Castle Park 2009

Castle Park 2008

Unfortunately, we forgot the camera for this year's outing to Castle Park. It was a great time. No dramatic thunderstorms this time. Just four hours or so of intense play. Thankyou to all who came. The grill was pipin hot!


Vacancy

There are 6,304 properties in the area surrounding the ARK according to Philadelphia's Neighborhood Information System. 31% or 1,954 of those properties are vacant.

Below is a stirring depiction of the extent of urban deterioration. I'm certainly not trying suggest that North Philly was an ideal community in the 1950's. Still, the physical change is startling both in terms of the tonnage (bricks and mortar literally falling about) and the loss of defined, organized, and therefore clean, purposful and safe spaces. Consider the impact of this kind of change on two or three generations. It's no small thing...particularly when you consider the political and economic changes that coincide with the sixty year collapse shown below.

10th & Cumberland (1954)

10th & Cumberland (Present)

Update

Maybe a bit of movement on the city budget issues? Still looking grim. Pray for the city and our public servants that they would have wisdom...and the gumption to work justly.

Also new from Ben Volta. Click on image below. Ben is doing amazing things with kids in the Philadelphia.

Rained Out

Richard at Lorimer Park 2008

Beautiful today. Not so much yesterday. Unfortunately our Lorimer Park picnic got washed out. We're working on a make-up date.

Hey, did you listen to that Geoffrey Canada interview? Here is the link again if you're being lazy. It's worth your time.

Also, looking at possibly using Tabletop Moviemaking at the after school program this year.

Take a look.

Finally, things continue to look grim for Philly as Mayor Nutter awaits action from Harrisburg. It's no joke. A failure to act will result in the the closing of "the city library system, recreations centers, and the entire park system -- a total of 3,000 city jobs in all." Not to mention layoff for both the police and fire departments. (See links below).

A collection of photos set to music. I'll have some actual video on the way. Just getting more of the feel of the camp.

Hey, have you heard of the Harlem Children's Zone? Please follow link to check it out. Founder Geoffrey Canada and his crew are doing some amazing and inspiring things.

Check out his interview with Terry Gross. It's changing the way I'm thinking about the direction of the ARK.



Also in the news: Philly is straight broke. She's shockingly broke and waiting for Harrisburg to approve a few measures that would keep a bad situation from sinking into total disaster:

*The loss of nearly 1,000 positions in the Police Department, which has 6,600 officers, and 200
positions in the Fire Department, which has 2,200 firefighters.
* The closing of all city recreation centers and two city health centers.
* A shutdown of all branch and regional libraries.
* The deactivation of six fire engine companies, three ladder companies, and five medic units.
* A reduction in citywide trash pickup from weekly to twice a month.
* An end to operations at Fairmount Park and the elimination of the City Planning Commission and
Commerce Department.

"All told, the city would need to make $700 million in cuts over the next five years if state lawmakers don't agree to raise Philadelphia's sales tax by 1 cent and allow a two-year delay of $230 million in contributions to Philadelphia's pension fund, as well as other pension changes." Full Article

Time to Crash

Camp is ova!

Sorry for the drop off in posting. The final days were as you might expect: bittersweet.

We ended with an amazing performance for the parents. The kids had much joy seeing all their hard work pay off. They performed brilliantly. We finally got to send them home with bags full of goodies along with all their completed art work.


In just a few weeks of our book drive we received over five hundred books! We were able to send each child home with at least ten books for their bookshelves. Sorting and organizing was fun...and then it wasn't after awhile. The kids were excited.

More thoughts, video and photos to come.

Pictures of Ourselves

Our younger kids finished some self-portraits today. Really nice. Their crayon strokes and colors are beautiful.

A few samples:

A Day in the Den

Giving God thanks for a day that was surely headed to disaster but quickly became a triumph. Late last night we received news that Ms. Katie, one of our head volunteers and song leader, would be out for the week due to a death in the family. KJ another leader was out today too and my daughter, Lucia, began vomiting in the car on the way down Broad St. So Anne, my wife, our art teacher, was out too.

As you can imagine there are several other small twists and turns that went through all this but God is gracious to us. As I said, we ended up having a great Monday.

Ms. Karen continues to work the songs, dance and drumming with the kids. It came together in a new way today. Ms. Victoria and Ms. Shiny stepped up to take on art and Mr. Mick led songs on top of his usual duties. The kids continue to amaze us. Our time together is flying by.

Enjoy the brief slide show from today. (Sorry music ends abruptly.)