There is one week of school left for Mighty Oak. The end of the year brings a lot of fun projects and events to help celebrate the accomplishments of our students throughout the course of the year. These end of year festivities include field day. With fun games and activities, snacks, and more time outside, it was a day filled with fun, the way field days and education should be.
Back in 2016 we had a meeting with the Principal of JB Atkinson Elementary school, Dr Nutter. JB is located just down the street from the Mackin building. In that conversation we asked, “What is one thing we could do that would help you?” Her response was that we clean up Westonia Park so that her students could walk there and use it.
If you read last week’s Love Letter then you know that we started to sell the pews out of the Saint Cecilia building to create more space. While the building was decommissioned as a Catholic church in 2009, it still holds a special place in many families from the community's heart. It was once the most popular Catholic parish in the neighborhood with nine priests living and working out of the rectory at its peak.
In 2009 St Cecilia Church was decommissioned in a religious ceremony held by the Archdiocese, the front doors were locked and it was no longer deemed a "Catholic Church", nor was it ever to be operated as one again. This occasion brought a lot of pain to a community that was developed through this campus.
While a lot of giving is done online these days, we’ve all had the experience of the baskets. Maybe your church had the baskets that got passed through the rows where you could drop your money into. Maybe they had stations set up that you had to walk through to put it in. Some may have even experienced the classic long handled baskets that an attendant could extend through the row
Life happens… and there are times where everything is okay but nothing feels alright. Where you feel like you are a million miles away from where you want to be. There are feelings of darkness, sadness, anxiety, discomfort, with no apparent cause or, sometimes, with very apparent causes. It is a part of life and all we are left with the ability to do is choose how to respond to it.
Art and Spirituality have always been closely connected. From the beginning we see God creating. In Exodus when they are preparing the Tabernacle, the home for God, we see Bezalel is chosen and filled with the Spirit to be able to create a dwelling place of beauty for God. We see David being a wonderful musician with lyre, and have many beautiful poems from him.
This past week was Mighty Oak Academy’s Spring Break. While the team and students got some much deserved rest, I stayed around to work on some projects that were easier to do with people out of the buildings. Without all the normal activity around it led to a very quiet week, which is exactly what our Spirit needs every once awhile.
This week we got the opportunity for volunteer groups to come through and learn from and serve at Love City helping us with some of the projects that we have going on. Volunteers have always been a part of Love City’s story, helping us to restore our neighborhood. This week we got two groups from Arkansas of middle and high school students on their spring break.
Time changes, beautiful weather, spring cleaning; despite Spring not officially beginning until next week we have been blessed with an early week of spring weather giving us all a boost of energy. This weather brings with it renewed activity around the neighborhood, neighbors emerging from their hibernation and getting back out to greet one another. This weather also brings some beautiful changes all around Love City.
Yesterday we got the opportunity to take our entire school to the zoo. It is always a great time when teachers get the chance to spend educational moments with students outside of a traditional classroom environment, allowing for curiosity to take the lead and for visualizations to supplement the learning that happens in classrooms. It also allows students and teachers to see a different side of one another.
If you have never physically visited Love City you may not know that we have two urban greenhouses for growing vegetables. We have had these for 7-8 years and they have been used as ingredients at Porkland, for selling fresh produce to local restaurants, neighborhood farmer’s markets, and Mighty Oak gardening classes.
This week was Mighty Oak’s mid winter break. One of our breaks throughout the school year that gives both students and educators time to rest and come back refreshed and ready to create the best possible educational time during instruction. It was a cold, snowy break but a lot was still accomplished.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It is the question that can throw someone on the brink of graduation into a spiral and one that has sparked plenty of quarter-life crises. It can be overwhelming for young adults transitioning into a new phase of life, whether that is graduating high school, earning a degree, or entering the workforce.
This week, our after school programs for this semester kicked into gear. Every school day has after school programs of various types, some days even have multiple options for kids to attend! Now, we have more options for students than we have had in years. It has been awesome to see our team step up to lead these programs and the excitement it has created in students.
I think people may not understand how community driven Love City is. Not only is everything we do based on what our community needs, but we also will pivot at a moment’s notice if those needs change. We have done it before with food distribution during CoVid, with the creation of Mighty Oak Academy in the fallout of NTI in our neighborhood, but also in smaller moments.
We all know a gym rat, someone who seemingly cannot get enough time in the gym. They love shooting ball, or lifting waits, or doing anything active. At Love City we seem to have two of these gym rats: Sebastian and Santana. Some of you may have heard Sebastian’s story before, but he has a twin sister Santana who is also on our team.
With the winter weather this past week, many people’s lives hit pause. School’s were called off and businesses called for remote work. One great advantage of having community based education, is that the weather was not as big of a hindrance and if anything, only helped in bringing the community together more.
