“I started to talk about what I really wanted to see happen,” says board member Stephen Dupuie, “and then the board members one by one kept tapping me on the shoulder and saying, ‘I think that you should do it. We really like your ideas.’” He's the new Executive Director of the Edison Neighborhood Association.
More activities for young people, ongoing efforts to keep the neighborhood safe, and more volunteer support for programs that benefit neighborhood residents are what the interim president of the Milwood Neighborhood Watch Association has in mind.
The COVID delayed renovations to the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission could be done by the end of February. The number of emergency shelter spaces will grow from 150 to 210. The number of guests the mission will be able to see for long-term case management services will grow from 755 to 1,225. And the new three-story, 47,000-square-foot facility will feature rooms that accommodate family units.
Leaving the family with a legacy of success was something David Smith talked about a lot during the months before he died at age 88. His daughter Doreen Smith has found a sweet way to maintain that legacy. Peanut Brittle.
The Can-Do Kitchen, which has long focused on mentoring, supporting, and providing working space for new food-based businesses, is in the process of expanding to help entrepreneurs of all kinds. It is re-branding to become Can-Do Kalamazoo.
The Boy & Girls Clubs of Greater Kalamazoo is more than halfway to its $9 million goal for the construction of a 30,000-square-foot central headquarter in the Edison neighborhood. That goal is closer to being realized thanks to a $1 million donation from craft brew entrepreneur Larry Bell.
As the fight against COVID-19 continues, the development of a vaccine has been viewed as an intervention and a possible sign of relief. But many people continue to go unvaccinated and unmasked and sickness continues to spread. Medical community leaders in Kalamazoo are asking people to help stop it.
Second Waves asked several community leaders to consider the greatest challenges they or their organizations face as we head into this new year, as well as what they most look forward to. Here is what some of them had to say.
The Northside Association for Community Development is working to build 21 new houses in the neighborhood and recently hosted the first in what will be a series of meetings to allow people to ask questions and learn what they need to know to buy one of the new houses.
The Bronco Promise is set to provide a tuition-free WMU education for up to five years for first-year students from Michigan families who earn $50,000 or less or who have $50,000 or less who have net assets. It's the first step WMU is making after it received a $550 million gift from anonymous donors earlier this year.
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