Hi Miracle Makers,
 
I hope this message finds you well! We have our monthly update for you from The Miracle Crew and we are excited to share some news with you! The theme of our month has been “Hold on to yourself”.

June has been a very busy month for us and we have been moving, and working, and meeting, and dreaming. We’re in the garden, we’re fundraising, we’re moving our office, we’re planning for the building, and planning for our events coming up. In the midst of all the busyness, we have to remember ourselves, we have to remember to hold on to ourselves, who we are, why we are here, and what is important.

We had some great fundraisers this month and last month that were a huge success! Our dinners were a hit as usual! Thanks so much to Kanema Haynes for volunteering her time to cook for Miracle on Craig St. Thank you to all the Schools and County Offices that ordered dinners from us!

Our Yoga Fundraiser was also a very peaceful, pleasant, experience! Thank you to Chelle Pean for volunteering her time to guide our first outdoor yoga fundraiser! It was such a beautiful day, with beautiful people, and beauty in nature all around us.
On June 13th, we walked through the building at 700 Craig Street for the first time since 2015. There has been a lot of vandalism to the building, mostly notably a lot of broken windows. We will be taking another walk through the building in a few weeks once the building is cleaned up. At that time we will begin measurements with TAP Architect Firm and continue working on a rehabilitation plan for the space. We cannot wait to start this process with TAP!

In more exciting news, The Miracle on Craig Street Office is moving to The Hamilton Hill Arts Center at 409 Schenectady Street. We are expected to be set up there by the beginning of July. The miracle crew is very thankful and grateful to Rachel Conn and The Arts Center Family for providing space for our needs and welcoming us in. We look forward to working with the Hamilton Hill Arts Center on this important journey together.
​
Things are a growing slowly but surely in the garden. With all the rain, our plants are very well hydrated and I think we’re all looking for some dryer days. Speaking of gardening, we are taking a youth field trip up to Soul Fire Farm on July 12th! We are so very excited to be back up at the magical place that is Soul Fire Farm with youth from Schenectady!!!

Lastly, our Community Basketball League is starting back up in the month of July! Starting July 8th, and every Saturday thereafter we will be running our annual basketball league for ages 16+ at Jerry Burrell Park from 12-5pm. Come out and support some of our great local, talented, athletes here in Schenectady. DJ, live performances, snacks and activities for children every Saturday!

Until next month, much love and light and a million blessings from us to you!
​
Love,
Rosa Rivera

Dear Miracle Believers, 
​
May's Theme: Letting Go Letting God

We are practicing the art of letting go and the power of No! As change agents, healers, and activists, we give a lot. We work a lot for others and sometimes don’t take a moment for ourselves. We all need to remember to keep the balance and know when to let go and let god, when to take care of our selves (which should not be like a special holiday but, daily practices) and when to just say no and be selfish in a good way! Our community needs the best us, we have to be our own heroes first, if we are not good to ourselves we cannot be good for anyone else.


Building101
Hooray! The 700 Craig Street property and corresponding parcels of land are now city owned! This means that the City of Schenectady currently has title to the Carver building and remaining parcels of land surrounding Carver and, is in a position to sell the property. We are currently working with our Albany Law team and the development staff at the City of Sch’dy to assess the building in its current state, next month. We have not been able to do this since we started fundraising in 2015!!!
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Growing Food & Gardening
Some of our plots have already begun growing sprouts. This year we chose to do a lot of planting from seed. We also chose to plant a few different crops than last year (specifically green beans, soy beans, and peas, because legumes are good for the soil). Our next garden work day is on May 20th from 10am-2pm at the Craig and Wiley Street, Capital Roots Garden. If you are interested, come out and get your hands dirty this Saturday! Stay tuned for details on our small CSA share that will benefit our work to re-open Carver Community Center.
Keeping Focus
As we get closer and closer to reopening The Carver Center. Our focus really begins to narrow on our mission. We would like to really bring clarity to the purpose of reopening Carver to “root a culturally competent network of people, resources, and opportunities in Hamilton Hill.” We are seeking to provide resources to existing organizations that already serve the neighborhood and make them well equipped to carry out their mission, foster collective work and responsibility, practice cooperative economics, and provide service to the people in the neighborhood. To get us closer to this end we will begin surveying several different organizations, groups, and individuals in our community about their scope, needs, and resources. This will help inform the direction and scope of our resources and opportunities at the center.


Our next open meeting is Thursday, June 1st at 6:30pm at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church at our office at 1055 Wendell Ave. Meetings are for the purpose of community and building and planning, therefore they are open to all community residents and organizations in Hamilton Hill. Other organizations and members from other communities are asked to make a separate appointment with our team, to learn more about what we're up to!


Much Love, 

We are glad to give you some updates on what we have going on this month and all that has happened. On Friday we are holding our first fundraiser for the year since our strategic planning hiatus. We are planning to refocus on fundraising and continue to strengthen our ties with the community to help us reach our goals. There is so much work to be done; fundraising, planning, legal counsel, networking, programming but the most important is doing it together and building community together. This ensures the sustainability of our work. “Together everyone achieves more” is one of the saying’s that is frequently used among the MOC members. We are looking forward to consistently evolving our work to reflect all of the diverse and intricate webs of people at the center of this work.

​Wisdom Council
We had our first wisdom council meeting this month where we gathered a group of community members who have served the city of Schenectady and aided in it’s prosperity over the years, at the grassroots level and several institutional levels. The purpose of the wisdom council is to seek guidance from the elders who’ve paved the way for us young people and whose tall shoulders we stand on. Very bad photo credit to Damonni Farley :) 

​Painting for a Purpose
We are planning and preparing for our first fundraiser of the year which will be a Paint Night. The fundraiser is called “Paint For A Purpose”. The paint night will be inspired by Frida Kahlo and hosted by Ms. Malika Hewitt a.k.a Art Diva. We plan to have up to 60 participants attend the event. Our focus for fundraising this year is to be creative and explore our culture while raising money for our community. We are kicking this off with our Paint For A Purpose fundraiser on March 31st.

Reaching Out!
We have also been working on doing door to door outreach to the community, passing out flyers and our monthly newsletter. Social Media works well for us however, we are aware that there are members of the community who do not use social media and those people still have to be reached. We want to make sure that new information about Miracle On Craig Street is easily accessible by the community. This is a lot of hard work but, most important!

​Our next meeting 
for Miracle on Craig Street is April 3rd Monday at 6:30pm at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church at 1055 Wendell Ave. We will be discussing a few different architect proposals received and looking into our concept proposal for the center and identifying different approaches to working together. Meetings are open to all neighborhood and community residents. Refreshments and childcare are provided (please let us know ahead if you are planning to bring a child/children in advance).


PLEASE NOTE: Persons employed at local organizations/institutions and persons who are not from the community but who would like to support our work are encouraged to schedule a different time to meet with organizers and/or community residents as our meeting time is a time for place based community building amongst residents.

​Gratitude
We would like to thank Soul Fire Farm for hosting us this month and being so supportive of so many different community leaders, organizations, and initiatives in the Northeast and beyond! Check them out there Soul Fire Farm Program Calendar 2017 if you have not already done so!

We would like to give a big shout out to our good friends at the Universalist Unitarian Society of Schenectady for donating $1200 to our organization this month!

​We would also like to thank Stewarts Shops for donating $1000 to our organization and resident Leonard Herman for donating $200.00 this month!

Check out MOC's calendar for important dates and events you don't want to miss! MOC Calendar 

4 days away!!!--->Paint Night Fundraiser- March 31st at the Friendship House 955 State Street Schenectady, New York 12307 6pm.

 Register Here (You can also sponsor a seat for someone who may not be able to afford it, if you cannot attend)

Looking to Get Involved?
If you are still wondering how you can support our work and help out with Miracle on Craig Street please contact us! We will be happy to learn about your interest and figure out how you can be a part! In the meantime here are some areas we are currently looking for help in:

• Grant Writing
• Sponsorship Requests
• Communications
• Marketing on Social Media Platforms
• Story Writing; capturing our story and timeline
• Slideshow development
• Website Maintenance
• Garden Volunteers: Watering (link to application above) 

Donate towards a specific need?
If you would like to donate to MOC we would be so happy for you to help us bring resources into our community! We are currently seeking donations for help with costs of:

• Continuous Capital Campaign
• Art supplies for our upcoming fundraising event
• Garden Tools & Seedlings
• Architectural Fees for design work

 
You can donate at www.youcaring.com/schenectadycares or mail in a check to PO Box 357 Schenectady NY 12301

You can visit our website for more information about where we are at in our planning and process of development. www.miracleoncraigstreet.org

Thank You,
Miracle Crew <3

​Peace be unto you!
This month’s theme is                     
“Are you ready for your blessings? Are you ready for your miracle?”
– Chance the Rapper

​Spring is on its way. Transition is upon us in more ways than one. The city is planned to take ownership of the former Carver Center next month and new development is on its way in the city of Schenectady and especially in the Craig Street Corridor. 

​Looking back to move ahead
We have been working diligently on planning and community building. As of recent we have connected a few generations of activism and community leadership around the Carver Community Center and the Carver Health Center (which is now Hometown Health). We’ve gotten a chance to speak with Mainuna Mwaba who was on the steering committee who begun the ground work to found the Carver Health Center. We also learned of Mainuna’s mother Lee Tolland (originally Tismotha Tolland) who was one of the original founders and leaders of the Carver Community Center. Unbeknownst to us, Lee Tolland (Tismotha) is one of our current board member’s great grandmother on her father’s side (Raeshelle Frasier). Talk about generational resilience and connection with our ancestors and our home!

Building 101
At this time we are currently reviewing architectural proposals for preliminary design work for a revitalized Community Center at 700 Craig Street. We are very excited to enter in this phase of our development. This is sort of a nice complement to see someone else doing some hard work alongside of us to carry out our mission. 

​Fresh food in the neighborhood
As Spring is on its way, we are gearing up for gardening in the Capital Roots’ Garden on Craig and Wiley Street. We will be getting some hands on technical assistance from our Soul Fire Farm Family next month! We are looking to kick off a very small garden share this summer along with a pop up farmer’s market stand in the neighborhood, selling our fresh and very local produce.

Painting for a Purpose
I think it is about time we had another community fundraiser…don’t you? Our next fundraiser will be a Painting Fundraiser on Friday March 31st at 6:00pm at The Friendship House at 955 State Street. Tickets are $20. Refreshments and all materials will be provided and all guests will leave with their very own original painting! Register Here! www.eventbrite.com/e/painting-for-a-purpose-miracle-on-craig-st-fundraiser-tickets-32373850057?aff=es2

​Looking to get involved?
Our next meeting for Miracle on Craig Street is March 1st Wednesday at 6:30pm at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church at 1055 Wendell Ave. We will be following up on tasks for our next fundraiser and creating/editing our agreements for collective work and responsibility and cooperative economics, the principles that guide this work. Meetings are open to all neighborhood and community residents. Refreshments and childcare are provided.


PLEASE NOTE: Persons employed at local organizations/institutions and persons who are not from the community but who would like to support our work are encouraged to schedule a different time to meet with organizers and/or community residents as our meeting time is a time for place based community building.


Gratitude
Special thanks to some of the people and elders who have been helping and supporting us throughout this process and whole heartedly believe and encourage us in this journey. We love and respect you very much! These people have consistently donated their time, money, expertise, knowledge, services, energy and much more to supporting us young folk!

-          Pastor Richard Parsons (State Street Presbyterian)


-          Rev Horace Sanders (Mt. Olivet Baptist Church)


-          Walter Simpkins (Community Fathers)


-          Leah Penniman and Soul Fire Family (Soul Fire Farm)


-          Dorian Wells (Community Loan Fund)


-          Erin Hundley (Red Door Beauty Studio)


-          Lorraine Priest (Friendship House)


Contact
Like our Facebook Page : www.facebook.com/miracle518
Mail: PO Box 357 Schenectady NY 12301
Phone 518-982-5050
Office: 1055 Wendell Ave Schenectady NY 12308 Hours Tues 1:00-3:00pm Thurs 3:00-6:00pm

Much Love, 
The Miracle Crew
 

​Lastly, we have our office and multicultural library up and running and it is open to the public. Community members are more than welcomed to come and visit our office to get information about MOC, pick up one of our pamphlets or read a book. Our office is located at Mt. Olivet Church on 1055 Wendell Ave. in Schenectady NY.

Our next monthly planning meeting is February 1st Wednesday, at 6:30pm at Mt. Olivet. Meetings are open to community residents and grassroots groups. Non community residents and non-profit organizations and/or institutions looking to support our work are asked to make an appointment with MOC volunteers outside of our monthly meetings.   

Office Hours

• Tuesdays 1pm-3pm

• Thursdays 3pm-6pm

• As needed (call 518-982-5050)

Events Coming Up!
We are excited to announce Poetry In Motion at Proctors February 25th at 7pm. This is a beautiful, elegant poetry show that you do not want to miss! It’s the perfect date night! Save the date! You will see us there selling our jewelry and t-shirts and a portion of the proceeds of this event will go to Miracle On Craig Street! Purchase your tickets at www.proctors.org