EQUIP THE SAINTS TO DO THE WORK...
The main goal of Love City is to empower the neighborhood, I thought it would be important to tell this story, not from a negative perspective about an event that prompted us to get security at the school, but from the perspective of community coming together.
Every morning at school we follow the same schedule. The teachers and staff arrive at 8am for our morning meeting to talk about the day, what’s on the agenda, any special programs, etc. At 8:15 we open the doors to arriving students. All students enter through the front doors of the building, get their temperature taken and can either hang out in the gym or go get breakfast before school starts at 8:30am. This particular Wednesday morning everything
was running smoothly. The staff spread out to their morning assignments throughout the building, and I was upfront at the desk greeting students while they got their temperatures taken, giving hugs and high fives. About 10 minutes before school was supposed to start we had about half of our student population in the building when I heard a loud bang at the front of the building, then a few seconds later another loud bang.
I stepped out the front door to see what was happening and I saw a man I had never seen before, dressed in bulky layers to keep warm, leaning down to pick up a large fragment of concrete in the front yard of the school and rearing his arm back to throw it at the front window again. I shouted at him to stop. He stopped mid throw and looked at me, shouted something non-sensical and reared back again
to throw the rock. “I’m calling the police!” I shouted again, as I brought my cell phone up to my ear to connect with 911. The man stopped again mid throw, dropped the concrete fragment on the ground, mumbled to himself and turned and walked away down the driveway and down the street away from the school. Our staff had moved all the students to the back of the gym for safety away from the front windows of the building and I had motioned for students getting out of their cars to stay in their vehicles until the man left. The police arrive shortly after and canvassed the area but did not see the man. They came back at dismissal later that day and sat out front just to have a presence, but we had no further issues at the school.
I let Shawn know what had happened. He had been over at Porkland getting ready for the day. He immediately came over to the school to check and make sure everything was ok. The window at the front of the school had been hit twice by a large piece of concrete, which the man had picked up from crumbling curb on the sidewalk in front of the building. It had struck the solid glass window twice at close range, leaving scratches, but amazingly not shattering the window.
Shawn also came back over to the school for dismissal and drop off the next few days to ensure everything was ok. But we had no more problems, it seemed to be a random incident.
Enter Mike..
A few love letters ago I mentioned one of the regulars at Porkland, Mike. Mike has been in the neighborhood for 60 years after moving to Portland as a small child. He lives right down the street from the school on 26th St. About 6 months ago Mike was let go from his job at an auto parts warehouse company. He started coming into Porkland every day, even if he didn’t really want anything to eat. He would come in and order chips and salsa, or just fries, and hang out for a couple of hours. He and Shawn would talk every day, just about life and community. Mike had been mentioning while he was hanging out that he was going to start looking for another job, maybe at a paint factory, or another warehouse job.
About a week before the incident at the school we started inviting some of our neighbors that we had known in the neighborhood for a while, Ms. Sharon, Ms. Doris, Danny, Mike, Jeff, Ms. Carolyn, over to a dinner at Porkland once a week. The youngest of the group is 60. They have a combined life experience in Portland of over 400 years. Every Tuesday we get together and have dinner over at Porkland and just talk with each other, share stories and share life. Through these dinners we discovered that Mike had been a part of the Citizens Police Auxiliary for 17 years, a part of numerous neighborhood watch programs, and went through the Citizen’s Police Academy. A thought started brewing in Shawn’s mind.
“What if we hired Mike as security at the school?” Shawn asked as we sat at Porkland after school dismissed for the day and the last of the team had closed up Porkland. It had never occurred to me 1) that we would even need to have security at the school and 2) to be able to bring a long-standing community member like Mike into our school family.
“That’s a great idea!” I responded. The next day when Mike came in for his regular hang out time at Porkland Shawn approached him about taking a security job at Mighty Oak Academy.
The following Monday Mike met with me and Nicole our school administrator for a formal interview. We explained how we do school, what his role would include, etc. We asked him how much he needed in terms of wages, and he explained that even though he could get a warehouse job making more, he only needed a certain amount to live on and that’s what he wanted from us, the lower amount that was sustainable for him. We officially offered him the job, and he started the next week.
We sent home a letter to our student’s families introducing Mike and explaining his new role at the school. It was met with enthusiasm. The morning Mike started, Louisville was slowly thawing out from an ice storm over the weekend and his first job was to help our students up the stairs to the school and of their cars where we had just put down salt to keep it from being slippery.
Over the last few weeks Mike has joined in our staff meetings, started getting to know the kids and will now proudly tell anyone who wants to listen that he has just gained 40 grandkids by working with Mighty Oak Academy and Love City.
For Shawn and me, Mike joining in Mighty Oak Academy is just a next step in the growing community in Portland and Love City. He is a community member who has been here for almost his entire life, who now gets to walk down the street to work every day and help influence and love the kids in his neighborhood. Equip the saints to do the work.
This Friday is the first Fryday of Lent! Porkland started 4 years ago this lent season in 2018. Born out of a fish fry for the neighborhood, this season is always special for us. While our regulars always come in throughout the year, Lent is the time that we get to see not only our regulars but our extended Portland family. Fish on Friday is a tradition in Portland and we hope that you come join us this year!
2519 St Cecilia St
Monday - Thursday 11am - 2pm
Friday 11am - 7pm
www.porklandbbq.com
St C's Tees is open and ready! Not only do we take special orders we also have some designs available for sale at both Porkland and online. We have revamped our website and can take online orders as well as requests for quotes for custom apparel.
St C's Tees retail shop is located inside Porkland BBQ. Here we will be displaying all our latest designs and have them available for purchase when Porkland is open. You will also be able to order any of these designs online by going to www.stcstees.com/ourwork or by clicking the button below.
We also have an updated Request a Quote form on our website. If you have an idea for a shirt or need something printed please reach out to us for a quote. Our minimum order is 50 shirts. Click the button below to request a quote.
PARTNER WITH US
At Love City we believe in time, talent and treasure.
Mighty Oak Academy Amazon Wish List
We've started the new semester and our supplies of snacks and breakfast items are running low. You can find some on our Amazon wish list, but if you make a grocery run or Sam's club/Costco run and can pick up an extra box of any of the following we would appreciate it!
Granola bars
Yogurt cups or GoGurt
cereal
Veggie Straws
Goldfish/CheezIts
If you would like to partner with the school, you can visit our Amazon wish list and purchase items to ship directly to the school. Visit this link to view the list: https://a.co/77dqBIT
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.
Please consider partnering financially with Love City. We are looking for sponsors for students at Mighty Oak Academy as well as partners to help fund construction of our new preschool. Click the button below to donate today.