to do the right thing and keep the post office open where it is needed the most, which is what government resources are meant to do, filling in the gaps.
Stay tuned for news of organizing and protesting meetings and exploring options.
Saturday
Greenhouse of the Possible: Summer of Renewal on Far Northside
Hi all.
Put some extra bottles of water in your car as you drive our area and hand them out to those walking and without, or drop them off to those waiting at bus stops, or bring them to us as we do so.
While I was away working for a few weeks out of state, we at A Third Place Community Foundation had here the Great Orchard Planting for the Northside on June 26, and the continued emergence of the community gardens going along with the orchard to feed those in the 74126 and 74130 zips, and to build community connections while we do so. See other posts for the links to the TV and newspaper coverage of the big day. Thanks to all the hard working residents from our group and area, and to volunteers who came as far away as Oklahoma City, and to Up With Trees and PSO Oklahoma and Turley United Methodist Church for their assistance, and to project leader Dr. Bonnie Ashing and Cecilia Wessinger who coordinated.
Our New Big News: We were awarded the $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank project to take the Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark, 6005 N. Johnstown, to the next level. We look forward to continuing to put money back into our zip codes, as well as creating a place for growing healthy lives and neighborhoods. We have had our first partner family at the garden park, and we also have them at our garden sites at Cherokee School too, and more will be coming, as well as producing vegetables already for our food pantry at the community center. We are eagerly awaiting the actual receipt of the funds so we can put it all into the park project, bridging city of Tulsa and Turley neighborhoods.
Community Health Projects and Summer Events: We are partnering with the University of Oklahoma on a wellness program this summer, a health attitudes survey (along with free $10 gift cards for residents who take the survey) as a prelude to our revolutionary project to begin neighborhood lay health advocates/mentors/master patients called real community health workers. We will unveil it at our booth on Saturday July 16 from 11 am to 2 pm at the Northside YWCA Summer Carnival with the Tulsa Health Department, right around the corner just about from us, in the old Wiley Post School, 54th and N. Madison. Come enjoy the many booths, the free food, and health screenings, and music and more. We will also have survey event days on Wednesday, July 20, 11 am to 1 pm at Cherokee School Cafeteria, 6001 N. Peoria, as part of our Summer Cafe program with Tulsa Schools, and also conducting the surveys as we will have a Big Health Event at our The Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., on Saturday August 13 from 9 am to 1 pm, and other sites and places may be announced soon. We will have the full list at the booth at the Summer carnival on July 16....This Tuesday afternoon, July 12, we will also host again this year a visit by the OU Medical School summer interns who will be learning about community health from the grassroots and helping us with projects. We hope to have two more events with them during the summer...There are lots more health projects we partner with, even as we work on our own through the healthy food park and our own center projects, so come by to find out about them.
Summer Cafe at Cherokee School: We are still raising funds to keep the daily summer food program going at Cherokee School, which we have sponsored along with Tulsa Schools, Monday through Friday, 11:30 to 12:30 for all under 18 years old; by paying our own staff to run the program here we are able to keep it going all summer long, June 8 to Aug. 5. We feed an average of 30 to 50 children and youth a day. Donations can be made online at the button above. You don't have to have a paypal account to use the donate button. Thanks for all the support....Speaking of schools, we will be partnering this year with Greeley School as well as deepening our involvement with McLain School, and hope to help as needed where we can with Gilcrease and Penn and Monroe. Even while continuing to work with school officials, neighborhood residents, and those interested in finding a healthy community use for the grounds and building at Cherokee and the old Morse school site, and supporting our children no matter where they wind up for school, be it home, online, public, private, etc.
Far Northside/Turley Small Area Planning: We will be hosting a meeting of local and area officials on Thursday, Aug. 4 to keep building connections and next steps for producing a consensus plan for our unique urban/smalltown/rural stretch along North Peoria especially, where now there are inexcusable abandoned dangerous buildings right across from our schools, and blight areas that discourage any efforts to attract groups, residents, businesses to our area. We will be exploring again incorporation of unincorporated areas, but it is just one of the tools we will be employing as we create a new community out of the ruins left behind....In many ways, I say, we are growing from the grassroots a city without a government (yet) as we are de facto involved in early stages of bringing people together to work on our own health department (including our hosting the recovery 12 step group), parks/food/environment/ department, public safety department (last Thursday of each month at 6 pm for the neighborhood safety group btw), Events department, education dept. and chamber of commerce.
The Misc.: Among the still to be announced events, We will be holding soon our summer planning event to schedule many celebrations and events to come for the rest of the year; we always need donations of food for the pantry; we will also be scheduling and holding our big fundraising auction of donated items to us, especially so we can begin when it gets a bit cooler transforming our big building into the Community Room here at the center, where currently we are storing the items. We continue to care for the gardening projects out in the neighborhoods, watering work takes its toll in this heat, and the clothing room is now at full capacity, and we have our computer center back to half its capacity (always looking for donations of new or used computers)....One of our big new donations has come all the way from California as a supporter has shipped us boxes of children's books and health books so we can set up special library areas for children and to support our health projects.
Message: Often I am asked how we do what we do, given that there are no salaries still yet: I respond using phrases like "better to do something poorly than not at all when you are doing life and death matters" "fly by the seat of the pants" "catch as catch can" "relying on grace". Right now on the sign out front of the center it says: "In Brokenness, Here We Are". That means not only are we in a broken area, abandoned by those who want to be places where the cool people are, where there are conveniences and comfort, but it also means we come to you as broken people, as a broken group, still seeking to model a different way of being, with values that run counter or cross to those perpetuated on the television and in the news every day. We are not a faith-based community 501c3, and we have people on our board from a variety of churches and theologies, and our church group pays rent to the foundation, and lord knows our small worship group seems to get smaller and poorer the more we do, and so this is all not just some sneaky evangelical way to bring in people to some organization; but still, faith, hope, and love run through all we do and dedicate ourselves to, and perfection is anathema to faith, hope, and love; shame is anathema to faith, hope, and love; apathy and self-indulgence are anathema to faith, hope, and love...
I close with a quote from Mary Lou Kownacki's book, A Monk in the Inner City, from her opening section on Abandoned Places: "Our goals are modest: to plant daffodils, to rebuild abandoned homes, to paint porches, to read to children, to pray together, to grow vegetables, to become a neighborhood, a community. Nothing spectacular, just a snippet of "the kingdom of God, come on earth as it is in heaven.' "Come, children, let us scatter flower seeds in the neighborhood of no lawns or birds, Let us turn one small street into a greenhouse of the possible."
For those interested in the small group spiritual community side of things here, This Sunday July 10 in worship (come at 10 am each Sunday for the service before the service) we will have a spirited summer hymn sing; on July 17 we will have Question Box Sunday, part 2; on Sunday July 24 I will be in Houston area preaching and on Sunday July 31 I will be preaching at 11 am at Hope Church, 8432 S. Sheridan, on "Where in the World is the Church?" From July 25-29 I will at Western Hills Lodge near Wagoner leading worship on Monday evening and a workshop each afternoon on "Missional Progressives Reimagining The World (and Church)." In August we will have StoryCorps Sundays, bring your favorite meaningful stories out of your lives. And of course communion and common meals anytime we meet which are open to all. more at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com.
Our renewal work is open to all at any time too; if you want to do something with us at anytime, on your own schedule, just let me know. Ron Robinson, executive director, a third place community foundation.
Put some extra bottles of water in your car as you drive our area and hand them out to those walking and without, or drop them off to those waiting at bus stops, or bring them to us as we do so.
While I was away working for a few weeks out of state, we at A Third Place Community Foundation had here the Great Orchard Planting for the Northside on June 26, and the continued emergence of the community gardens going along with the orchard to feed those in the 74126 and 74130 zips, and to build community connections while we do so. See other posts for the links to the TV and newspaper coverage of the big day. Thanks to all the hard working residents from our group and area, and to volunteers who came as far away as Oklahoma City, and to Up With Trees and PSO Oklahoma and Turley United Methodist Church for their assistance, and to project leader Dr. Bonnie Ashing and Cecilia Wessinger who coordinated.
Our New Big News: We were awarded the $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank project to take the Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark, 6005 N. Johnstown, to the next level. We look forward to continuing to put money back into our zip codes, as well as creating a place for growing healthy lives and neighborhoods. We have had our first partner family at the garden park, and we also have them at our garden sites at Cherokee School too, and more will be coming, as well as producing vegetables already for our food pantry at the community center. We are eagerly awaiting the actual receipt of the funds so we can put it all into the park project, bridging city of Tulsa and Turley neighborhoods.
Community Health Projects and Summer Events: We are partnering with the University of Oklahoma on a wellness program this summer, a health attitudes survey (along with free $10 gift cards for residents who take the survey) as a prelude to our revolutionary project to begin neighborhood lay health advocates/mentors/master patients called real community health workers. We will unveil it at our booth on Saturday July 16 from 11 am to 2 pm at the Northside YWCA Summer Carnival with the Tulsa Health Department, right around the corner just about from us, in the old Wiley Post School, 54th and N. Madison. Come enjoy the many booths, the free food, and health screenings, and music and more. We will also have survey event days on Wednesday, July 20, 11 am to 1 pm at Cherokee School Cafeteria, 6001 N. Peoria, as part of our Summer Cafe program with Tulsa Schools, and also conducting the surveys as we will have a Big Health Event at our The Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., on Saturday August 13 from 9 am to 1 pm, and other sites and places may be announced soon. We will have the full list at the booth at the Summer carnival on July 16....This Tuesday afternoon, July 12, we will also host again this year a visit by the OU Medical School summer interns who will be learning about community health from the grassroots and helping us with projects. We hope to have two more events with them during the summer...There are lots more health projects we partner with, even as we work on our own through the healthy food park and our own center projects, so come by to find out about them.
Summer Cafe at Cherokee School: We are still raising funds to keep the daily summer food program going at Cherokee School, which we have sponsored along with Tulsa Schools, Monday through Friday, 11:30 to 12:30 for all under 18 years old; by paying our own staff to run the program here we are able to keep it going all summer long, June 8 to Aug. 5. We feed an average of 30 to 50 children and youth a day. Donations can be made online at the button above. You don't have to have a paypal account to use the donate button. Thanks for all the support....Speaking of schools, we will be partnering this year with Greeley School as well as deepening our involvement with McLain School, and hope to help as needed where we can with Gilcrease and Penn and Monroe. Even while continuing to work with school officials, neighborhood residents, and those interested in finding a healthy community use for the grounds and building at Cherokee and the old Morse school site, and supporting our children no matter where they wind up for school, be it home, online, public, private, etc.
Far Northside/Turley Small Area Planning: We will be hosting a meeting of local and area officials on Thursday, Aug. 4 to keep building connections and next steps for producing a consensus plan for our unique urban/smalltown/rural stretch along North Peoria especially, where now there are inexcusable abandoned dangerous buildings right across from our schools, and blight areas that discourage any efforts to attract groups, residents, businesses to our area. We will be exploring again incorporation of unincorporated areas, but it is just one of the tools we will be employing as we create a new community out of the ruins left behind....In many ways, I say, we are growing from the grassroots a city without a government (yet) as we are de facto involved in early stages of bringing people together to work on our own health department (including our hosting the recovery 12 step group), parks/food/environment/ department, public safety department (last Thursday of each month at 6 pm for the neighborhood safety group btw), Events department, education dept. and chamber of commerce.
The Misc.: Among the still to be announced events, We will be holding soon our summer planning event to schedule many celebrations and events to come for the rest of the year; we always need donations of food for the pantry; we will also be scheduling and holding our big fundraising auction of donated items to us, especially so we can begin when it gets a bit cooler transforming our big building into the Community Room here at the center, where currently we are storing the items. We continue to care for the gardening projects out in the neighborhoods, watering work takes its toll in this heat, and the clothing room is now at full capacity, and we have our computer center back to half its capacity (always looking for donations of new or used computers)....One of our big new donations has come all the way from California as a supporter has shipped us boxes of children's books and health books so we can set up special library areas for children and to support our health projects.
Message: Often I am asked how we do what we do, given that there are no salaries still yet: I respond using phrases like "better to do something poorly than not at all when you are doing life and death matters" "fly by the seat of the pants" "catch as catch can" "relying on grace". Right now on the sign out front of the center it says: "In Brokenness, Here We Are". That means not only are we in a broken area, abandoned by those who want to be places where the cool people are, where there are conveniences and comfort, but it also means we come to you as broken people, as a broken group, still seeking to model a different way of being, with values that run counter or cross to those perpetuated on the television and in the news every day. We are not a faith-based community 501c3, and we have people on our board from a variety of churches and theologies, and our church group pays rent to the foundation, and lord knows our small worship group seems to get smaller and poorer the more we do, and so this is all not just some sneaky evangelical way to bring in people to some organization; but still, faith, hope, and love run through all we do and dedicate ourselves to, and perfection is anathema to faith, hope, and love; shame is anathema to faith, hope, and love; apathy and self-indulgence are anathema to faith, hope, and love...
I close with a quote from Mary Lou Kownacki's book, A Monk in the Inner City, from her opening section on Abandoned Places: "Our goals are modest: to plant daffodils, to rebuild abandoned homes, to paint porches, to read to children, to pray together, to grow vegetables, to become a neighborhood, a community. Nothing spectacular, just a snippet of "the kingdom of God, come on earth as it is in heaven.' "Come, children, let us scatter flower seeds in the neighborhood of no lawns or birds, Let us turn one small street into a greenhouse of the possible."
For those interested in the small group spiritual community side of things here, This Sunday July 10 in worship (come at 10 am each Sunday for the service before the service) we will have a spirited summer hymn sing; on July 17 we will have Question Box Sunday, part 2; on Sunday July 24 I will be in Houston area preaching and on Sunday July 31 I will be preaching at 11 am at Hope Church, 8432 S. Sheridan, on "Where in the World is the Church?" From July 25-29 I will at Western Hills Lodge near Wagoner leading worship on Monday evening and a workshop each afternoon on "Missional Progressives Reimagining The World (and Church)." In August we will have StoryCorps Sundays, bring your favorite meaningful stories out of your lives. And of course communion and common meals anytime we meet which are open to all. more at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com.
Our renewal work is open to all at any time too; if you want to do something with us at anytime, on your own schedule, just let me know. Ron Robinson, executive director, a third place community foundation.
Sunday
We Receive $25,000 Federal Home Loan Bank Grant for our KitchenGardenOrchardPark in Turley/NorthTulsa
We just received word that we have been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank community reinvestment program for our work on the miracle among the ruins The Welcome Table KitchenGarden Park where we recently planted 40 fruit trees for an orchard for our area, located at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. near suburban hills edition in tulsa and near the historic downtown of Turley. We already have several community garden beds underway at the park, and our first family gardeners growing their healthy food there.
Thanks to Freedom Bank in Turley for their cosponsorship of the grant with us, and to the Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture for helping us to submit the grant. As soon as we receive the funds we will be doing more park preparation and cleanup on this site where abandoned houses and trash piled up for years on one of our busy thoroughfares. Thanks also to Rita Scott of buy local, buy fresh and Sustainable Oklahoma, and to Rep. Seneca Scott for help in partnering with us.
To volunteer at the park, to have your own garden bed, call 918-691-3223 or the Welcome Table Community Center at 918-794-4637, or email to revronrobinson@aol.com.
Spread the good news about this good news which is just the beginning of much more to come.
Thanks to Freedom Bank in Turley for their cosponsorship of the grant with us, and to the Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture for helping us to submit the grant. As soon as we receive the funds we will be doing more park preparation and cleanup on this site where abandoned houses and trash piled up for years on one of our busy thoroughfares. Thanks also to Rita Scott of buy local, buy fresh and Sustainable Oklahoma, and to Rep. Seneca Scott for help in partnering with us.
To volunteer at the park, to have your own garden bed, call 918-691-3223 or the Welcome Table Community Center at 918-794-4637, or email to revronrobinson@aol.com.
Spread the good news about this good news which is just the beginning of much more to come.
Saturday
Our Turley/NorthTulsa Area June 26 Orchard Event, Community Health Focus, and More This Summer
What a great summer is underway in the far northside 74126 and 74130 zipcodes. Here is your invitation to events coming up, and updates, and opportunities to be a part of our mission of renewing community, empowering residents, and growing healthy lives and neighborhoods, through small acts of justice done with great love.
First, the Big News:
You and others are invited to attend the public event on Sunday, June 26 beginning at noon here at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. as we are joined by the National Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars marking the planting of the new orchard that day that was recently won in a national competition for our emerging Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark.
While we were not happy with the selection of the day for beginning the orchard and festivities, which was picked by the organizations sponsoring the national competition, we will be making it a momentus day for the far northside anyway as we combat food deserts and blight in our area with this project we have called the "miracle among the ruins." We hope you will be there, to receive our thanks for your support, and to see the latest developments, and enjoy the festivities, and tell others, and dream of ways to partner with the park and duplicate it elsewhere.
It is hard to believe that just one year ago we were still trying vigorously to raise the funds to buy the rundown abandoned property from N. Kenosha to Johnstown and 60th to 61st Streets atop a hill from where you can see downtown Tulsa and other landmarks. We not only were able to raise the funds, but used the property to help us buy another bigger more historic rundown abandoned church building in our area and turn it into a community center asset, and then this Spring we managed to garner enough online support to win the orchard in the first round of voting at www.communitiestakeroot.com.
While we will be there all day with volunteers working on the site with the arborist from the Fruit Tree Foundation (and we hope you will join us anytime from 8 am on), we will pause at noon for the announcements and recognitions and words of support. Edy's Fruit Bars will be giving away free fruit bars, building a bench for the site to commemorate the occasion, and the arborist will be unveiling the fruit trees planted and turning on the irrigation system installed by the foundation, and then he will be conducting a free public workshop for our residents on fruit tree planting and care. The trees are being purchased from local nursery Worley's in north Tulsa County.
We have been installing and planting community garden beds already as well as preparing the site at the park for the orchard section. We also are hoping we can announce the awarding of a new grant too, which we have applied for in partnership with local Freedom Bank and with the help of the USDA Tallgrass RC&D, but even if it is otherwise we will be able to show the vision of what will be coming.
I, unfortunately, had previous travel and work plans for the end of June and will be unable to be there (which is a double shame since it is my birthday too), all the more reason why I hope you will come and support one another and residents, and contact Bonnie Ashing as park project leader and coordinator of the event If you have questions or rsvps, please contact her at bjashing@aol.com or 918 346 3475. Please feel free to forward this on to others in your associations as well.
Again, at a time when governments are shutting parks and community centers, we are growing our own from the grassroots for the grassroots.
In Other News:
Summer Cafe at Cherokee
We managed to get the Summer Cafe program to be held at Cherokee School again this summer under our supervision and we are operating it from June 8 to Aug. 5 because we are a community organization and not dependent on school staff to operate it on their schedule. Already we are seeing more children and youth than we had the past two years. Free lunch for anyone in the world, we say, who is 18 or under at the school cafeteria, 6001 N. Peoria Ave., from 11:30 to 12:30.
Austin Guests Serving Our Area
We were joined recently by members of Wildflower Church in Austin as we cleared the park site for the orchard, as we put together some of the garden beds for the park, as we created the new Prairie Trails native plant Park right across the street from our new community park, as we built the Muhammad Ali Peace Garden at the community center, as we beautified and cleaned up the major welcome intersection on North Lewis and 66th St., as we planted a garden bed with residents at Sarah's Residential Living Center near McLain High School, and worked on projects at the center itself. We are looking forward to a group coming from Dallas at the end of July. Groups for a day or more are always welcome to come learn and serve.
Partnerships for Health With OU
In July we will be partnering with OU Community Health to conduct health attitude surveys in our area, something that will also benefit residents economically with incentives for taking the survey, along with local businesses where the incentives will be good for. This is the initial public step in our movement toward launching the community health worker program in north and west Tulsa, a project we have been working on with OU for a few years now, even when we had the clinic; now that the clinics have been closed in north Tulsa this project is more needed than ever, and will help radically reshape health care delivery by creating neighborhood health mentors for those who are the most frequent users of the emergency rooms and urgent care.
One of the places and partnerships for our health attitude surveys will be at the annual summer carnival for the YWCA northside and Tulsa Health Dept. Saturday July 16 from 11 am to 2 pm, at the YWCA on 54th and N. Madison. Come support this free fun for all carnival and get great health information and screenings and see our booth.
We are also working to set up in July our community health care conversations at our center again this summer with neighborhood residents and with summer interns from OU. These are always educational conversations for all. More info as we get the dates set.
And we had a very good poverty consciousness raising workshop with local residents and the incoming graduate social work students at OU which we helped coordinate and held at O'Brien Recreation Center recently.
Meetings and Movies and More
We hosted and helped to coordinate recent meetings to create a leadership and planning focus group to concentrate on issues of how to attack the growing problems of abandoned commercial and residential properties in our unincorporated side, how to create a plan for growth and community vision here north of 56th St. in the wake of the closing of the Cherokee School, and how to bring conditions of unhealthy and blighted sites to the attention of the county commissioners and departments. We are looking again at steps toward incorporation, not as an end in itself, but as a possible means to the bigger end of community renewal. Attacking the numerous abandoned and dangerous sites near our children is the common top project for this new leadership group. Our next planning meeting will be at the Center Aug. 4. Also remember the Turley community association meeting is Tuesday June 28 at 7 pm at O'Brien Recreation Center. Congratulations to Northridge Neighborhood Association for its first meeting this past week for the area around McLain High.
....Speaking of Cherokee, and Alcott also, in our service area which were both closed as Tulsa public schools, we have met with area legislators to explore options on how to keep the buildings in community use.
We had a wonderful time hosting and watching and discussing the live webstream from the Childrens Defense Fund and the documentary on PBS about the Freedom Riders during the 50th anniversary of that pivotal time in civil rights history. We also again sponsored a public showing of the Dorothy Day Story movie Entertaining Angels and related it to our work and vision here. And we were once again one of the few presences from our whole northside area, along with the YWCA northside, in the Tulsa Pride Parade and Festivities sponsored by the Equality Center.
We have supported and will continue promoting the North Tulsa Farmers Market at Tulsa Community College NE campus on Wednesdays from 2 to 5 pm and Saturday mornings on 56th St. between Highway 75 and N. Lewis. We have our ongoing Neighborhood Safety group the last Thursdays of the month; weekly recovery 12 step groups, our clothing and food pantry (our computer center is temporarily shut down as the computers are in need of updating and repairing, stay tuned for relaunch news in July).
And we worship on Sunday mornings with conversation and common meal and service to others for all who are interested in a free universalist Christian missional community. The next two Sundays we will "be the church" in the park as we gather to serve and celebrate and prepare for the Orchard Event.
Be a partner with us in person and/or through donating to make all this happen; no one draws a salary; one hundred percent into mission; go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com and donate; you can use debit/credit cards as paypal is not required.
Thanks, blessings, and more to come,
Ron Robinson
Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation, operating among its many projects The Welcome Table Community Center and The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark
renewing community, empowering residents, growing healthy lives and neighborhoods
5920 N. Owasso, Turley, OK 74126
www.turleyok.blogspot.com
www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com
www.uuchristian.org
First, the Big News:
You and others are invited to attend the public event on Sunday, June 26 beginning at noon here at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. as we are joined by the National Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars marking the planting of the new orchard that day that was recently won in a national competition for our emerging Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark.
While we were not happy with the selection of the day for beginning the orchard and festivities, which was picked by the organizations sponsoring the national competition, we will be making it a momentus day for the far northside anyway as we combat food deserts and blight in our area with this project we have called the "miracle among the ruins." We hope you will be there, to receive our thanks for your support, and to see the latest developments, and enjoy the festivities, and tell others, and dream of ways to partner with the park and duplicate it elsewhere.
It is hard to believe that just one year ago we were still trying vigorously to raise the funds to buy the rundown abandoned property from N. Kenosha to Johnstown and 60th to 61st Streets atop a hill from where you can see downtown Tulsa and other landmarks. We not only were able to raise the funds, but used the property to help us buy another bigger more historic rundown abandoned church building in our area and turn it into a community center asset, and then this Spring we managed to garner enough online support to win the orchard in the first round of voting at www.communitiestakeroot.com.
While we will be there all day with volunteers working on the site with the arborist from the Fruit Tree Foundation (and we hope you will join us anytime from 8 am on), we will pause at noon for the announcements and recognitions and words of support. Edy's Fruit Bars will be giving away free fruit bars, building a bench for the site to commemorate the occasion, and the arborist will be unveiling the fruit trees planted and turning on the irrigation system installed by the foundation, and then he will be conducting a free public workshop for our residents on fruit tree planting and care. The trees are being purchased from local nursery Worley's in north Tulsa County.
We have been installing and planting community garden beds already as well as preparing the site at the park for the orchard section. We also are hoping we can announce the awarding of a new grant too, which we have applied for in partnership with local Freedom Bank and with the help of the USDA Tallgrass RC&D, but even if it is otherwise we will be able to show the vision of what will be coming.
I, unfortunately, had previous travel and work plans for the end of June and will be unable to be there (which is a double shame since it is my birthday too), all the more reason why I hope you will come and support one another and residents, and contact Bonnie Ashing as park project leader and coordinator of the event If you have questions or rsvps, please contact her at bjashing@aol.com or 918 346 3475. Please feel free to forward this on to others in your associations as well.
Again, at a time when governments are shutting parks and community centers, we are growing our own from the grassroots for the grassroots.
In Other News:
Summer Cafe at Cherokee
We managed to get the Summer Cafe program to be held at Cherokee School again this summer under our supervision and we are operating it from June 8 to Aug. 5 because we are a community organization and not dependent on school staff to operate it on their schedule. Already we are seeing more children and youth than we had the past two years. Free lunch for anyone in the world, we say, who is 18 or under at the school cafeteria, 6001 N. Peoria Ave., from 11:30 to 12:30.
Austin Guests Serving Our Area
We were joined recently by members of Wildflower Church in Austin as we cleared the park site for the orchard, as we put together some of the garden beds for the park, as we created the new Prairie Trails native plant Park right across the street from our new community park, as we built the Muhammad Ali Peace Garden at the community center, as we beautified and cleaned up the major welcome intersection on North Lewis and 66th St., as we planted a garden bed with residents at Sarah's Residential Living Center near McLain High School, and worked on projects at the center itself. We are looking forward to a group coming from Dallas at the end of July. Groups for a day or more are always welcome to come learn and serve.
Partnerships for Health With OU
In July we will be partnering with OU Community Health to conduct health attitude surveys in our area, something that will also benefit residents economically with incentives for taking the survey, along with local businesses where the incentives will be good for. This is the initial public step in our movement toward launching the community health worker program in north and west Tulsa, a project we have been working on with OU for a few years now, even when we had the clinic; now that the clinics have been closed in north Tulsa this project is more needed than ever, and will help radically reshape health care delivery by creating neighborhood health mentors for those who are the most frequent users of the emergency rooms and urgent care.
One of the places and partnerships for our health attitude surveys will be at the annual summer carnival for the YWCA northside and Tulsa Health Dept. Saturday July 16 from 11 am to 2 pm, at the YWCA on 54th and N. Madison. Come support this free fun for all carnival and get great health information and screenings and see our booth.
We are also working to set up in July our community health care conversations at our center again this summer with neighborhood residents and with summer interns from OU. These are always educational conversations for all. More info as we get the dates set.
And we had a very good poverty consciousness raising workshop with local residents and the incoming graduate social work students at OU which we helped coordinate and held at O'Brien Recreation Center recently.
Meetings and Movies and More
We hosted and helped to coordinate recent meetings to create a leadership and planning focus group to concentrate on issues of how to attack the growing problems of abandoned commercial and residential properties in our unincorporated side, how to create a plan for growth and community vision here north of 56th St. in the wake of the closing of the Cherokee School, and how to bring conditions of unhealthy and blighted sites to the attention of the county commissioners and departments. We are looking again at steps toward incorporation, not as an end in itself, but as a possible means to the bigger end of community renewal. Attacking the numerous abandoned and dangerous sites near our children is the common top project for this new leadership group. Our next planning meeting will be at the Center Aug. 4. Also remember the Turley community association meeting is Tuesday June 28 at 7 pm at O'Brien Recreation Center. Congratulations to Northridge Neighborhood Association for its first meeting this past week for the area around McLain High.
....Speaking of Cherokee, and Alcott also, in our service area which were both closed as Tulsa public schools, we have met with area legislators to explore options on how to keep the buildings in community use.
We had a wonderful time hosting and watching and discussing the live webstream from the Childrens Defense Fund and the documentary on PBS about the Freedom Riders during the 50th anniversary of that pivotal time in civil rights history. We also again sponsored a public showing of the Dorothy Day Story movie Entertaining Angels and related it to our work and vision here. And we were once again one of the few presences from our whole northside area, along with the YWCA northside, in the Tulsa Pride Parade and Festivities sponsored by the Equality Center.
We have supported and will continue promoting the North Tulsa Farmers Market at Tulsa Community College NE campus on Wednesdays from 2 to 5 pm and Saturday mornings on 56th St. between Highway 75 and N. Lewis. We have our ongoing Neighborhood Safety group the last Thursdays of the month; weekly recovery 12 step groups, our clothing and food pantry (our computer center is temporarily shut down as the computers are in need of updating and repairing, stay tuned for relaunch news in July).
And we worship on Sunday mornings with conversation and common meal and service to others for all who are interested in a free universalist Christian missional community. The next two Sundays we will "be the church" in the park as we gather to serve and celebrate and prepare for the Orchard Event.
Be a partner with us in person and/or through donating to make all this happen; no one draws a salary; one hundred percent into mission; go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com and donate; you can use debit/credit cards as paypal is not required.
Thanks, blessings, and more to come,
Ron Robinson
Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation, operating among its many projects The Welcome Table Community Center and The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark
renewing community, empowering residents, growing healthy lives and neighborhoods
5920 N. Owasso, Turley, OK 74126
www.turleyok.blogspot.com
www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com
www.uuchristian.org
Friday
A Simple Ask For A Big Need: A Little Extra Right Now For Those Without Extra
Very quickly: We are doing a little extra here for those without, and so could you help us with a little extra you might have? We are half way there raising the funds for the free daily lunch program we coordinate here for children in our area and partnering with Cherokee School. Need $500 to go. Have already served more in our first week than we did first week last year...Also, because of the early planting date for the orchard, three months before our plans, we have had to deplete the account to pay for installing electric, and bringing in large bin and for removal of all the debris illegally dumped on the site over the years the former houses there were abandoned and the old trees on site still damaged and dangerous from the 2007 ice storm.
You don't have to have a paypal account to use the donate button on this page, and it is safe and easy with debit/credit card, or send check payable to A Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. Turley, OK 74126. We don't get the chance to send out all the thank yous as we should to those who have supported us and meant so much to us, so consider this thanks in advance and blessings from those whom you bless.
And keep us in your prayers as we await word on a $25,000 Federal Home Loan Bank grant which we should find out about later this month for our "miracle among the ruins" park project, but even if we get the news so much is needed now to get in the orchard and get set for a humdinger of a Fourth of July Party on the hill where just a year ago there was so much blight and danger. We also have our Prairie Trails Park almost finished as well across the street from the Welcome Table Park, and next to the resident-made trail from subdivison to store they walk each day a mile away.
100 percent of donations go into missons; no one draws a salary yet. Don't think your little extra doesn't make a huge difference in lives here; it is the only way we have been able to accomplish all the amazing things we have.
You don't have to have a paypal account to use the donate button on this page, and it is safe and easy with debit/credit card, or send check payable to A Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. Turley, OK 74126. We don't get the chance to send out all the thank yous as we should to those who have supported us and meant so much to us, so consider this thanks in advance and blessings from those whom you bless.
And keep us in your prayers as we await word on a $25,000 Federal Home Loan Bank grant which we should find out about later this month for our "miracle among the ruins" park project, but even if we get the news so much is needed now to get in the orchard and get set for a humdinger of a Fourth of July Party on the hill where just a year ago there was so much blight and danger. We also have our Prairie Trails Park almost finished as well across the street from the Welcome Table Park, and next to the resident-made trail from subdivison to store they walk each day a mile away.
100 percent of donations go into missons; no one draws a salary yet. Don't think your little extra doesn't make a huge difference in lives here; it is the only way we have been able to accomplish all the amazing things we have.
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