Images of The TurleyNorthTulsa Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and Orchard

Channel 6 News Story on Turley and our Food Pantry Projects; Next Giveaway Day Aug. 2

http://www.newson6.com/story/18899743/food-banks-and-farmers-markets-aim-to-provide-fresh-food-to-those-in-need Go see the latest Channel 6 News Story on our Foundation and our Renewal work on the northside.

Our next Mobile Van Food Giveaway Day will be Thursday, Aug. 2 from 11 am to Noon at Cherokee School. We need more volunteers than ever on that day from 10 am to Noon so we can cycle volunteers through shade because of the summer heat. Those receiving food do not have to leave their cars to get the food donations. The goal, as is the goal of our twice a week food pantry days, is that we make life a little more bearable for vulnerable families and persons so they can spend their energy and money on making life changing actions without having to worry so much about food, especially healthy food. To make the most lasting effect on the health of families and to save the most money, we have our KitchenGardenPark where people can learn to grow and cook their own food for free, and have fun in community doing so. We harvest at the park on Monday and Thursday beginning at 6 pm and on Saturday mornings at 7 am. All are welcome.

The "Before The Park" Video of KitchenGardenPark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgFKD6_i_w

This is a video taken before we bought the property of abandoned homes and trashed out yards of debris; thanks to the OU Graduate Social Work Class who helped us to envision what we now have, and helped us to start something great for our area that we are adding to all the time. This doesn't even show most of the damage and blight. Our Miracle Among The Ruins project is still going on. You will be hearing more soon about new ways to help. But already we have more than 20 garden beds and more on the way, and more than 40 fruit trees, and many berries planted, and places for people to rest and relax and enjoy one of the area's most scenic sites where people used to turn their heads away. From blight to beauty. Much still to be done, not only at this site but also all around where the abandonment and health hazard properties continue to plague us in the 74126 zip.

Come to our Juneteenth Benefit Dinner Sat. June 16; and other upcoming events in Turley Area

Hi all. This week we have many exciting events and partnership news and a link to my recent lecture in the Dallas area this past Saturday.

First, thanks to volunteers who helped us give out three tons of food in one hour this past Thursday morning; come volunteer any Tuesday or Friday morning from 9:30 am to noon at our food pantry days at the Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave....And thanks to those who walked with us in the recent Tulsa Gay Pride Parade, carrying our banner and letting all know that we welcome all here in the 74126 and northside area....

1. This Saturday June 16 from 5 to 7 pm come to the Odd Fellows Lodge at 6227 N. Quincy Ave. to help us celebrate Juneteenth with a Soup Smorgasborg to raise funds for our northside renewal efforts, particularly for our kitchengardenpark and orchard and food pantry and environmental justice events. Suggested donation is $5 per adult minimum and children under ten eat for free. If you have wanted to find a fun way to help support our mission, and enact it at the same time by breaking bread together and lifting up our multi-ethnic future, come to this event. And bring a friend.

2. Tomorrow afternoon we are pleased to host a class from Phillips Theological Seminary to discuss social ethics in the community on the ground, and how it can help grow communities and lives of soul and service.

3. Wednesday I will be meeting with the director of the Tulsa Health Department to go over future projects together, to celebrate what we have done together in the past, and to grow our ties with the coming of the North Regional Wellness Center to our neighborhood.

4. Also Wednesday, June 13, 6:30 pm join us for free meal and spiritual and missional movie Vision, based on the life of the medieval mystic, community leader, breaker of expectations and set roles, artist, Hildegard of Bingen. RSVP if you can for the meal, but come for sure to the Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave.

5. My lecture this past weekend in Dallas on community renewal, trends in American culture and religion, and the missional church, One Mission, Many Communities: What the Post-Congregational World Requires of Us can be read and shared at http://www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/06/one-mission-many-communities-what-post.html

6. Our northside community kitchengardenpark and orchard is making huge leaps forward. We recently put up the new fence (not to keep anyone out, but to help slow down the little ones who are inside and keep them safe) and are continuing to now move into second phase of the project, constructing the social areas and working on grants for the kitchen/shelter/greenhouse/rainwatercollection and for the many community art projects we want to have at this site which overlooks downtown Tulsa and our beautiful area. Let community artists know we want to provide them an outside gallery. Stay tuned for more updates. We gather at the garden to harvest for the food pantry and to meet neighbors on Monday and Thursday evenings at 6 pm and on Saturdays at 8 am. Thanks to Hope Unitarian Church volunteers who worked all morning and then ate with us during lunch.

7. This Sunday for Fathers' Day our worship gathering will start at the Center at 9:30 am with a study of the parable of the prodigal family and then watching and discussing the movie Parenthood and its lessons for communities and lives, followed by communion and a common meal.

8. I will be gone the rest of the month, just about, to Phoenix to represent the Christian Fellowship at our UUA General Assembly. For more on us see www.uuchristian.org. We are also now selling online our Revival DVDs from the event this past March featuring feminist authors and professors and speakers, Dr. Amy Oden of Wesley Theological Seminary, Dr. Mary E. Hunt of the Women's Alliance For Theology, Ethics, and Ritual, and Margaret Starbird, best selling author of books on Mary Magdalene; and CDs of our many worship services featuring communion, prayer and healing, and opening and closing worship. All for just $30 for a set of six DVDs. You may also order yours by email by replying to me via email.

9. Remind you to support our partners the North Tulsa Farmers Market on Tuesdays 9 am to 2 pm at the Northeast Campus of Tulsa Community College Apache and Harvard, and on Saturday mornings at the Newsome Community Farms on 56th St. N. just west of Highway 75...Our condolensces to Board Member Elaine McDondle on the loss of her sister...We had a good interview by Channel Six this past Thursday at our food giveaway event and it should be a part of a series they are doing on food for hungry children in our town. It may be a part of coverage of the new community garden at the Jewish Federation building on 71st Street tomorrow in south Tulsa. Also great to hear of the progress on the community garden at the Dept. of Human Services building on North Peoria also.

10. Don't Forget the next Turley Area TownHall will be held on Tuesday June 26 at 7 pm at O'Brien Park recreation center; give back to community and hear about issues and connect with local officials. Also that is Election Day. Remember the freedom we have based on lives lost and rights fought for.

Support Turley and Area at these Coming Events; Check Back for More Updates

1. Food Pantry at The Center, Tues. & Fri. 9:30 am to noon (for residents in 74126, 74130, 74073). volunteers always needed. Clothing room and computer center and library open.



2. Food Bank Mobile Food Van Day, Thurs. June 7, 11 am, at Cherokee School, volunteers come at 10 am, for those in 74126 74130 74073. Get your required voucher from the pantry before the event while they last. We are looking for donations of water and lawn chairs for our volunteers to keep them from getting over-heated. We give out 3 tons of food in just one hour; come be a part of this great event every other month. Help us provide food and meals by donating safely and easily, no paypal account needed, by clicking the button on the right of this page. Or bring checks or cash donations by the Center or our events.


3. “GROW TURLEY” Planning Meeting, Thurs, June 7, 3:30 pm, community center. working on disaster response network, incorporation of Turley as a city, economic development, and other issues.


4. Community Pancake, eggs and sausage plus, Breakfast, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., Sat. June 9, 8-10 am, $5 suggested donation. Every Second Saturday.


5. Monthly Community missional Movie Night: featuring the film Vision, the radical life of the Medieval Mystic and Nun Hildegard of Bingen, Wed. June 13, 6:30 pm, free meal included.


6. Community Juneteenth Celebration and Benefit Dinner, at the Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy, Sat. June 16, 5-7 pm; $5 all you care to eat; kids under 10 eat free; raise funds for the Food Pantry and GardenKitchenPark and other projects to bring people together in our community as one people. Every Third Saturday the dinner will be held for projects by A Third Place Foundation or the Odd Fellows Lodge. Juneteenth is the annual celebration of the receiving of the news of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln. 


7. Volunteering at the GardenPark, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. west of Cherokee School, Monday and Thursdays 6 pm, Saturdays 8 am. Come Saturday June 2 and meet the volunteers from across Tulsa, this time from partner Hope Church.


8. Turley Area Public Town Hall Meeting and Community Association, Tuesday June 26, 7 pm O’Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham. Last Tuesday of every month.


9. Turley Area Alliance Against Crime: Personal, Home, and Neighborhood Safety meetings last Thursdays of each month, May 31 and June 28, 6:30 pm at the community center.


10. Recovery 12 step groups. Saturdays, 5 pm and 7:30 pm, community center


11. Turley Water Board Public Meeting, LAST WORKING DAY OF MONTH 8:30 AM AT THE WATER DEPT. 6108 N. Peoria Ave.


12. Turley Fire Dept. Meetings THURSDAYS 7 PM, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.

Park Dedication Words for Today: The Miracle Among The Ruins Address

Dedication Address for the Welcome Table Kitchen
GardenPark and Orchard, Sat. May 12, 10 am to 2 pm, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. (west of Peoria Ave.)



By Ron Robinson, Executive Director


For those from whom we have inherited this land, from its first native inhabitants and later the Cherokee Nation, to those who built their homes here and who lived here, gardened here, struggled and thrived here, protecting the land, this own good place of the earth, for those in our past who have taught us much about how to live and who are still alive in our hearts, we dedicate this park, these gardens, this orchard, this community space.


For those who have given of their lives, their volunteer effort, their money, their time and attention, in so many ways these past two years since we began the drive to acquire the property, who have given of their sweat and tears and laughter in planting and playing, who have kept us in their hearts, minds, and souls no matter if they live across the street or live across the world, we gratefully dedicate this vision to them, of a place where people will continue to give back to others.


For those who live in our neighborhoods, and for those whose heart breaks for those who live in our neighborhoods, for whom this park has and will become a daily reminder of the power of hope over despair, of healthy choices in a culture that surrounds them with so much that produces illness of the mind, body, and spirit, and for whom this park will be a place of rest and community connection and the launching pad for whole new dreams and renewal projects, for all of you we dedicate this place of deep peace as a presence in your life.


Finally, for those who are not yet born, for those who live in the undiscovered country of the future, for those lives we cannot imagine, for those who will inherit this place, this moment even, from us, and who will make of it what their world requires, for them and for the mission of their lives, we dedicate this community on the hill, this bridge from us to them, this small act of justice done with great love.

Celebrate With Us as We Dedicate Our New Northside Community KitchenGardenPark and Orchard

All are invited to Come To The Dedication Celebration of The Northside Community Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and Orchard

Sat. May 12 from 10 am to 2 pm with Public Ceremony at 11 am

6005 N. Johnstown Ave.

This has been a Major Part of our Miracle Among The Ruins project, taking a block of abandoned homes, trashed properties, overgrown weeds and immense tree damage from 2007 icestorm and transforming it into community space and food justice projects. Our food pantry routinely gives out some 11,000 pounds or more of food each month in our 74126 and nearby zipcodes; the food grown here not used by neighbors who work the beds goes into the pantry for all. We encourage residents, but also anyone who wishes to help grow healthy food for and with the poor, to be involved. Come see the transformation of the block, and have your family or civic group, or church take on a bed to grow and give away.

We are now Completing the first phase of the project to address food insecurity in far north Tulsa, and to build community connections and empower residents in neighborhoods. Site preparation nearly complete, Raised Vegetable garden beds, 20 completed another 20 ready to be built; 40 fruit tree orchard; plus berries; some of the social areas and play areas completed already as part of the second phase; Native Plant prairie trails area across the street for residents in Suburban Hills addition and the other neighborhoods as they walk the mile plus from their homes to the stores on North Peoria. New fence will be completed this coming week.

Such projects bridging diverse neighborhoods, and providing healthy food in our area where it is hard to find or afford healthy food, are needed now more than ever.

Three years ago we were in the planning stage working with OU Graduate Social Work students; two years ago we were involved in planning with OU Graduate Design Studio students, and were raising funds to try to buy the block of abandoned and trashed out homes and properties with overgrown weeds and much damage from the ice storm back in 2007;

After raising the funds and buying the property, with the help of Tulsa County and INCOG and the Turley Community Association we got the homes torn down; with the help of the Tallgrass Resource and Conservation District of the USDA, and Freedom Bank and the federal Home Loan Bank our $25,000 grant was received to begin site preparation; with help from the Indian Health Care Resource Center, and the Tulsa Community Gardening Association we began creating with our neighbors in Suburban Hills and Northgate and Turley the raised beds and tranforming the property;

Last summer with the assistance of many across the country we last year won the free 40 fruit tree orchard from the National Fruit Tree Association and Edy's Fruit Bars, and with help from many organizations such as Up With Trees we had great volunteer help on the Orchard Day. Since then we have been finishing site preparation (all done except for fence which will be erected next week), added more beds, and built new areas for people while they are in the park working. We also have our prairie trails almost done across the street from the park alongside where many residents walk on their long trek to the store and back, or shopping, etc, creating a safer and more restful area here in the 74126.

This will be the first of many new starts for community health on the northside this summer, with the expected openings soon of the Tulsa Health Dept Regional North Wellness Center on 56th St., and the OU Wayman Tisdale Specialty Clinic on 36th St.

 

There will be activities for children, tours of the property, refreshments, garden work for those who want to help or learn, and lots of information about upcoming community events and resources in our area.

 

 

The Shootings in North Tulsa, The Turley Connection, Good Friday and Easter

Commentary: Events Old and New and Easter on the Northside

This is a repost of an email, but updated now, which I sent out with our calendar of events just this past week, on Wednesday. It was about racism and poverty and our area and continuing struggles for justice for all of all races, and the challenges of our schools, and our history in far north Tulsa including the Turley area, and about some personal history with these issues. Two days after the email the issues were now national and worldwide news as five of our African American neighbors here were killed or injured in shooting in which two of our "white" neighbors have been arrested; one of those arrested had suffered from violence against his own family members in our area; it is so much proof of the truth that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

I hope that such Good Friday suffering and injustice as we have experienced here, and the Easter news about the arrests which we hope will bring some relief to our community, will all be just the first steps in some needed whole northside healing in this multi-ethnic community. The new demographics for the Turley area alone show that the white population is decreasing and is now at 56 percent and is projected to be down to 52 percent by 2015 and soon after that there will not be a single majority ethnic group here in our area, especially as the percentage of blacks and hispanics both are projected to increase in the coming years.

We see this diversity as a tremendous opportunity for growth in the area, economic and spiritual, but also of course as challenging. We are committed to fighting racism, as the sign on our front door says, and so I hope we can continue to be leaders in the healing process that is needed. I hope all community groups in our northside area can find ways to be together with one another in the coming days and weeks to show the world that the people who want to bring about a world free from oppression and racial injustice will stand up and stand with one another across the racial and ethnic divides and send a message to all that all the races who live together on the northside see ourselves as blessings to one another and to the world.

Here again are my comments sent out on Wednesday, part of a presentation I made on Turley and Far North Tulsa to two classes at the graduate social work department of OU in Tulsa. Much here is about our high school McLain which has been in the news, a school that was the last of those in Tulsa to get a community foundation to help support it and I am proud to have been on the start of that foundation and to serve on its board, but there is also much below about the Klan, Turley, and roots of our struggles which I hope will put even the events of the past few days into a bigger picture.

Today is the day back in 1968 when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated; it is also the day my father celebrates his 80th birthday. They both have taught me about race and justice and shape my work today. Let me talk about them in light of recent events about Trayvon Martin and also about our high school here, Tulsa McLain...

When the events unfolded in Memphis in 1968, and across the country afterwards, I was in school in the recently and newly integrated Monroe Junior High here on the northside. Tulsa schools and the city, and also our unincorporated community of Turley on the northside, had been seeded by racism and segregation, and also by people who all along were working to bring about justice and liberty for all, even here. Segregated schools had meant some of our near neighbors who were black had had to go to overcrowded and underfunded schools miles from their homes instead of to the newer schools built on the northside for the baby booming generation. When the federal courts forced Tulsa schools to act justly, the northside schools were the first to be integrated, each year more rapidly and fully. I was graduated by McLain High School in 1972, forty years ago, the year McLain elected its first black homecoming queen and while Booker T. Washington was in its final year of being a segregated high school. But we had little real multicultural education or conversation or official learning and guiding back then. What I remember especially of April 4 and the days after it here on the northside was fear and heightened drama and excitement, and adrenaline and testosterone in junior high students, and some of the racially-motivated violence that would come to be a fairly regular part of school life for all of us, regardless of ethnicity, for all of the years in junior and senior high school. But the non-violent spirit of Dr. King, the models of some of our teachers, and the friendships some of us made reaching across racial divides back then, amidst the culture of violence and us vs. them mentality, were also always present.

Those were the beginning days of the "white flight", that along with the changing economics and war on the working class, led to the emptying out of far north Tulsa which has lost more than 50 percent of its population, and resulting services and community organizations, since then. Realtors and banks seeking sales, and the new television culture that brought the biased views of violence elsewhere into all of the living rooms, all spread and fueled fear and racism through our neighborhoods like a prairie fire. It didn't take much. The fact that once the northside schools like McLain were integrated, and especially when the magnet program at the BTW high school also on the northside was begun and many of the academically gifted students whose brothers and sisters had gone to McLain were now going to BTW, the curriculum offerings at McLain began to be cut, its struggles began to be deepened as the community and the student body demographics changed and the struggles were highlighted in the media in ways that its continuing strengths were not. The cycle picked up that has continued to this day.

Changes at the school created change in the community; now changes needed at the school require changes in the community. There is a simple symmetry to it, but also a despair for the lack of will and directing resources that it will take to make the changes. Now the state department of education, which has in tandem with the state legislature been cutting funds to schools consistently, and cutting community resources consistently, is talking of a kind of state intervention in McLain, or at best guided partnership. No one is too sure yet what will be done. We know this: McLain has only been on the needs to improve list at the state level for one of the past several years, this year, where other Tulsa high schools have been on the list for six of seven years, but there was outrage when talk of intervention by the state was mentioned for other schools. And we know this: that the standardized test scores at McLain reflect the students backgrounds leading into their years at McLain; they are behind in reading when they get to McLain, and McLain actually over the four years that those who will stay in school stay there catch them up so that a high percentage of those who are graduated by McLain are going on to college. And we know this: an accreditation team just this past month reviewed the operations at McLain and gave the school an overall good rating for its educational efforts. And we know this: transformation takes time and intentionality, and bold beyond the box thinking, and commitment of resources. And so I am hopeful that this new attention to McLain will build on its current strengths (which as history on the northside has shown are always undernoted in favor of a "fix the problem" mentality that perpetuates the anxiety and problem), and will at the same time break down boundaries between school and community, and neighborhoods, so that the healing of the community will become the focus, and the school transformations will be seen as a way to do that, for that is where the lasting change will come. Focusing on communities by McLain, and focusing on the schools feeding into McLain, and doing something about stopping the "brain drain" of students who live by McLain but who transfer to other public and public charter schools out of our community, a fact which with the increasing privatization of what once was loftily called "common education" for a "common society", is increasing the fragmentation of our neighborhoods, focusing on all of those "beyond McLain" things will have the greatest impact on McLain itself. While pumping in resources of time, talents, and definitely treasure into McLain and its strengths and giving it permission to teach not to test but to transformation, to make the last first, will help change the community.

Which brings me to my Dad celebrating 80 years today. Dad was born 80 years ago at home literally in the shadow of the Turley High School building, the old red brick building that was torn down a few years ago on the Cherokee School property, a school now abandoned too. That three story building erected in 1920 was built at a time when Oklahoma was in the throes of control by the Ku Klux Klan; it was a time near the time of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921; the Klan was controlling who was in the Governor's Mansion; there were sundown towns, and although the Turley area was not officially incorporated, it was certainly an unofficial sundown town perhaps made moreso because of the black families, and the freedmen families, that lived not too far away especially after the 1921 massacre and the exodus or refugees. My dad often told me he was raised prejudiced in that environment, the air in which he breathed, and his Dad was a member of the Klan, but that he did not want to pass on the prejudice and racism to his own kids, and instead was committed to breaking the cycle. His own Christian faith understanding of all as children of God, the role models of others in the family and elsewhere, all worked against that racism that seemed so inherent here, but it was not and could not have been easy; he remained in relationship with racists while refusing to let them set the culture for us and his community. When others fled in fear and fed into the prejudices of white flight, he intentionally remained on the northside even though he had to drive further over time to get to work and back, and he kept working in and with and for the northside. He became one of the first coaches of integrated sports teams on the northside; to this day I have many of my African American friends from those days ask me how he is doing, and tell me how important it was that he opened his life and our home, and went into their homes, became friends with their parents, coached with their fathers, especially at that time in their lives and the life of our wider community; and he often still asks me about them, how they are doing.

And he was and is concerned about the white kids too, those whose poverty and whose broken families or struggling families have made their education difficult, and who have not been able to find supportive community here in our community. His concern reminds me of the concern expressed by the also in his 80s African American civil rights leader John Perkins who said he most felt worried about the poor white kids who were left in the abandoned places of Empire because they had no community to turn toward, their white churches had left them for the suburbs, they had nothing like the black church in the neighborhood that could be alternatives to nurture; their test scores were just as bad; their dropout rates as bad; plus he said they had the shame increased that they were minorities now themselves, struggling culturally as outcasts, feeling that there was something wrong with them or else they would be living elsewhere, all conditions he says that makes them too easily turn toward racist groups like the Klan. We seek to be a place that sends out a different signal here in our abandoned place, our area of high ethnic diversity, that we embrace it not try to fight it.

Our area is the kind of area that Trayvon Martin was "supposed" to be in; here he would not have been seen as "different" and "dangerous." And so I believe his killing seems to have been as much about the way society has created social locations and stereotyped people within them as it was about other stereotypes. If we did not have the abandoned places, where we abandon people too, then he would not have been "out of place" in the gated community. I have called for people wishing to show support in his spirit, especially those of privilege living in safe communities, to do more than wear hoodies to the safe places in their lives; they need to come erase the dangerous places where he was socially relegated to; they need to come here where they too might be in the minority and feel the kind of discomfort to a degree that he might have and increase their own comfort zone by shopping here, walking through neighborhoods here, playing with their kids here, working with others here. In this way, we grow ourselves and grow the spirit of abundance in our community.

We are heading into the Easter weekend once again. This time of celebrating the journey of community and our bonds of love (maundy thursday), of facing our heartbreak and our betrayal, our violence, our turning away and denying justice (good friday), when we open ourselves up to all the grief and all the abandonment and the fears we have to face, and of the easter kind of surprise that comes in the ways small and great that people and this place continue to be hopeful, hopeful gardeners of the spirit as the poet says when new life and healing leaps up in our midst, when projects begin to take off when they have been plateaued, when new partners are made, when people find a second wind in their lives and find it in giving of themselves to others, and when that second wind in our lives begins to let us breathe again a little easier in our lives. In the past year here since just one Easter ago, in so many ways we have chronicled, we have had the wind knocked out of us as a community, and yet we are breathing again, sometimes deeply, and helping others to find breathing space too.

Thanks for your partnership, blessings on all you do, and more to come in the weeks ahead. Stay in touch,

April in Turley and North Tulsa

Turley Area Coming Events

Food Pantry New Hours Beginning April 10. Tuesday and Friday mornings 9:30 am to Noon, at the Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. behind the Tag Agency.

Community Gardening Weds. 6 pm and Sats. 9 am, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave.

Wed. April 4, 10 am We Join our other Partners in Education at McLain Jr. and Sr. High School meeting.  

Wed. April 4, 5:30 pm Class on Turley History and Current Issues by Ron Robinson, executive director of A Third Place Community Foundation, at OU-Tulsa Graduate Social Work Dept.

Future of Turley Planning Meeting on Disaster Response Network, Incorporation, Abandoned and Neglected Properties, Parades, Festivals, Schools, More: Thur. April 5, 3:30 pm Community Center

Easter Egg Hunt at O’Brien Park, 61^st and N. Lewis, Sat. Apr. 7, 10:30 am

Double Feature, Dinner, and Discussion, Tues April 10, 5 pm “Tapped” and 7 pm “Dirt! The Movie” at the Community Center

Community Pancake Breakfast, Sat. Apr. 14, 8 to 10 am, Odd Fellow Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave. $5 and Kids Eat Free.

Community Center Volunteer Day, 8 am to 5 pm, Sat. April 14

Life on the Streets and Borders: Program on Homelessness and Immigration with Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith (our community center will have a group presentation there) Tuesday, April 17, 5:30 pm Manna Meal and then Program to follow, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 15^th St. and S. Quaker Ave.

McLain School Foundation Board Meeting, 4929 N. Peoria Ave., Friday, Apr. 20, 4 pm

Turley Area Public TownHall, Tues. April 24, 7 pm, O’Brien Park Center

Next Food Bank Giveaway Day, Get Your Voucher Now at the Food Pantry at the Community Center, bring it to Cherokee School, Thur. April 26, 11 a.m.

Community Party and Dedication of the New KitchenGardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., Sat. May 12, 10 am to 2 pm with Ceremony at 11 am.

12-Step Recovery Groups, 5:30 and 7:30 pm Saturdays, Community Center

Turley Fire Department, Thursdays, 7 pm, 6408 N. Peoria Ave.

Turley Water Board, last working day of the month, 8:30 am, 6108 N. Peoria Ave.

Community Center Computer Center, Internet, Library, Clothing Room open during Food Pantry hours and our special events above and at other times by calling first the numbers below...

918-691-3223 918-794-4637

“Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoods on the Northside”

The Week of Serving Mar. 12-16; Come Grow Community

Join In Our Week of Serving Turley & Area

Mon. Mar 12 – Fri. Mar. 16

A Third Place Foundation: local grassroots group

Growing healthy lives and neighborhoods

Monday:

10 am to 2 pm: Tour of Area and Discussion of Issues and Projects. Free Lunch included. Meet at the Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave.

2-5 PM Service Projects at the Center and new Community KitchenGardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., and in the community

5:30 pm at the Center Free Dinner Movie and Discussion of “The Way”

Tuesday:

9 am to 6 pm Various Community Projects for all ages; 3 to 6 pm Food Pantry

Wednesday:

9 am to 6 pm Community Projects; 11:30 am free lunch for helpers at Turley United Methodist Church, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave., 6 pm Classic Country Concert with Johnny and The Oklahomans, and 6:30 pm free dinner for helpers at the Welcome Table Center.

Thursday:

9 am to 6 pm Various Community Projects for all ages; Food Pantry 3 to 6 pm

Lenten Prayer Service 6 to 6:30 pm, Welcome Table Missional Community

Friday

9 am to 6 pm Various Community Projects

3 to 7 pm Turley area Litter Pickup Event and Jupiter Jump and Party at The Welcome Table Community Center

7 to 9 pm Live Rock Music, featuring the band “Built For Comfort”

For more information, or to sign up to help, contact Ron Robinson, Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation at 918-691-3223, or see www.turleyok.blogspot.com

Our Turley/NorthTulsa Park Receives Southwest Region Awards

On Feb. 29, both Ron Robinson, representing Turley and North Tulsa's A Third Place Community Foundation, and Linda Taylor, receiving a posthumous award for her many years at O'Brien Park and her community service with A Third Place and other organizations, both received awards at the Southwest Region Network conference of the National Recreation and Parks Association meeting in Houston, Texas. This followed on similar awards being received last fall on a statewide level.

Here is the award information used in introducing A Third Place and Linda Taylor during the Awards Dinner.:

Ron Robinson serves as a member of the O’Brien Park Advisory and Education Board, for the Tulsa County Parks and Recreation Department, Tulsa, OK.  Together with other community members Ron founded the “A Third Place Community Foundation and Community Center and Kitchen Garden Park.”  ‘Third Place’ is one of three places where community members find support and connections.  The “first place” being the home, the  “second place” may be work or a religious association and the “third place” represents community connections and diversity.

The group has purchased property and secured a grant to begin the Kitchen Garden Park. 

Linda Taylor, O’Brien Park Recreation Director for over 30 years, stated: “ Reverend Ron Robinson would never seek an award or recognition of any kind but there is no one that deserves it more.”

 The nomination for A Third Place and Ron said:

Since 2007, the projects have been many: providing meeting space for making new

friends, OU Community Medicine Center, a library, free internet center, food and

clothing pantry, art gallery, music concerts, game playing, festivals and celebrations,

saving pets of Turley, conservation and nutrition among others.

Then in 2011, he proposed a project that some thought was from a “crazy local

northsider” but he said,

“Consider this: at a bad economic time of recession, at a time when community centers

have been closed down in the lowest income areas, at a time when parks that are so

critical to the life and health of communities and families have had budgets slashed, at a

time when our state is dead last as the healthiest state - we have an opportunity to

connect incorporated and unincorporated urban neighborhoods of great ethnic and age

diversity in a place that is of the greatest poverty and lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa

area.

With that challenge, the Third Place Community Foundation decided to BUY property!

And they also entered a contest.

Ron organized the group to participate in an online voting contest to win an orchard /

community garden. They won the vote and plans for the KitchenGardenPark

transformation began. Park preparation included cleanup of the site to clear trash and

debris from abandoned houses from one of the community's busiest thoroughfares

 to make room for the orchard and the garden beds. Besides the contest win of the 40 fruit

trees, Ron secured a $25,000.00 grant from Federal Home Loan Bank with the help of

Turleyʼs Freedom Bank and the Tallgrass Resource Conservation District. The result is

the creation of a new place to grow healthy food together, meet and greet neighbors

and make connections to change the community for the better. State Representative Seneca Scott also partnered with the Third Place group and supports the development of the parks.

On June 26th, 2011, the Third Place Community Foundation was joined by the National

Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Edy's Fruit Bars, local media and community leaders for

the planting of the new orchard that was won in the national competition. The project

was called a “miracle among the ruins” and over time, as the orchard and

KitchenGardenPark grows, it is possible that food deserts and blight will be a thing of

the past in the Turley area.

Again Quoting Linda Taylor - Projects such as the KitchenGardenPark take a lot of

people but there is always someone who leads. Rev Ron Robinson is one of those who

leads selflessly and meets all criteria to receive an ORPS Citation for his leadership.

• A person who has made an outstanding contribution to the recreation, park or

conservation movement. Contribution may be in the form of supporting the movement

at all levels, serving as a board member, serving on a citizen's committee to raise funds.

About Linda Taylor's posthumous award designating her as a Distinquished Park Fellow:

Linda Taylor has a Bachelor's and a Masters Degree in Education. Before joining the

Recreation Profession, she was an educator and basketball coach.

She came to the Recreation Profession in 1976 as a Recreation Leader at O'Brien and quickly advanced to Activities Director. 

She chartered the O'Brien Advisory and Education Board, the longest running 501c3 support group in the County Park System.

For Tulsa County, she directed day camps, taught fitness classes, started gardens, lifeguarded,

arranged special events, organized basketball tournaments and even set up

boxing rings just to name a very few of her activities. Linda has been involved politically

as a liaison between her community. She has worked with State Representative Senaca

Scott through her activities in her community.

State Rep Jabar Shumate was was one of Linda's "kids" growng up at the Center.

When Rep Shumate was told about this nomination he said, “Linda is a

wonderful person and I admire her very much. I would like to assist in her receiving this

recognition. ” Besides her community involvement, Linda has also served on the

boards of the Tulsa chapters of Business and Professional Women and the American

Association of University Women.

Linda has been an Oklahoma Recreation and Park Society member since 1977. She

has served on several committees and as President and Historian. ORPS Sponsored

the Owasso - Catoosa Half Marathon during her tenure as Ways and Means committee

chair. On behalf of ORPS, she has assisted with the booth and introduced speakers at

the Oklahoma Municipal League Conference. She brought her environmental

stewardship to the ORPS conference when she was conference coordinator by

involving the Tulsa Metropolitan Environmental Trust recycling program. Linda was one

of the first to use the 1980

ʼs NRPA “Life. Be in it.” marketing promotion and still has

the clip art characters from that program. In fact, one of the multi-use rooms 

at the Park has a wall mural of “Life. Be in it.” characters. She has been an avid supporter of National certification programs,

receiving the CLP (Certified Leisure Professional) in 1984

and remains certified as a CPRP (Certified Parks and Recreation Professional).

However, she is very proud of the CLP because as she puts it - “how many leisure

professionals are there? We are a unique group of people”

Linda is definitely unique. In the past, when ORPS socials consisted of Costumes, Linda

was the director of award winning skits. If you saw her you cannot forgot her as the

leopard woman in the “Kiss” Rock Group, winning a hula hoop contest and recruiting

Eddie Shackleford and Matt Meyer to wear tights and walk on their knees to portray

dwarfs in the “Just Say HO” take off of Snow White's story--with Jimmy Foster as Snow

 White. Many conference rehearsals were held in Linda's cabin at Western Hills. And 

when it came to the ORPS dances, many many times, Linda was the last one on the

dance floor.

Linda meets every criteria of the Distinguished Professional recognition.

• Over 10 years ORPS membership

• Over 10 years experience as leader, supervisor, administrator, professional member,

educator

• Current Registered Society Member

• Multiple Contributions to the ORPS and NRPA

• Distinctive Leadership in pioneer activities for parks and recreation

• Outstanding service to the profession through arts, crafts, physical education, sports,

health and safety education, park maintenance and horticulture

• Fine moral character

• Elected officer of ORPS

• Multiple board work in ORPS and community agencies

• ORPS committee work

• Participation in professional conference

• Original contributions which has affected the philosophy of ORPS

No one is more passionate about Parks and Recreation and Education than Linda and

certainly no one is more deserving of the Distinguished Professional Award than her

Join Our Community Service Week Mar. 12-16 come help for as little or as much as you can; come and party; come and find out community info and projects underway; Support Turley and Far Northside Tulsa

Join In Our Week of Serving Turley & Area

Mon. Mar 12 – Fri. Mar. 16

A Third Place Foundation: local grassroots group

Growing healthy lives and neighborhoods

Monday:

10 am to 2 pm: Tour of Area and Discussion of Issues and Projects. Free Lunch included. Meet at the Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave.

2-5 PM Service Projects at the Center and new Community  KitchenGardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., and in the community

5:30 pm at the Center Free Dinner Movie and Discussion of “The Way”

Tuesday:

9 am to 6 pm Various Community Projects for all ages; 3 to 6 pm Food Pantry

Wednesday:

9 am to 6 pm Community Projects; 11:30 am free lunch for helpers at Turley United Methodist Church, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave., 6 pm Classic Country Concert with Johnny and The Oklahomans, and 6:30 pm free dinner for helpers at the Welcome Table Center.

Thursday:

9 am to 6 pm Various Community Projects for all ages; Food Pantry 3 to 6 pm

Lenten Prayer Service 6 to 6:30 pm, Welcome Table Missional Community

Friday

9 am to 6 pm Various Community Projects

3 to 7 pm Turley area Litter Pickup Event and Jupiter Jump and Party at The Welcome Table Community Center

7 to 9 pm Live Rock Music, featuring the band “Built For Comfort”

For more information, or to sign up to help, contact Ron Robinson, Executive Director, A Third Place Community Foundation at 918-691-3223, or see www.turleyok.blogspot.com

Don't miss these exciting events coming up in our area free to all; share the news of all that is happening in Turley and Far North Tulsa

Turley/NorthTulsa Community COMING EVENTS

@ The Welcome Table Free Community Center and Park

5920 N. Owasso Ave. and 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. www.turleyok.blogspot.com

1. Food Pantry every Tuesday and Thursday, 3 to 6 pm at the community center. This past January we gave out 11,000 pounds of food to our neighbors. You can help us with donations of food but also cash donations, tax deductible, because we are able to buy much food through the Food Bank for a much lower cost than people can buy at the store on their own and donate to us; but either way we appreciate all donations as the need is so great here and growing and the shelves become empty so fast.

2. Turley Area Public Town Hall Meeting and Community Association, Tuesday Jan. 31 and Feb. 28, 7 pm O’Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham.  We had a good presentation on the developments at the Vann GreenPark Industrial Park here in Turley and what we hope will be some new economic development soon there; also heard from Commissioner John Smaligo on removing more abandoned properties and working with the Health Dept to force property owners to clean their properties; heard from new Park Activities Director Kelly Chassee about new renovations coming to the O'Brien Park Center, and about signing up for the renewed presence of both North Tulsa Youth Baseball and Softball at O'Brien; and heard from us at A Third Place about all the activities in the community.

3. Future of Turley Planning Meeting, Thurs, Feb. 2, 3:30 pm, community center. A Presentation by the Health Dept. on their new building in our area; a presentation by The Lighthouse Charter School on their plans for location in the Greeley School, and about the closing of Greeley plans; and about disaster response networking, incorporation, a tour of Turley, Cherokee School plans, post office, and more.

4. Pancake Breakfast, Turley Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., Sat. Feb. 11, 8-10 am

5. Gardening Day, all welcome, sign up for vegetable beds, Sat. Feb. 11, 10 am to dusk, KitchenGardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave.

6. Volunteer Training, Community Center, Thur. Feb. 16 noon to 2 pm.

7. Town Hall with State Rep. Seneca Scott, Tulsa Community College NE Campus, Apache and Harvard, room 617, Friday, Feb. 17, 5:30 pm. A presentation by the director of the State Dept. of Human Services.

8. Turley Neighborhood Safety, Thurs. Feb. 23, 6:30 pm, community center.

9. African American History Month documentary: Stubborn Like A Mule, Dr. Cornel West and others, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 6:30 pm, free meal, at the center. A documentary featuring a Tulsa native, about the struggle for reparations for African Americans.

10. Ongoing Gatherings: Recovery 12 step groups. Saturdays, 5 pm Jerks Anonymous, 7:30 pm, Alcoholics Anonymous, community center….Turley Water Board Public Meeting, last working day of month, 8:30 am, 6108 N. Peoria Ave….Turley Fire Dept. Meetings Thursdays 7 PM, Fire Station, 6408 N. Peoria.

11.  The Welcome Table community gatherings at the Center, Sundays 9:30 am to 1 pm, study, communion, common meal. Rev. Ron Robinson. Ash Wednesday Service, Feb. 22. Evening Prayer Services, Thursdays during Lent beginning Feb. 23, 6 pm at the center.

12. Looking Ahead: Join us for our Annual Week of Service in the community, March 11-16, as we clean and plant and renew our area working with our partners; also plan now to attend the Dedication Ceremony of The Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., on Saturday May 12, from 10 am to 2 pm; and plan to attend the Cherokee School Reunion at the school on Sat. Sept. 22. Stay tuned for more exciting news about Turley Heritage Day and other events and dedication of our Community Center building and grounds.

Growing Healthy Lives and Neighborhoods in 74126 and 74130

Coming Events, Recent News, The "Go To Others" missional community

Hi all. Since our last email....lots of small acts of justice done with great love, as we carry out our mission of growing healthy lives and neighborhoods in the 74126 and 74130....Go to www.facebook.com/revronrobinson to follow us day by day.

...We conducted our first mobile food van visit, using the Cherokee School grounds, and fed more than 150 families with about 60 pounds of food each. We hope to arrange more of those soon.

 ...We started a community wide Recycle opportunity with a new bin located at the community center.

 ...We took a trip to Austin, Texas to work with a church there to promote community gardening and missional church work; they will be coming back to work with us in our next Week of Service here, March 11-16. I also preached there on "Freely Following Jesus", a sermon you can read at http://www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com/2012/01/freely-following-jesus-sermon-preached.html

 ...We have kept working on the site preparation and already begun planting again at our northside community Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., and we have begun cleaning up the abandoned old parsonage building on our Center grounds and plan to turn it into a 24 hour prayer and meditation space, as well as a showcase for native plant landscaping, and more.

 (We will be doing other "guerilla" cleaning, beautification in our area on a weekly basis due to so much need; for example, for a week now there has been a dead dog left in the parking lot of the abandoned Cherokee School building, even though school employees have driven by it daily, and county and city officials who do animal pickup have been notified; we are hoping the school will take care of it soon, but we also may do it on our own (I am thinking the dog deserves a special burial and service now, especially because of the treatment in neglect of its body); and the old gas station/domino parler/alternator shop right across from Cherokee School continues to get worse and vandalized and in need of attention, and as we seek to try to attract new partners for the abandoned Cherokee school we need to make the surrounding area as appealing as possible; so we may just start cleaning up the property as we did the historic fire dept building and old feed store building near the school.)

 ...We have marched together in the candlelight vigil march during the Martin Luther King, Jr. day, enjoyed the interfaith service, and had a parade entry in the MLK Parade.

 ...We have distributed 20 cases of tomatoes throughout the community, and so we can now imagine how numerous families are eating shared food together this weekend, in a variety of ways, in a kind of community wide communion or agape meal; and we continue to sign up and feed many new families each week during our Food Pantry Days Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 6 pm.

 ...We have continued to support Greeley School with student of the month lunches, and McLain School through support of its alumni and community foundation and school projects; McLain is going to be offering intensive after school tutoring work until 8 pm in the evenings in hopes of helping senior students adjust to newer much stricter testing standards this year, and we have agreed to help these students take that important extra effort by providing food for the students who stay that long. We need your help to help us provide these important meals for the students at both schools, so please make a contribution at www.turleyok.blogspot.com, safe and tax deductible and every little act makes a huge difference. Don't think someone else is going to do it...Even though we have many repair needs and renovation and roof repair and vandalism repair in our own community center building to serve the public, we keep making the vital and missional move of putting our resources into the wider community first such as helping our local school children; in this way we keep decentralizing our work, and creating a "go to them" instead of a "come to us" culture.

 ...Coming up this week are several important gatherings:

 Sunday, Jan. 29, our missional church will meet at 9:30 am for viewing and discussion of an episode of the progressive Christian curriculum Saving Jesus, as we focus on new understandings of the "atonement" through the work of biblical scholars like John Dominic Crossan and others; then we will have communion, common meal, and at 1 pm a special missional movie showing of the classic "The Grapes of Wrath", and talk about the parallels between Dust Bowl and Depression Oklahoma and the U.S. and today's neglect of the poor and the abandoned places, and how solidarity can grow as we resist the forces that seek to drive people apart. Come for any or all of the events.

 Monday, Jan. 30, 6 pm, a board meeting of the A Third Place Community Foundation here at the community center, 5920 N. Owasso, as we set our major planning dates and goals for the year. Auction, Valentine's Day Party, Community Center Dedication Service, KitchenGardenPark and Orchard Dedication Service and Celebration, Our Week of Service in March, our festivals for the community throughout the year, our volunteeer work days, and volunteer training days, our own Board retreat and leadership development, our partnerships with OU and other groups.

 Tuesday, Jan. 31, 7 pm, at O'Brien Park Recreation Center, the Turley Community Association public townhall meeting to connect residents with area and local officials and get updates on the happenings and issues in the community.

 Thursday, Feb. 2, 3:30 pm at the community center, the monthly Future of Turley planning session, an important group and this month an important meeting as we will hear presentations on the new Health Department building under construction now near us, and also hear a presentation from the proposed The LightHouse Charter School with plans to partner with Tulsa Schools to go into the current Greeley School site. Greeley, where Cherokee students were moved to when it was closed by us last year, would be closed and students not in the charter school would be moved into the Gilcrease School area. These are both exciting developments in offering more educational opportunities in a part of our area, but with many questions and with the stress of more change happening here in our already stressed and impoverished neighborhoods and families. We will also be signing up people to work on our ongoing work and updates about Disaster Response, Cherokee School, Post office closings, and Incorporation, and establishing planning to improve the area through more destruction of abandoned properties, and improvements.

 Looking ahead, we will begin again with a weekly vespers service in the evenings when Lent starts. We will have an Ash Wednesday service on Feb. 22 and then the evening prayer services on Thursdays at 6 pm beginning Feb. 23. Stay tuned for more on those....And on Tuesday 6:30 pm Feb. 28 we will cap Black History month with our monthly movie and discussion and free meal, as we view the new documentary "Stubborn As A Mule" featuring Tulsa native Dr. Cornel West and others looking at history in the U.S. and the struggle for reparations for African Americans. After our Monday evening planning dinner, we will also have many more dates to promote.

 I hope you will join us at the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship Revival and Retreat in the Washington, D.C. area March 22-25 as we explore Welcoming the Feminine in Christianity, with major lectures by Dr. Amy Oden, an Oklahoma native and author, and dean of Wesley Theological Seminary, Dr. Mary Hunt, author and director of Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual, and best selling author and lecturer Margaret Starbird, and with many and varied worship services and workshops and small group and social experiences. If you can't make it, please forward this on to others you know, and perhaps in the area, who might be interested in attending. For more go to www.uuchristian.org/revival. We have full time, single day, and even single event registration, and all worship services are free and open to the public.

 An important message about our chaotic way of working on transformation, our calling, and our calling to you, comes from the new book by Reggie McNeal, "Missional Communities: the rise of the the post congregational church" who writes: "Orchestral concert-goers are acquainted with the dissonant and chaotic sounds emanating from the orchestra pit prior to the performance. Musicians create a cacophony of noise as they tune their instruments and warm up for the show. No one thinks the lack of harmony or coordination is a sign of trouble. In fact, just the opposite is true. This is necessary preparation for the performance. The unconnected riffs actually increase the anticipation for what is to come. The seeming pandemonium gives way to organized beauty once the conductor takes the stand....We are warming up for the next great performance of the church. It is a collaborative score called "The Church As Missional Communities." Some people are already in the pit, making noise. Others are being recruited. This is your chance. Now is the time. Grab your instrument. The Conductor is approaching the podium. The world waits for the music."

 Bring your passion to partner with us and make beautiful music together.

 blessings, and thanks for all you are and all you do, and more soon,

Ron Robinson

918-691-3223 and 918-794-4637 918-430-1150

also check out www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com