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
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
Saturday
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.
Thursday
All Invited To the New Orchard Planting Event Party Sunday, June 26, at our new community park 6005 N. Johnstown
You are all invited to attend the Orchard Event for the public on Sunday, June 26 beginning at noon along with 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 at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. Please pass this on to others.
Volunteers are always needed to help us plant that day or to come help us clean and prepare the site before hand, and to take on garden plots already installed for growing food for families and our food pantry. To volunteer call project leader Bonnie Ashing, bjashing@aol.com, or 918 3463475.
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, because of short notice, people being gone, and not optimal for planting season, but 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, 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, 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. 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.
.
Volunteers are always needed to help us plant that day or to come help us clean and prepare the site before hand, and to take on garden plots already installed for growing food for families and our food pantry. To volunteer call project leader Bonnie Ashing, bjashing@aol.com, or 918 3463475.
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, because of short notice, people being gone, and not optimal for planting season, but 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, 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, 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. 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.
.
Friday
We Won
Thank you to all who supported and voted for us in the national competition to win a fruit tree orchard for our area. Please feel free to share the following news release and announcement on the orchard, the park, the victory party, and the dedication this week of the Muhammed Ali Peace Garden at the center.
...............
The "TulsaNorth/Turley" neighborhoods will receive a free fruit tree orchard after winning in national online voting competition during the first round of the contest sponsored by the National Fruit Tree Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars.
More than 21,000 votes were cast from April 15 to May 31 for the proposed park project sponsored by A Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. The local volunteer nonprofit came in fourth place in the first round out of 120 community contestants, and the top five winners of each round receive an orchard. A party to celebrate the victory will be held at the orchard site, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., on Thursday, June 9 from 6 to 8 pm. All supporters and area residents are welcome.
A team from the Fruit Tree Foundation will come to the northside area and work with area residents to plant the trees, to install an irrigation system, and to teach community workshops on growing fruit trees in the area, according to Rev. Ron Robinson, executive director of A Third Place Foundation.
The orchard will be planted at the emerging northside "pocket park" begun by the local group that will also include community gardens, play and social and eating areas, and a gazebo for bands. The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark will be located at 6005 N. Johnstown on an acre overlooking downtown Tulsa where abandoned houses recently stood amid other trash and debris. The foundation purchased the property last year, and had the homes removed and is currently working on preparing the site for the start of the gardens.
"We are located in the 74126 zipcode which has the lowest life expectancy and many nutritional deficiencies," Robinson said. "The park and now the fruit tree orchard, along with our other gardens and health programs and summer daily feeding program at Cherokee School which starts June 8 through Aug. 5, and work with our area partners is aimed at elevating food justice and reversing these trends among our people."
Robinson said once the local group finds out when the planting day will be slated, a call will go out for volunteers to help with the planting, to attend the workshops, and help launch the new community food project.
A Third Place operates both the emerging park as well as the The Welcome Table Community Center and renewal projects in 74126 and 74130 zip codes.
It also received this Spring a grant to create a Muhammad Ali Peace Garden Grant for producing vegetables for families in the area. The garden will be located at the community center with the planting taking place the week of June 6-10 and dedication ceremony being held on Friday, June 10 at 7 pm. Volunteers are welcome. For more information call 918-794-4637, or 918-691-3223, or 918-430-1150 .
Background information and articles on the park can be read at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2011/04/all-videos-news-design-plans-on-our.html. More information on the orchard competition, held each year, can be seen at www.communitiestakeroot.com.
...............
The "TulsaNorth/Turley" neighborhoods will receive a free fruit tree orchard after winning in national online voting competition during the first round of the contest sponsored by the National Fruit Tree Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars.
More than 21,000 votes were cast from April 15 to May 31 for the proposed park project sponsored by A Third Place Community Foundation, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. The local volunteer nonprofit came in fourth place in the first round out of 120 community contestants, and the top five winners of each round receive an orchard. A party to celebrate the victory will be held at the orchard site, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., on Thursday, June 9 from 6 to 8 pm. All supporters and area residents are welcome.
A team from the Fruit Tree Foundation will come to the northside area and work with area residents to plant the trees, to install an irrigation system, and to teach community workshops on growing fruit trees in the area, according to Rev. Ron Robinson, executive director of A Third Place Foundation.
The orchard will be planted at the emerging northside "pocket park" begun by the local group that will also include community gardens, play and social and eating areas, and a gazebo for bands. The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark will be located at 6005 N. Johnstown on an acre overlooking downtown Tulsa where abandoned houses recently stood amid other trash and debris. The foundation purchased the property last year, and had the homes removed and is currently working on preparing the site for the start of the gardens.
"We are located in the 74126 zipcode which has the lowest life expectancy and many nutritional deficiencies," Robinson said. "The park and now the fruit tree orchard, along with our other gardens and health programs and summer daily feeding program at Cherokee School which starts June 8 through Aug. 5, and work with our area partners is aimed at elevating food justice and reversing these trends among our people."
Robinson said once the local group finds out when the planting day will be slated, a call will go out for volunteers to help with the planting, to attend the workshops, and help launch the new community food project.
A Third Place operates both the emerging park as well as the The Welcome Table Community Center and renewal projects in 74126 and 74130 zip codes.
It also received this Spring a grant to create a Muhammad Ali Peace Garden Grant for producing vegetables for families in the area. The garden will be located at the community center with the planting taking place the week of June 6-10 and dedication ceremony being held on Friday, June 10 at 7 pm. Volunteers are welcome. For more information call 918-794-4637, or 918-691-3223, or 918-430-1150 .
Background information and articles on the park can be read at http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2011/04/all-videos-news-design-plans-on-our.html. More information on the orchard competition, held each year, can be seen at www.communitiestakeroot.com.
Sunday
Join Us For our Big Juneteenth Week of Service June 6-10
Calling all to our Juneteenth Big Mission Week June 6-10 How does this sound for a schedule below?
We can and will be flexible on alternatives and changes on the ground during the week especially in regards to weather. in general we will do outdoor stuff mornings and evenings some when coolest; inside stuff during afternoons. We will have a list of a variety of projects we will offer as opportunities to serve, that involve different skills and level and you can choose. Should have that list posted Monday.
Community Garden and Beautification projects will also include putting in a bed for the Sarah's Residential Living Center in our area, non profit care for seniors in a small home environment; and also planting the Mohammed Ali Peace Garden at our Center received from a grant. Others will be at ongoing sites such as the park where the orchard will go, at an intersection we have reclaimed, at an establish park partner, along the prairie trail, and other guerilla gardening sites at abandoned buildings.
We are non smoking non alcohol no weapons on property.
Big Mission Week Sunday, June 5, Arrival and Welcome 9 pm ish. We will welcome with orientation to the building,
Monday, June 6, Learning/Orientation To Area 9-3. Tour of our Service Area/Mission Field, from 46th to 76th N and Osage Line to Highway 75, discussion of history and current status of the area, issues of economic injustice, food justice, race, class, identifying assets and strengths of our community, and why we are where we are.
5:30 our weekly Bluegrass Jam at the Center
6-9 Pizza dinner and showing of Entertaining Angels movie and discussion of missional church. optional small projects at the Center.
Tuesday June 7 Morning Work at Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark, where orchard will also go.
Afternoon Work at Community Center. Evening Community Potluck and Game Night at the Center, Board Games, Wii, etc. continuing projects in evening as able.
Wednesday June 8
Morning Work at Guerilla Gardening and other blight to beauty Sites in the community.
11:30 am Kickoff of our Daily Summer Cafe feeding program for all in the area 18 and under at Cherokee School just a block away from the community center. Afternoon work at the Center.
Evening Worship 6:30 pm and Free Time in Tulsa area.
Let us know if you have special places you would like to go either this evening or possibly at other times.
Thursday June 9
Morning Work in community gardens, peace garden, etc. Trash Off Streets. Afternoon Work at.the Center.
Evening Orchard in Abandoned Places Miracle Among The Ruins Celebration Party at the KitchenGardenPark site, 6-8 pm. Celebrating our winning an orchard from the National Fruit Tree Foundation.
Friday June 10 Finishing Projects Day and celebrating the peace garden completion at the Center. Jupiter Jump for kids. Live music outdoors and inside in evening.
Sat. June 11. Goodbyes.
10 am cherokee school reunion planning meets
6 pm Gay Pride Entry downtown Tulsa 7:30 pm AA
Rev. Ron Robinson
Turley/North Tulsa OK
www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
Www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com
Www.turleyok.blogspot.com
Www.uuchristian.org
9186913223 9184301150
We can and will be flexible on alternatives and changes on the ground during the week especially in regards to weather. in general we will do outdoor stuff mornings and evenings some when coolest; inside stuff during afternoons. We will have a list of a variety of projects we will offer as opportunities to serve, that involve different skills and level and you can choose. Should have that list posted Monday.
Community Garden and Beautification projects will also include putting in a bed for the Sarah's Residential Living Center in our area, non profit care for seniors in a small home environment; and also planting the Mohammed Ali Peace Garden at our Center received from a grant. Others will be at ongoing sites such as the park where the orchard will go, at an intersection we have reclaimed, at an establish park partner, along the prairie trail, and other guerilla gardening sites at abandoned buildings.
We are non smoking non alcohol no weapons on property.
Big Mission Week Sunday, June 5, Arrival and Welcome 9 pm ish. We will welcome with orientation to the building,
Monday, June 6, Learning/Orientation To Area 9-3. Tour of our Service Area/Mission Field, from 46th to 76th N and Osage Line to Highway 75, discussion of history and current status of the area, issues of economic injustice, food justice, race, class, identifying assets and strengths of our community, and why we are where we are.
5:30 our weekly Bluegrass Jam at the Center
6-9 Pizza dinner and showing of Entertaining Angels movie and discussion of missional church. optional small projects at the Center.
Tuesday June 7 Morning Work at Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark, where orchard will also go.
Afternoon Work at Community Center. Evening Community Potluck and Game Night at the Center, Board Games, Wii, etc. continuing projects in evening as able.
Wednesday June 8
Morning Work at Guerilla Gardening and other blight to beauty Sites in the community.
11:30 am Kickoff of our Daily Summer Cafe feeding program for all in the area 18 and under at Cherokee School just a block away from the community center. Afternoon work at the Center.
Evening Worship 6:30 pm and Free Time in Tulsa area.
Let us know if you have special places you would like to go either this evening or possibly at other times.
Thursday June 9
Morning Work in community gardens, peace garden, etc. Trash Off Streets. Afternoon Work at.the Center.
Evening Orchard in Abandoned Places Miracle Among The Ruins Celebration Party at the KitchenGardenPark site, 6-8 pm. Celebrating our winning an orchard from the National Fruit Tree Foundation.
Friday June 10 Finishing Projects Day and celebrating the peace garden completion at the Center. Jupiter Jump for kids. Live music outdoors and inside in evening.
Sat. June 11. Goodbyes.
10 am cherokee school reunion planning meets
6 pm Gay Pride Entry downtown Tulsa 7:30 pm AA
Rev. Ron Robinson
Turley/North Tulsa OK
www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
Www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com
Www.turleyok.blogspot.com
Www.uuchristian.org
9186913223 9184301150
Friday
Tulsa World Article on Our Foundation/Center
The Tulsa World recently published an article on our new community center and our projects and our orchard vote competition, and more. Read it here: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110509_11_A13_CUTLIN403855&archive=yes
Monday
12 Facts of Hope in Turley/NorthTulsa
Hi all. Hope these 12 areas of making a difference in the world through small acts of justice done with great love will be as inspiring to you as they have been to me, and you will explore ways to partner with us to make even more of an impact here and in your own lives and groups and families.
1. We are currently in fourth place out of 120 in the national fruit tree orchard vote to win a 40 tree orchard for far northside Tulsa. Keep voting for us daily and spreading the news. If we can remain in the top five at the end of May we will win one of the orchards from the National Fruit Tree Foundation which will come plant, teach residents, install irrigation systems. Go to www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index/. Easy to register and vote. We have fliers and business cards about the contest if you would like to distribute them. Help us combat the food desert of our 74126 zip code.
2. This coming Monday, May 16, at 6:30 pm at our Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., we will be watching a special documentary being premiered on PBS marking the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders. Refreshments available. Bring friends to watch together. We are scheduling a whole series of films for the summer. We had a great cinco de mayo party watching the The Three Amigos and discussing the real roots of the Mexican celebration.
3. A story about our new center and the orchard and the new kitchengardenpark project, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., ran today in the Tulsa World. You can read it and see the pictures at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110509_11_A13_CUTLIN403855. Share the link with others as a way to promote our orchard vote and renewal projects.
4. We are hosting a weekly bluegrass jam on Mondays at 5:30 pm at the Center. We have the neighborhood safety monthly meetings last Thursday of the month at 6:30 pm. The recovery groups meet Saturday evening. If you have an idea for a support group or regular community meeting let us know.
5. We do not have our community health clinic anymore, but the plans are evolving for a neighborhood or community health worker program in our underserved areas. I travelled with OU representatives to meet with officials at the Oklahoma Health Care Authority about the project, combining community residents and leaders with health providers and people in our neighborhoods who are repeat emergency room users. We are also working on a smaller wellness survey plan for this summer. Our Center's future Health Hub is taking shape.
6. A week ago the decision was made to close our partner in education Cherokee School. Since then we have been present with people in their grief and anger. We bought lunch for all the school teachers and staff last Friday to celebrate the ending of their testing period and to mourn the decision. We have met with parents who are exploring various options and are hoping to use our center and/or investigating charter schools or some other way to make use of the building. At the same time we will be hoping to receive invitations to partner more deeply with the remaining Tulsa public schools in our service area, and plan to help community residents have a voice in how such a vital physical building in our area will be taken care of and used for the good of the community as we meet with school officials. On Saturday May 21 we will be at Cherokee from 11 am to 3 pm for a Farewell Community Open House. Spread the word to all community residents and alumni of the school which dates back to its days before it was a Tulsa public school and was part of the Turley area school district drawing students from many miles around. You can of course read more about my comments to the School Board and others at www.turleyok.blogspot.com and also at www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com
7. We received the materials from the Mohammed Ali Peace Garden Grant we received that we had planned to put in at Cherokee with the students there, and now will be working with community children to plant the beds elsewhere in our area, perhaps our community center. We continued to plant and care for all the vegetables gardens and native plant landscape gardens that we started before the closing decision and will continue to grow food for families and our food pantry.
8. We have been notified that because of the school closing we will not be able to host there the daily summer feeding program we have coordinated and paid for the past few years for all under 18 years old. We will be trying to find an alternate site for it that is as convenient to our area children and youth and will report our progress. Next year we hope our center is capable of handling the program ourselves; we continue to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinks for any who are hungry no matter what age. We are also working with O'Brien Recreation Center to get the word out to those over 60 in our area that they can be a part of a free nutrition program at the recreation center. We have also been working on the gardening projects at the recreation Center and helping to make the park again a place that is oriented to people in the immediate area and not just those from suburbs who come in for organized sports.
9. We presented 25 plus pages of signed petitions opposing the closing of the 74126 post office here on North Peoria when we met with representatives of the USPS and Sen. Inhofe's office at the post station. We told them it was immoral to close the facility in an area where the most vulnerable needed it without the means to take advantage of alternatives as those in areas of higher income do. We told them that if the internet is causing the post office problems the solution shouldn't be to close stations in areas where people have the least amount of email and internet use. We told them that the postal authorities have not put out any signage in the leased space they use or promotion that the post office is where it is and for all the new mobile residents in the area they don't know it exists, and worse have cut the hours down so that people who cant get away to use it from 10 am to 2 pm can't use it when they would otherwise. And at the same time we have begun talking and researching how we could set up a postal support center at our community center in case they go ahead and close down our post office. Come get more petitions to distribute to protest the possible closure.
10. We have work progressing on the Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark with the north area trees and debris scheduled to be removed this week so we can begin to plant garden beds and begin scheduling events and parties in the new northside park space, even as we keep working to clear and prepare and equip the rest of the miracle among the ruins greenspace project on the hill overlooking downtown Tulsa, a bridge between neighborhoods. We are scheduling a work day on the site, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., for this Saturday May 14 at 10 am. Start spreading the word to folks you know or groups you know that they can adopt a bed to grow their own food we will help them plant. Also this Friday, March 13, from 2 to 5 pm we will be supporting the McLain High School Greenhouse Plant Sale, 4949 N. Peoria Ave. Come see the transformation underway and support the McLain Initiative.
11. We are going to be working with one of our partners in the area, Sarah's Residential Living on N. 53rd St. to plant a garden for their use and with their residents. We had also consulted with the Dept. of Human Services to help them launch a community garden at their office on North Peoria. And we have picked back up on our initial project we did with OU Tulsa graduate social work students, the abandoned properties project; we have been touring and planning ways to bring attention to the horrible unsafe conditons of commercial abandoned buildings on North Peoria in our area, and are planning guerilla gardening actions and BYOT events, bring your own tables,where we hold community potlucks on the grounds next to the abandoned by their owner properties, and plant sunflowers, and try to work with owners when we can locate them to clean up and/or tear down structures that endanger our children and send a message that our area isnt important.
12. We have the food pantry expansion underway; donations are being taken, and food being given away; we also have restarted our "gently used" clothing room, and we will be inheriting the childrens clothing room that was being operated at Cherokee School now that it is being shut. We have added a new computer to our computer center but need three or four more. We will be scheduling an auction of donated items to raise needed funds to continue the building renovation and the park creation. We are also planning to host mission trips from churches coming from Texas and would love to do so with others even from here in the Tulsa area. Summer calendar of events planning will be done soon with our leaders and will be listed in the next email news. At the worship gatherings on Sunday we are discussing this month the book "Change the World" by Michael Slaughter. http://www.amazon.com/Change-World-Recovering-Message-Mission/dp/1426702973 We combine mission service with conversation worship and common meal. More events on the church side will be planned and announced soon too.
For more go to www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com, www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com,
Thanks, blessings
1. We are currently in fourth place out of 120 in the national fruit tree orchard vote to win a 40 tree orchard for far northside Tulsa. Keep voting for us daily and spreading the news. If we can remain in the top five at the end of May we will win one of the orchards from the National Fruit Tree Foundation which will come plant, teach residents, install irrigation systems. Go to www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index/. Easy to register and vote. We have fliers and business cards about the contest if you would like to distribute them. Help us combat the food desert of our 74126 zip code.
2. This coming Monday, May 16, at 6:30 pm at our Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., we will be watching a special documentary being premiered on PBS marking the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders. Refreshments available. Bring friends to watch together. We are scheduling a whole series of films for the summer. We had a great cinco de mayo party watching the The Three Amigos and discussing the real roots of the Mexican celebration.
3. A story about our new center and the orchard and the new kitchengardenpark project, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., ran today in the Tulsa World. You can read it and see the pictures at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110509_11_A13_CUTLIN403855. Share the link with others as a way to promote our orchard vote and renewal projects.
4. We are hosting a weekly bluegrass jam on Mondays at 5:30 pm at the Center. We have the neighborhood safety monthly meetings last Thursday of the month at 6:30 pm. The recovery groups meet Saturday evening. If you have an idea for a support group or regular community meeting let us know.
5. We do not have our community health clinic anymore, but the plans are evolving for a neighborhood or community health worker program in our underserved areas. I travelled with OU representatives to meet with officials at the Oklahoma Health Care Authority about the project, combining community residents and leaders with health providers and people in our neighborhoods who are repeat emergency room users. We are also working on a smaller wellness survey plan for this summer. Our Center's future Health Hub is taking shape.
6. A week ago the decision was made to close our partner in education Cherokee School. Since then we have been present with people in their grief and anger. We bought lunch for all the school teachers and staff last Friday to celebrate the ending of their testing period and to mourn the decision. We have met with parents who are exploring various options and are hoping to use our center and/or investigating charter schools or some other way to make use of the building. At the same time we will be hoping to receive invitations to partner more deeply with the remaining Tulsa public schools in our service area, and plan to help community residents have a voice in how such a vital physical building in our area will be taken care of and used for the good of the community as we meet with school officials. On Saturday May 21 we will be at Cherokee from 11 am to 3 pm for a Farewell Community Open House. Spread the word to all community residents and alumni of the school which dates back to its days before it was a Tulsa public school and was part of the Turley area school district drawing students from many miles around. You can of course read more about my comments to the School Board and others at www.turleyok.blogspot.com and also at www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com
7. We received the materials from the Mohammed Ali Peace Garden Grant we received that we had planned to put in at Cherokee with the students there, and now will be working with community children to plant the beds elsewhere in our area, perhaps our community center. We continued to plant and care for all the vegetables gardens and native plant landscape gardens that we started before the closing decision and will continue to grow food for families and our food pantry.
8. We have been notified that because of the school closing we will not be able to host there the daily summer feeding program we have coordinated and paid for the past few years for all under 18 years old. We will be trying to find an alternate site for it that is as convenient to our area children and youth and will report our progress. Next year we hope our center is capable of handling the program ourselves; we continue to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinks for any who are hungry no matter what age. We are also working with O'Brien Recreation Center to get the word out to those over 60 in our area that they can be a part of a free nutrition program at the recreation center. We have also been working on the gardening projects at the recreation Center and helping to make the park again a place that is oriented to people in the immediate area and not just those from suburbs who come in for organized sports.
9. We presented 25 plus pages of signed petitions opposing the closing of the 74126 post office here on North Peoria when we met with representatives of the USPS and Sen. Inhofe's office at the post station. We told them it was immoral to close the facility in an area where the most vulnerable needed it without the means to take advantage of alternatives as those in areas of higher income do. We told them that if the internet is causing the post office problems the solution shouldn't be to close stations in areas where people have the least amount of email and internet use. We told them that the postal authorities have not put out any signage in the leased space they use or promotion that the post office is where it is and for all the new mobile residents in the area they don't know it exists, and worse have cut the hours down so that people who cant get away to use it from 10 am to 2 pm can't use it when they would otherwise. And at the same time we have begun talking and researching how we could set up a postal support center at our community center in case they go ahead and close down our post office. Come get more petitions to distribute to protest the possible closure.
10. We have work progressing on the Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark with the north area trees and debris scheduled to be removed this week so we can begin to plant garden beds and begin scheduling events and parties in the new northside park space, even as we keep working to clear and prepare and equip the rest of the miracle among the ruins greenspace project on the hill overlooking downtown Tulsa, a bridge between neighborhoods. We are scheduling a work day on the site, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., for this Saturday May 14 at 10 am. Start spreading the word to folks you know or groups you know that they can adopt a bed to grow their own food we will help them plant. Also this Friday, March 13, from 2 to 5 pm we will be supporting the McLain High School Greenhouse Plant Sale, 4949 N. Peoria Ave. Come see the transformation underway and support the McLain Initiative.
11. We are going to be working with one of our partners in the area, Sarah's Residential Living on N. 53rd St. to plant a garden for their use and with their residents. We had also consulted with the Dept. of Human Services to help them launch a community garden at their office on North Peoria. And we have picked back up on our initial project we did with OU Tulsa graduate social work students, the abandoned properties project; we have been touring and planning ways to bring attention to the horrible unsafe conditons of commercial abandoned buildings on North Peoria in our area, and are planning guerilla gardening actions and BYOT events, bring your own tables,where we hold community potlucks on the grounds next to the abandoned by their owner properties, and plant sunflowers, and try to work with owners when we can locate them to clean up and/or tear down structures that endanger our children and send a message that our area isnt important.
12. We have the food pantry expansion underway; donations are being taken, and food being given away; we also have restarted our "gently used" clothing room, and we will be inheriting the childrens clothing room that was being operated at Cherokee School now that it is being shut. We have added a new computer to our computer center but need three or four more. We will be scheduling an auction of donated items to raise needed funds to continue the building renovation and the park creation. We are also planning to host mission trips from churches coming from Texas and would love to do so with others even from here in the Tulsa area. Summer calendar of events planning will be done soon with our leaders and will be listed in the next email news. At the worship gatherings on Sunday we are discussing this month the book "Change the World" by Michael Slaughter. http://www.amazon.com/Change-World-Recovering-Message-Mission/dp/1426702973 We combine mission service with conversation worship and common meal. More events on the church side will be planned and announced soon too.
For more go to www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com, www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com,
Thanks, blessings
Tuesday
Radical Health Care Change For The Poor: The Turley Plan
Even when we had the OU clinic here in our community center in Turley/NorthTulsa, we were planning ways to be "disruptively innovative" about really making a difference in the lives of the poor and to cut the costs of health care too. Now that all the clinics that used to be called bedlam or mobile clinics have been shut down on the northside, we are focusing on our previous ideas and plans and dreams even more intensely. Since we first began to discuss this in Turley a few years ago we have found other approaches that are similar springing up in other parts of the nation.
Today I go with OU to Oklahoma City as we present our plan to state leaders where it is getting a favorable so far response. Here is a link to an article published last year that goes into the idea a little more: http://progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com/2010/08/disruptive-innovation-for-real.html
We put resources into people, leaders already, living in the neighborhoods where the ones live who are the highest repeat users of the emergency room as their only health home, and we start with the connections to community these people have, knowing that real health arises and is supported by community, and we train these people with whatever basic skills we need them to have to be "master patients" mentors to their neighbors, and also to be teachers to the medical residents who are overseeing the health care, teaching them about the real lives and real community hindrances and helps that these people face. Probably start with conditions like diabetes and breathing problems where monitoring and support can make huge difference.
The key is putting resources into the people who live in the neighborhoods with one another, instead of into the salaries of those who come into an area to treat people and then go back home with their money to other places; this then becomes an economic as well as health stimulus. We know that just because you build it, a clinic or anything, that they will not just automatically come. Not with generations of not seeing primary care as important, because you don't see yourself or your family as important; not when you don't trust medical personnel to understand your living conditions. So we need to turn inside out what we mean by a health home, to get it closer to real homes wherever those may be and however they are formed.
As soon as I can figure out how to upload here the newest powerpoint on the plan, I will do so because that helps you to see it a bit more clearer too.
Out of abandonment and desperation to change the statistics that people are dying fourteen years earlier here than just six miles south on Peoria Ave. has come a great idea.
Today I go with OU to Oklahoma City as we present our plan to state leaders where it is getting a favorable so far response. Here is a link to an article published last year that goes into the idea a little more: http://progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com/2010/08/disruptive-innovation-for-real.html
We put resources into people, leaders already, living in the neighborhoods where the ones live who are the highest repeat users of the emergency room as their only health home, and we start with the connections to community these people have, knowing that real health arises and is supported by community, and we train these people with whatever basic skills we need them to have to be "master patients" mentors to their neighbors, and also to be teachers to the medical residents who are overseeing the health care, teaching them about the real lives and real community hindrances and helps that these people face. Probably start with conditions like diabetes and breathing problems where monitoring and support can make huge difference.
The key is putting resources into the people who live in the neighborhoods with one another, instead of into the salaries of those who come into an area to treat people and then go back home with their money to other places; this then becomes an economic as well as health stimulus. We know that just because you build it, a clinic or anything, that they will not just automatically come. Not with generations of not seeing primary care as important, because you don't see yourself or your family as important; not when you don't trust medical personnel to understand your living conditions. So we need to turn inside out what we mean by a health home, to get it closer to real homes wherever those may be and however they are formed.
As soon as I can figure out how to upload here the newest powerpoint on the plan, I will do so because that helps you to see it a bit more clearer too.
Out of abandonment and desperation to change the statistics that people are dying fourteen years earlier here than just six miles south on Peoria Ave. has come a great idea.
Monday
Postal Authorities Considering Closing Turley Post Office, meeting with public Thursday May 5 from noon to 2 pm at the post office
We have petitions at the Center for people to sign protesting the looking into closing of turley post office and moving services to Apache Street Northside Station. We will present these at the thursday meeting at the post office.
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 they 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,
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.
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 they 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,
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.
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.
Tulsa Schools Votes To Close Cherokee School
In a 5-2 vote, Cherokee School which was begun as Turley School in the early part of the twentieth century, was voted to be closed. Still to be determined are what the new boundaries will be covering the existing school boundaries, or what area schools will now cover this area; those are to be unveiled within a week or two. Also to be determined is what will be done with the building and the lands. We will keep you posted. We encourage you email board3@tulsaschools.org, Dr. Lana Turner-Addison, school board representative for our area who voted to close the school as part of the project schoolhouse initiative, to say that the community needs to be involved in what happens to the property; also send your emails to ballake@tulsaschools.org and to state representative Seneca Scott at seneca.scott@okhouse.gov who has been working to keep the school open. Our best option now is to make sure the building is used by a community oriented group. Also email support to Principal Jody Tell at telljo@tulsaschools.org.
Here are my remarks to the School Board before the vote was taken:
I am Ron Robinson, a district resident and graduate of Cherokee, Monroe, and McLain, and with A Third Place Community Foundation, an active partner in education with Cherokee School in many ways through school programming, outdoor classrooms, gardens and landscaping and running the summer food program at the school for all of the community all summer long, and I am on the board of the new McLain School Foundation.
There is much hope and promise in the Project Schoolhouse initiative, especially for us in north Tulsa. Still it is with sadness and regret that I speak tonight because of lost opportunities to make the plan even better for an area that needs the best, and of course with a little sense of outrage that public schools have received this kind of treatment from state political leaders. We need to take this energy and be in oklahoma city.
But First,our Cherokee school and parent and community leaders still simply want to know specifically why, why Cherokee was closed compared to other schools in our immediate area based on the measurement criteria used which to all our eyes didn’t seem justified in comparison? And why no one met with Cherokee to go over the alternative proposals we made which we feel would be ways to improve not only Cherokee but building on its strengths to help McLain, our neighbor on North Peoria a mile away.
Why have three schools serving children under sixth grade within a half mile of each other on North Cincinnati; why not take any one of those programs and move it one mile east to North Peoria to Cherokee? Why reopen Monroe for an immersion program when you could move it one mile north to already existing Cherokee?
Second, why at this date, at this point in the project, are people from the principal to teachers to parents and community leaders still asking these questions? This is perhaps the biggest question with the longest lasting effects for building any bridges with those affected at Cherokee, for keeping them connected with the local public school system and trying to keep them in our neighborhoods that have received so much historic and continuing neglect and abandonment by all institutions.
Lastly, we are concerned with what might happen next and how the community is treated as part of any closure and the future of the land use. Cherokee School is unique. It was not created by Tulsa Public School. It was given to TPS by the Turley area community when it closed its own school district. The historic arch of Turley High School is on the grounds, as is part of the Turley Historical Display, and the trees and gardens have been planted there by the community residents which now includes those from both incorporated city of Tulsa neighborhoods and unincorporated community of Turley neighborhoods.
We hope for the best for the initiative. We hope that in the future you will find our community’s school buildings and grounds to be of use some way for the education of our children and the growing of healthy community. We have so very very very few community assets left in our part of the 74126 zipcode; but one of our assets, the main one, is a people who are proud to live where we live, in a naturally multiethnic diverse community, and to help one another make our area one with deeper community ties, the ties that are the real source of the good life.
And so we end by inviting you, TPS, to come back to our community, to find ways to partner with us, not just for our sake, but for your sake, for your growth and improvement, and for the benefit of the lives of the children and youth we all serve.
We are still waiting to find out why.
Here are my remarks to the School Board before the vote was taken:
I am Ron Robinson, a district resident and graduate of Cherokee, Monroe, and McLain, and with A Third Place Community Foundation, an active partner in education with Cherokee School in many ways through school programming, outdoor classrooms, gardens and landscaping and running the summer food program at the school for all of the community all summer long, and I am on the board of the new McLain School Foundation.
There is much hope and promise in the Project Schoolhouse initiative, especially for us in north Tulsa. Still it is with sadness and regret that I speak tonight because of lost opportunities to make the plan even better for an area that needs the best, and of course with a little sense of outrage that public schools have received this kind of treatment from state political leaders. We need to take this energy and be in oklahoma city.
But First,our Cherokee school and parent and community leaders still simply want to know specifically why, why Cherokee was closed compared to other schools in our immediate area based on the measurement criteria used which to all our eyes didn’t seem justified in comparison? And why no one met with Cherokee to go over the alternative proposals we made which we feel would be ways to improve not only Cherokee but building on its strengths to help McLain, our neighbor on North Peoria a mile away.
Why have three schools serving children under sixth grade within a half mile of each other on North Cincinnati; why not take any one of those programs and move it one mile east to North Peoria to Cherokee? Why reopen Monroe for an immersion program when you could move it one mile north to already existing Cherokee?
Second, why at this date, at this point in the project, are people from the principal to teachers to parents and community leaders still asking these questions? This is perhaps the biggest question with the longest lasting effects for building any bridges with those affected at Cherokee, for keeping them connected with the local public school system and trying to keep them in our neighborhoods that have received so much historic and continuing neglect and abandonment by all institutions.
Lastly, we are concerned with what might happen next and how the community is treated as part of any closure and the future of the land use. Cherokee School is unique. It was not created by Tulsa Public School. It was given to TPS by the Turley area community when it closed its own school district. The historic arch of Turley High School is on the grounds, as is part of the Turley Historical Display, and the trees and gardens have been planted there by the community residents which now includes those from both incorporated city of Tulsa neighborhoods and unincorporated community of Turley neighborhoods.
We hope for the best for the initiative. We hope that in the future you will find our community’s school buildings and grounds to be of use some way for the education of our children and the growing of healthy community. We have so very very very few community assets left in our part of the 74126 zipcode; but one of our assets, the main one, is a people who are proud to live where we live, in a naturally multiethnic diverse community, and to help one another make our area one with deeper community ties, the ties that are the real source of the good life.
And so we end by inviting you, TPS, to come back to our community, to find ways to partner with us, not just for our sake, but for your sake, for your growth and improvement, and for the benefit of the lives of the children and youth we all serve.
We are still waiting to find out why.
Tuesday
Seven Statements on Saving Cherokee School
1. I am a proud graduate of Tulsa Public Schools, from Cherokee Elementary, from Monroe Jr High, and from McLain High School. I am a resident of Tulsa Schools who moved back here from Owasso so my daughter could be in the school district. I have helped fund and start the McLain School Foundation and love being a part of the McLain initiative. I am part of a Partner in Education group active at Cherokee throughout the year and as coordinator of the full summer long child nutrition program at Cherokee. I am not objective I know when it comes to Cherokee and McLain; first, I think Cherokee and McLain, both so close on North Peoria, are interwoven in their destinies reflecting our neighborhoods in the 74126 which are naturally multiethnic and don't rely on commuter students to make them so; secondly, because my wife and I met in kindergarden in Cherokee, and started dating in McLain...but it is not about the past.
2. We should take all this energy of the past year and month and be focusing our attention and energies on gathering people for rallies in OKC to demand that the state political leadership give our children the public education they and the state deserve instead of helping them in their efforts to gut public education or lower its standards for families who can't afford private school. Let's seriously try that first; people are awake now.
3. Much to applaud in the SchoolHouse Plan. Much. And much for the northern part of Tulsa is good. But instead of rushing it we need to make sure that we aren't leaving gaps like Cherokee tht will have unintended consequences
4. Mainly, we need to know and be able to discuss Why Cherokee has been recommended for closure. Based on the measurement criteria as we go over them, particularly compared with our neighboring schools, We Just Don't Get It. You know there has been a rush because no one has come to talk with Cherokee staff or parents or community leaders about the reasons, or to go over the proposed alternatives. This far into the process and why has there been no sit down even with the staff to explain, to review, to look at the alternatives as we see them, alternatives backed by three state legislators representing our area. Without that transparency, authenticity, no effort will be rewarded in creating community anywhere.
5. So, why not, instead of reopening Monroe which is right next to another elementary school , why not put that wonderful new program for it into a school already open like Cherokee, thus rewarding the turnaround success and the natural multi-ethnic diversity of the school? Cherokee is easy to get to from anywhere.
6. So, why have three schools serving children in grades six and under right next to each other within a half mile of each other on North Cincinnati? Go ahead and keep Houston and Greeley nd bring the community school planned for Gilcrease down to Cherokee which is already in the pipeline working on becoming an official community school?
7. Finally, in the long run, bonding Cherokee and its surrounding community better with McLain, where students go to 6th grade at Cherokee and then immediately to 7th in McLain, will build back that connection (which lost when the problems at Gilcrease as a middle school step to McLain caused many at Cherokee and elsewhere to leave) and that connection will keep aiding McLain in its amazing transformation success story as a shining example of a naturally integrated multi-ethnic school that reflects the face of the amazing zip code we are all here in.
2. We should take all this energy of the past year and month and be focusing our attention and energies on gathering people for rallies in OKC to demand that the state political leadership give our children the public education they and the state deserve instead of helping them in their efforts to gut public education or lower its standards for families who can't afford private school. Let's seriously try that first; people are awake now.
3. Much to applaud in the SchoolHouse Plan. Much. And much for the northern part of Tulsa is good. But instead of rushing it we need to make sure that we aren't leaving gaps like Cherokee tht will have unintended consequences
4. Mainly, we need to know and be able to discuss Why Cherokee has been recommended for closure. Based on the measurement criteria as we go over them, particularly compared with our neighboring schools, We Just Don't Get It. You know there has been a rush because no one has come to talk with Cherokee staff or parents or community leaders about the reasons, or to go over the proposed alternatives. This far into the process and why has there been no sit down even with the staff to explain, to review, to look at the alternatives as we see them, alternatives backed by three state legislators representing our area. Without that transparency, authenticity, no effort will be rewarded in creating community anywhere.
5. So, why not, instead of reopening Monroe which is right next to another elementary school , why not put that wonderful new program for it into a school already open like Cherokee, thus rewarding the turnaround success and the natural multi-ethnic diversity of the school? Cherokee is easy to get to from anywhere.
6. So, why have three schools serving children in grades six and under right next to each other within a half mile of each other on North Cincinnati? Go ahead and keep Houston and Greeley nd bring the community school planned for Gilcrease down to Cherokee which is already in the pipeline working on becoming an official community school?
7. Finally, in the long run, bonding Cherokee and its surrounding community better with McLain, where students go to 6th grade at Cherokee and then immediately to 7th in McLain, will build back that connection (which lost when the problems at Gilcrease as a middle school step to McLain caused many at Cherokee and elsewhere to leave) and that connection will keep aiding McLain in its amazing transformation success story as a shining example of a naturally integrated multi-ethnic school that reflects the face of the amazing zip code we are all here in.
Monday
All the Videos & News & Design Plans on our Park where the Orchard will go
Explore this post to see all the moving videos and the news clips and articles and design documents and more on our Welcome Table Community KitchenGardenPark in the North Tulsa and Turley area where our orchard will go if we win one in the national online competition. Vote for us at http://www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index/. register once and vote easily every day and pass it on..................................................................................................................................................... Here is the Tulsa World article that helped put us over the top to be able to buy the beautiful acre overlooking downtown Tulsa that was full of abandoned houses and buildings and start putting in the park: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100827_11_A11_CUTLIN485332 ...................................................... ..................................................................................................................... The most recent news story from channel eight: the clip shows us clearing the kitchengardenpark not the school though we had been planting there the day before, and the park and the orchard will be in a place where children walk by to school and families without cars on their way to the grocery store. http://www.ktul.com/video?clipId=5741176&autostart=true.............................................................................................. The Channel Six news story is at http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12642450.................................................................................................................... For the OU social work students moving video about the place and the need for the project and for your donations, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w . .......................................................................................................................................... For the OU Design Studio on what it will look like go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/miracle-among-ruins-welcome-table.html .................................................................................................................... For the background on why we are doing this community transformation project here go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/see-vision-miracle-among-ruins.html and to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/04/consider-thischange-this.html ......................................................................................................................................... For the bigger connect the dots link on how we have plans for all of our Four Directions area of Tulsa North and Turley go to http://turleyok.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-directions-initiative-tnt-vision.html
Tuesday
Help Us Win A Fruit Tree Orchard For Our Area in Need of Healthy Food Options
Our Turley and North Tulsa community is in the running for a forty tree fruit tree orchard as it has been selected to be in a national online voting competition by the National Fruit Tree Foundation and Edy's Fruit Bars. Five orchards a month will be awarded to communities receiving the top votes in a contest that will begin April 15 and last through August at http://www.communitiestakeroot.com/Plant/Index. Please bookmark this link and go to it every day for a quick click and vote. Representing the local community in the competition is the area non-profit A Third Place Community Foundation. Our volunteer group raised $15,000 last summer to purchase a city block on North Johnstown Ave. and N. 60th St. overlooking downtown Tulsa where it is building The Welcome Table Community KitchenGardenPark on the site where abandoned houses once stood. The project is called the "Miracle Among The Ruins." Purchasing the site was the first miracle, getting the rundown eyesore homes removed was the next, and the fruit tree orchard will be another miracle on this site. If we win an orchard, the planting will take place at the new park site and with its partners in the area, according to Ron Robinson, Executive Director. "We hope everyone will go to the website every day and quickly click on our community, and encourage all their friends and family around the world to vote for us, because so few of our local residents have computers and internet access," he said. Robinson said the orchard is vitally needed not only to beautify the area and help complete the park as an asset in an area with few public amenities, but to add to the healthy food needs of the residents in the 74126 zipcode. A recent nutritional survey conducted by the OU Graduate Social Work students and the A Third Place Community Foundation revealed the following statistics about health and nutrition in its service area: ...55 percent worry about the amount of food they have ...6 percent use spoiled food ...29 percent use a food pantry ...31 percent receive food from church ...35 percent borrow food from family ...25 percent borrow food from friends ...25 percent adults skip entire day from eating ...29 percent adults skip meals ...26 percent did not eat and are hungry at time of survey ...43 percent eat less than they should ...60 percent eat low cost foods ...52 percent cannot afford nutritious meals ...57 percent run out of food ...60 percent cannot afford healthy food The Food Environment: ...29 percent have no affordable source of food in community ...63 percent know about a food pantry ,..56 percent rate the food quality in Turley area as fair or poor ...59 percent indicate food in Turley area expensive or very expensive relative to budget Overall Health: ...56 percent not currently healthy ...41 percent health is fair or poor ...54 percent are overweight ...66 percent should weigh less ...47 percent smoke or use other tobacco A Third Place Community Foundation, a new 501c3 organization made up of volunteers with all funds going to mission, runs not only The Welcome Table park but also has recently purchased a large old historic abandoned church building at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and is reclaiming and reopening it as The Welcome Table Community Center with free internet and computer center, library, game and meeting and program space, food pantry, 12 step recovery group, clothing giveaway, prayer and meditation room, and classrooms for a health hub. Its former community center on North Peoria was in rented space. Robinson said the purchase of the building, aided in part by a grant from the Zarrow Foundation, has helped to take an abandoned and vandalized building and is transforming it back for community use. The center has now reopened on a part time basis in its first phase of remodelling. We also run the area free summer lunch meal program at Cherokee School for all under 18 year old, and do environmental reclaiming and promotion of native wildflower plants in this region at schools and public sites. A Third Place Community Foundation is also involved with the McLain High School Initiative, Cherokee School, OU Community Health Worker project, and other events and items as part of its mission of "renewing community, empowering residents, growing healthy lives and neighborhoods" through small acts of justice done with great love. For more on the group and area and to donate go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com. Or call 9186913223.
Come To Turley Area Big Event of Service: Apr 8-10: For Cherokee, Community Center, Park & More
We need you to help this weekend. Everyone Welcome. Come For Our Big Weekend of Service, join with others from OU and elsewhere working with us in our Turley area. ... Plant Cherokee (come help in the outstanding gardens and outdoor classrooms and help us plant the school in the minds and hearts of the School Board and community; all skill levels welcome; no experience needed; bring families, groups, etc) ... Sat April 9 between 8a-12p and beyond at Cherokee School Breakfast, Lunch included ... Part of The Great American Clean-Up Day Serving Turley Area Big Event Weekend Apr 8-10 Fri Apr 8, 2-7 p: work on the new community center, 5920 N. Owasso behind tag agency, and clean up Turley streets, free supper ...... Sat Apr 9, 8a-noon and later: Garden at Cherokee, 6001 N. Peoria, and/or at our emerging Park site, 6005 N. Johnstown Sun. Apr 10, 12-4 plant at Turley Welcome Sign and 66th and N. Lewis site and school, streets, park ..... Rainy weather meet in community center .... The Welcome Table Community Center, a project of A Third Place Foundation, local nonprofit 9186913223 and http://www.cherokeeschoolgardenjournal.blogspot.com/ .... Renewing Community, Empowering Residents, Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoods
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