A Family Business… like really
Most who have been following Love city know the story of Shawn and Inga, husband and wife duo who moved to Portland to start loving their neighbors. Many of you have heard the story of the Essex family, who moved down a year later, James is the Chairman of the board, Nicole the school administrator, and their son Ethan the Deputy Director of Love City. What you may not know about is all the other families that are involved at Love City on a daily basis.
For some of our staff, like instructional coach Shayla Branch and School Administrator Nicole Essex, enrolling their children in Mighty Oak Academy was a no-brainer. It was not a matter of convenience that their children attended the school where they work, but a vote of confidence. It was a trust that Mighty Oak Academy would foster their sons emotionally and educationally, and it is a continued belief in the school they are helping create and the work that they are doing. For others on our staff, the children are the ones who got their family connected. Ms. Betty’s nephew started attending Mighty Oak Academy from the beginning and as she fell in love with the school and the environment provided, she could not help but want to be more and more involved. Now, Ms. Betty helps support us in whatever way she can, coming to volunteer everyday to help out in the cafeteria with lunches. Ms. Joann’s grandsons attend Mighty Oak Academy and she started working at Mighty Oak soon after, also helping in our cafeteria.
One of our middle schoolers helping out on a Friday night, her connection helped draw her sister Kaitlyn in to become more involved.
There are also people who have been introduced to Love City through their siblings. Our Kindergarten teacher Ms. Hannah, is in her second full year of teaching at Mighty Oak Academy. Soon after she started, Hannah heard we were looking for someone to do a mural and introduced us to her brother Eli. After getting to know Eli, we realized not only was he an extremely talented artist, but that he also had experience screenprinting. Now, two years later, Hannah remains a phenomenal kindergarten teacher loved by her students, and Eli has become involved in teaching art, screen printing shirts for St. C’s Tees, and working our Friday Fish Fry. Birdie’s introduction of her brother was less intentional. Birdie is in first grade. We first met Birdie even before Mighty Oak started, when she came to a Love City camp as a 5 year old. As we got to know Birdie better we met her mom Kat and brother Jay. When Porkland was open five days a week Kat worked as our cashier and Jay worked in the kitchen. When Porkland went down to only being open on Fridays, Jay stuck around to continue helping with all things related to food at Love City saying that he has always “had the dream of being a lunch lady”. He is now our chef’s assistant for lunches, and a wizard on the fryers every Fryday. Birdie loves getting to see her brother at lunch everyday.
Our Resident Artist Eli was introduced to Love City by his sister, and is helping students in Dungeons and Dragons club.
Even newer members of our team have had family quickly get involved. Kaitlyn, a new member of our upkeep team has two siblings that started at Mighty Oak at the beginning of the year. Our STEM teacher Martin has a younger brother who now comes to voluntarily coach the Mighty Oak Basketball team two to three times a week. Our program assistant Michelle just joined our team. After her three boys started attending Mighty Oak this year, she fell in love with the mission and vision and has supported us in any way necessary, just recently committing to work with us full time.
A lot of organizations have the desire to create an atmosphere that feels like family. Fortunately for Love City, many of us are actually family. I do not know what it is that draws entire families in, maybe seeing the passion that their loved ones have for a place, or possibly seeing a community that is trying everything to empower those in their neighborhood. Whatever it is, we are grateful for it, because without families, there is no community.
Ethan
1,000 at $25 a month…
We only have one week left in our 1,000 for $25 campaign. Huge thank you to all who have joined in so far!
It costs $13,500 a year for each student to attend the school. Our long term goal is to increase our sustainability activities to help offset some of that cost, such as the fish fry, St C's Tees and a new pre-school which will operate as both a preschool and a daycare. While we work to build these sustainability efforts we are seeking neighbors to come along side the school to help support students attending.
Our students have great potential and we want to help them see all their dreams come true! 1,000 neighbors giving $25 a month will help cover the costs for more than 20 of our students. Please consider joining this effort by clicking the button below to donate today!
Come join us this Friday at the Fish Fry…
The Fish Fry is a major sustainability effort for Love City. We depend on the proceeds every week to help fund Mighty Oak Academy and all the other programs at Love City. The more neighbors that come from near and far to buy fish the more this community is empowered. Please consider coming down today for lunch or dinner and supporting the neighborhood and especially students at Mighty Oak Academy!
This Friday we will be selling fish from 11am - 7:30pm.
Come join us for some fish or BBQ, we would to see you!
2519 St Cecilia St
11:00 - 7:30pm
We've started a new semester at Mighty Oak Academy and can always use supplies. If you are interested in helping, please click the link below to either donate, or click here to see our Amazon list for specific supplies that are needed.
If you are interested in volunteering or to find out more information about supplies needed please email: info@lovecityinc.org or call (502) 272-078.