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Monday

Giving Tuesday: Give To Our Neighborhoods By Giving To A Third Place Community Foundation



 A Third Place

Community Foundation
 
Who we are …


A small group of ordinary folks.


What we do …


Small acts of kindness with great love to promote healthy lives and neighborhoods in far north Tulsa and Turley.


More specifically, we …


Operate a large community center which includes an art space, food pantry, clothing room, lending library, computer center, meeting space, and more;


Maintain a local park with a community garden, fruit tree orchard, outdoor kitchen, picnic space, etc., from what was once an abandoned city block;


Sponsor community events …holiday parties, family fun days, garden gatherings, art days, etc.;


Work to organize community members and civic leaders to bring about greater awareness of the needs of our community and citizens;


Do many small acts throughout the year to bring hope, health, and beauty to our residents and neighborhoods.

How we do it …

Each of us contributes as we are able,

And we rely on donations from folks like you.

We couldn’t do the things we do without people like you.

We appreciate you and your support of our work.

Give Today. Surprise Yourself, Our Neighbors, And The World with your gift. Use the Donate Button Above, safely and easily, or send checks to A Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., Turley, OK 74126.

And enjoy reading below all the ways we are growing healthy lives and neighborhoods, creating miracles among the ruins.

And come see us. We would love to meet you, show you around, answer your questions, connect your passions with the needs of our place.

Friday

The Generous Community: Upcoming Events of All Kinds




1. Our Big Invitation: Please come on Sat. Nov. 10 at 7 pm at the Hyatt Regency downtown Tulsa, 102 E. Second St., for a wonderful "An Evening of Promise" dinner and program which will be held by the new Tulsa nonprofit, Friends of Anita Hill, www.friendsofanitahill.com that will be a fundraiser for north side nonprofits and will honor "Keeping The Promise Honorees" award recipients Rev. Dr. G. Calvin McCutcheon of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, State Sen. Judy Eason-Mcintyre, Marvin Blades, Sr. of 100 Black Men of Tulsa and retired from Tulsa Police Department, Neighbor For Neighbor, and me with A Third Place Community Foundation. www.turleyok.blogspot.com.
Money raised will also go to A Pocket Full of Hope youth music nonprofit and Antioch Baptist Church. Music for the evening will be provided by Eldredge Jackson and A Pocket Full of Hope. Tickets are $75 and can be ordered through the website above and at 918-272-6778. More information through the Friends of Anita Hill website above.
A keynote talk will be given by Professor Anita Hill who began assisting and supporting northside nonprofits when she was on the faculty of the law school at Oral Roberts University and has been committed to finding ways to continue supporting them. She began her career in private practice in Washington , D.C. before becoming a law professor, she worked at the U. S. Education Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 1989, Hill became the first African American to be tenured at the University of Oklahoma , College of Law , where she taught contracts and commercial law. Hill was also a law professor at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK. Currently, at Brandeis University , she teaches civil rights courses. As counsel to Cohen Milstein, Anita Hill advises on class action workplace discrimination cases. Hill’s latest book is Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race and Finding Home. She has also written her biography, Speaking Truth to Power and co-edited with Professor Emma Coleman Jordan, Race, Gender and Power in America : The Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings. Time, Inc., Newsweek, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Ms. Magazine have published Professor Hill’s commentary and she has appeared on numerous national television programs.
We hope all can make this inaugural event a success in Tulsa; if you are unable to attend, we hope you can purchase a ticket and give to us so we can use to help bring members of our community who are unable to attend otherwise, or donate for it directly through our website at www.turleyok.blogspot.com. And we hope all can help by spreading the word to their networks about this event and the chance to help not only our community work but those of others in our area too, while enjoying a fine meal and entertainment, honoring a brave woman and hearing a great talk. Thanks for sharing this announcement with others. I am attaching a flier for the event and hope you can share it and post it in your churches, organizations and places of work.
Second, this Saturday, Nov. 3 from 9 am to 6 pm we are hosting another Community Art Day for all ages, free, at our Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave.; healing lives and neighborhoods through the power of art. Stop by, have fun, share in the art projects. We will repeat it again on Sat. Nov. 17 same time this month. Thanks to graduate art therapy student Clara Corn for facilitating. Come dream and discuss as well of other ways to inspire art in our public areas especially in our struggling neighborhoods.
Third, this Monday Nov. 5 at 1:30 pm we will host a service learning class visit from the OU Graduate Social Work Dept. working on projects related to our zipcodes. This will be their opportunity to meet local residents and partners and learn more about the issues and the work underway here. Come be a teacher and learn more through their eyes and about their projects.
Fourth, on Tuesday, Election Day, Nov. 6, 7 pm before heading to your various respective watch parties for different political parties, we invite you to come to a Communion Service emphasizing unity, civility, compassion, courage, conscience and the commitment to community, held by our small missional community gathering and in The Welcome Table Center; see more at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com. Part of a nationwide network of Election Day Communions. Please share.
Fifth, we are still searching for potential nonprofits and other groups interested in partnering to help reclaim and repurpose the closed Cherokee School on North Peoria. Here is the link to a recent local NPR news story on our initiative, http://kwgs.org/post/group-wants-repurpose-closed-school on how it can benefit not only our area but the Tulsa Public Schools which have been hit with drastic funding cuts. Please contact me about exploring partnerships for use of the building and grounds, in great shape, for the people of our 74126 and nearby zips.
Sixth, this month we are moving our Food Pantry days and time and extending our resources. Each Wednesday beginning Nov. 14 the pantry will be open from Noon to 4 pm for those in our 74126, 74130 and 74073 zips. We are also offering morning prayer service at 9 am Wednesdays, and then a life skills class I will teach at 10 am called Life 201, based on the fables of relationships by Rabbi Edwin Friedman, and then a common meal and noonday prayer followed by the Pantry hours of service. We also continue to have our counselor from Legal Aid Society of Eastern Oklahoma available, and a nutritional counselor from the OSU Extension Office, and Rev. Debra Garfinkel providing pastoral presence.
And speaking of food, On Thursday, Nov. 15 from 11 am to Noon we are holding another Mobile Van Food Giveaway Event with the community food bank of eastern oklahoma, this time at our community center; we need volunteers to come help us sort the food from 10 to 11 am and then load the food for families from 11 am to noon during the event. Those who have received vouchers for the event through our pantry will be able to receive the 60 or so pounds of food apiece; those who did not this time receive one of the allotted 125 household vouchers may come at 12:30 pm to see if there are any leftover items as there normally are for them to receive.
Seventh, on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 pm we will host a documentary film on the struggles of veterans and a free meal and discussion of ways to better serve the population of veterans in our underserved low income low life expectancy area.
A look at our Sunday gatherings coming up weekly from 9:30 am to 1 pm: Nov. 4 we will finish our study of Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw's book, Jesus For President; see the previous three week's conversation points at www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com. Then on Nov. 11 we will begin a six week Thanksgiving and Advent Series, "The Awakening of Hope: Why We Practice A Common Faith" based on the book and DVD curriculum by the new monasticism leader and author Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Nov. 11: Introduction and Why We Eat Together and Why We Fast; Nov. 18: Why We Make Promises; Nov. 25: Why It Matters Where We Live; Dec. 2 (travelling to preach in Galveston, TX); Dec. 9: Why We Live Together; Dec. 16: Why We Would Rather Die Than Kill; and Dec. 23: Why We Share Good News. We follow our conversation and check-ins with communion and common meal.
More events coming up in November and December in a later email news.
Finally, a thank you to all who helped make the community free Halloween party at our community center an amazing success again this year, with near 300 people throughout the event. All of our folks volunteering, our partners, the people and families who came and pitched in during the event, the way we were able to create such an event of goodwill and feeding not only bodies but spirits here where few opportunities exist for children and youth to experience these, or any, entertainment events. Some people said they would be afraid in our area to get that many "strangers" together, especially in such a multi-ethnic fashion reflecting our diverse community as we do, and without security forces present, not to mention on Halloween and its mischevious spirit; and they were amazed at the feeling of generosity that was grown. Some people said they couldn't imagine how hungry the children and families were who showed up (not knowing we would have more for them than treats) and it was an eye-opener to the hunger we talk about, and what our folks in the schools see all the time. Just wait, I told them, until you see the Community Christmas Party spirit...
And thinking of children, first in our hearts and on our minds this week, is one of our students, and his family, and the students and faculty and staff at one of our area partner schools, The LightHouse Charter School, who was hit and killed by a car on his way to school early in the dark; Elijah, 7 years old, didn't live in our area of service but over about six miles away and was hit enroute to catching a bus to come here to school. We keep all of them, and the driver, in our prayers.
The work of renewal goes on....
blessings,
Ron