June 23, 2004
Wednesday

I escaped from the San Francisco Bay Area to Ketchikan about 6 years ago I love living here. Ketchikan is a very special place to live and we need to keep it that way!

Our non-profits and school services that add so much to our lives in the way of arts, activities and services for newborns to shut-ins need your support in order to continue to provide these essential programs that make our community a positive place to live.

We still have a relatively safe and healthy community to live in and we need your commitment to keep it that way.

Quoting from a very thorough Harvard study on community violence completed over the past five years lends statistical credence to the value of community based solutions to poverty and social decline. Quoting the author, Dr. Felton Earls, professor of human behavior and development at the Harvard School of Public Health, Rather than focusing on arresting squeegee men and graffiti scrawlers, local governments should support the development of cooperative efforts in low-income neighborhoods by encouraging the efforts of neighbors to meet and work together. Cities that sow community gardens, he said, may reap a harvest of not only kale and tomatoes, but safer neighborhoods and healthier children.

In many cases, local financial support is needed to provide leverage for other grant funding opportunities.

I, and others, are working diligently to develop a stronger base of volunteer support in our community. Until we can get a Volunteer Board and a Community Foundation off the ground, and even after we do, these local non-profit service organizations continue to need your full support.

Bobbie McCreary
E-mail: rmccreary@att.net
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

 

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