By Torin Mathieu
SNA is excited to announce a collaboration with the Avenue Concept! We will be bringing a mural to the south-facing wall of Not Just Snacks (abutting the parking lot for Eden Park Cleaners) on Hope Street within the next few months! We are excited for this creative collaboration to beautify our beloved Hope Street.
More on the Avenue Concept: https://theavenueconcept.org/
By Sherry Waldman and Ethan Gyles
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Providence in March 2020, Councilwoman Nirva LaFortune convened a call with local non-profit organizations including SNA, Mt. Hope Community Center (MHCC), Jewish Collaborative Services (JCS), and others to discuss how to prepare to help neighbors in need. SNA contributed by organizing a mutual aid list to match volunteers with need and administered it throughout the past year, as well as fundraised to offset the costs of food and goods purchased for folks who were experiencing financial hardship. Volunteer services included picking up medications and groceries for those who couldn’t leave their homes, or who were especially vulnerable to health complications. Over one hundred and fifty volunteers signed on. We also worked with Rep. Rebecca Kislak to run a check-in phone bank to call our elderly neighbors and make sure they were okay, as well as provide information about available resources.
In addition to answering the dozens of individual requests for aid we received, tapping into the outpouring of community volunteers also helped SNA assist MHCC to deliver food bags to people who could not get out, as well as helped Higher Ground International’s Rukiya Center deliver hot meals to those in need. Volunteers were eager to assist and, on Wednesdays and Fridays, up to ten volunteers came to the MHCC offices to pick up groceries and bring them to primarily elderly and disabled community members.
On Friday mornings, a few volunteers also help unload pallets from the RI Food Bank truck at the Camp Street Community Ministries (CSCM) across the street from MHCC, and then bag up the food for delivery. Each of the forty-three to sixty recipient households gets two to three bags of dried goods and fresh produce weekly. This has been a year-long effort of coordination between multiple community organizations and individuals – an impressive feat of endurance!
In addition, local business leaders Milena Pagan from Rebelle Artisan Bagels and Becca Brady from Hometown Poke & Cafe donated or offered at heavy discount a bounty of baked goods and fresh produce to the MHCC’s food pantry over the past few months. A big thanks to these businesses that continue to give more than delicious food to our neighborhood, and to all the community organizers and volunteers who jumped in to support their neighbors!
SNA is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Helen Dukes, Eugene Monteiro, and Marcus Mitchell at MHCC, Jackie Watson at CSCM, Henrietta White-Holder of the Rukiya Center, Erin Minor at JCS, Rep. Kislak, Councilwoman LaFortune, and to help our neighbors!
Contact Sherry at slwaldman1@gmail.com if you’d like to volunteer – the need goes on!
About 25 adults and children braved unseasonably balmy weather Sunday to go Caroling For A Cause in the neighborhood.
Covering the area of Bayard Street to Summit Avenue and Fourth to Sixth Streets, the group serenaded residents with traditional Christmas carols – plus one requested rendition of The Hannukkah Song – and were rewarded with jars of peanut butter or cash donations to benefit the food pantry of St. Raymond’s Church. In all, $100 and 24 jars of peanut butter were collected.
The festive evening began at 4 p.m. in the foyer of event partner Miriam Hospital for hot drinks and cookies. Then, since is was the Hannukkah season, there was a short explanation of the Jewish Festival of Lights and a demonstration of a menorah by Monica Anderson, the hospital’s director of community relations, with a little help from some Jewish members of SNA.
Then it was off into the night, laughing all the way, under the leadership of Jon Howard, a former SNA president. As the singers got to houses whose porch lights were lit, doorbells were rung, residents came out and carols were sung, led by members Jeff Davis and Kurt Anderson. Younger singers scampered up the steps to collect the donations from the audiences and pile the jars into the back of an accompanying car. New songbooks were used this year, compiled by a committee of Deb Mero and Ellen Santaniello.
The last carols were sung on Fourth, almost to the Hope Street commercial section, where many restaurants beckoned. As the singers dispersed, there were vows to “See you next year!”
One residence invited the carolers onto the porch for hot cider as a neighbor passed out cookies.
Carolers last year in front of Summit neighborhood home on Sixth Street.
This year, SNA will celebrate the rich diversity of the neighborhood as well as help to diminish hunger in our midst by sponsoring Caroling For a Cause.
Summit residents and friends are invited to gather in Miriam Hospital’s cafeteria at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13, which falls during the Jewish observance of Hannukkah. There will be hot chocolate and cookies plus a short presentation on the meaning of the Festival of Lights. Then the group will sing a couple of non-sectarian pieces before heading into the neighborhood for traditional Christmas carols.
Along the way, the carolers will solicit donations of peanut butter or cash to benefit the St. Raymond’s Church food pantry. The evening will end about 6 p.m. in the parking lot of Seven Stars bakery on Hope Street in time for dinner at one of the multitude of local restaurants and still allow for homework completion before school on Monday.
Please bring your enthusiasm for the holidays and your flashlights to read the provided songbooks. Remember to dress for the weather and most of all – have fun!
Buyers and sellers meet at the 2014 yard sale
The Summit Neighborhood Association’s annual yard sale is coming soon! If you’re looking to offload no-longer-needed stuff or acquire some great used items at bargain prices, please join us at the Summit Neighborhood Association’s annual yard sale on September 19th.
Details: Saturday, 9/19 from 9 to 1 in the yard at the Church of the Redeemer, 655 Hope Street. The rain date is set for September 26th, but we know it won’t rain. If you’d like to participate as a seller, please register here by September 12th: https://www.sna.providence.ri.us/upcoming-events/ or use the mail-in registration form that was included in the latest SNA newsletter. The fee is $15 if you bring your own table, or $20 if a table is to be furnished by SNA. Last year there were 26 registered sellers and enough buyers to leave with almost everything.
This is the plan designed by the city to renovate the tot lot and include community garden plots along the north edge.
Community gardens in the “tot lot” on Summit Avenue took a giant leap forward Monday night when a governance committee of residents was formed.
Gathering in the Rochambeau Library under the leadership of Greg Gerritt, a prominent local naturalist and gardener, the group of about a dozen met with Wendy Nilsson, the new superintendent of the Department of Public Parks. The formation of a panel of local people to run the community gardens section of the renovated tot lot was a parks department requirement identified by her predecessor, Bob McMahon.
The committee identified several aspects that needed to be addressed, including how plots are to be set up, allocated and run as well as how to raise the funds needed above the amount the city will be able to provide. Two subcommittees were set up to move forward on these issues.
Another meeting of the overall panel is to be convened in the near future, with the goal of being ready to plant in the spring of 2016. The committee may choose to operate outside of the structure of the Summit Neighborhood Association, which has been instrumental in developing the garden plan.
Beside Gerritt, the group members were Dean Weinberg, SNA president, Kerry Kohring, SNA vice president, Doug Best, Annalisse Daly, Linda Gifford DeGeus, Anneliese Greenier, Douglas Itkin, Brian Lalli, Hien Le, Lucy Ann LePreau, Jessica Porter, Read Porter and Eugene Sorkin.
The tot lot in winter. To be ready for summer, it needs supervisors.
To get community gardens in the “tot lot” park at Summit Avenue and Ninth Street, there must be a citizens’ supervisory board and SNA member Greg Gerritt has volunteered to undertake forming such a group.
Gerritt responded to SNA President Dean Weinberg’s report at the organization’s annual meeting May 20 on the progress of the plans for renovation of the park that include the building of a series of gardens that would be open for residents to cultivate vegetables. The city Parks Department requires local participation for the gardens.
The supervisory panel will set the rules for the governing of the gardens and coordinate the various efforts involved in building them, working closely with city park staff.
Residents interested in the gardens should contact Gerritt at his home email, gerritt@mindspring.com, or the SNA listserv at Summit@sna.providence.ri.us.
State Sen. Gayle Goldin and Rep. Aaron Regunberg discuss their legislative priorities at the SNA annual meeting at the Highlands on the East Side.
Almost 60 people attended the annual meeting of the Summit Neighborhood Association May 20 to get updates from its officers plus elected officials and public servants as well as enjoy a social evening with other residents.
Gathering at 7 p.m. in the main dining area of the Highlands on the East Side, 101 Highland Ave., the audience, sipping wine and beer and munching on pizza as well as Highlands-supplied desserts, was welcomed by SNA President Dean Weinberg, who then quickly introduced two speakers who had commitments elsewhere.
First, Wendy Nilsson, the recently named director of the Providence Parks Department, described her excitement of her new post and said she intended to work with the people of the neighborhoods, adding that she was already familiar with the efforts of SNA to develop community gardens in the Summit Avenue park and “tot lot” playground as part of its refurbishment.
Second, state Sen. Gayle Goldin spoke of her efforts in the General Assembly, in cooperation with Summit’s Rep. Aaron Regunberg, who said he agreed with her, to raise the minimum wage so workers could contribute to an economic revitalization of the city, an objective she cited as vital to the quality of life of residents.
Weinberg then turned to a review of SNA’s accomplishments of the previous year, listing the huge music festival in Lippitt Park, the yard sale at the Church of the Redeemer, the bake-off competition at Seven Stars, the holiday caroling for charity, the snow-shoveling program to aid the handicapped and elderly and the group’s cooperation with various efforts by the Hope Street Merchants Association.
HSMA co-president Pernilla Frazier elaborated on those efforts, stressing the block party scheduled for June 6, the project to bring solar-powered streetlights to the area, a volunteer cleanup of the winter’s debris and new bicycles racks coming.
Regunberg returned to the floor, and in response to a question, said he generally is cautious about the proposal for a new stadium, but is keeping an open mind and listening to his constituents.
The main business event of the evening, the election of a new SNA board of directors, was conducted by Secretary Thomas Schmeling . The following officers were approved by a unanimous voice vote: Weinberg, president; Schmeling, secretary; Kerry Kohring, vice president; and Vishal Jain, treasurer. Re-elected as directors were Jim Barfoot, Grant Dulgarian, Anneliese Greenier, Daniel MacLellan, Michael McGlynn, Britt Page, Sheila Perlow and Sharon Lee Waldman. New directors approved were Erik Christiansen, Lee Clasper-Torch, Emily Spitzman, Mark Tracy and Karina Holyoak Wood. (See profiles below.)
Providence Police Capt. George Stamatakos concluded the presentation part of the meeting with an update on the string of burglaries and breakins around the neighborhood, explaining how a few known juveniles have been arrested but released by the courts numerous times. Answering questions from the audience, he urged residents to take common-sense precautions to deter crime, especially not having open doors or windows and never leaving anything in parked cars.
Some audience members stayed afterwards to chat with the speakers and to have a last glass of wine or a pastry delight.
–––––
Here are profiles of the new board members.
A Summit neighbor uses the medium at hand to express Super Bowl sentiment.
Living well as you age was the theme of a presentation to the SNA board by advocates of a “village concept” in which seniors work together to facilitate services while being able to stay in their own homes.
Introduced by SNA member Ralph Mero, organizer Cy O’Neill described the system which was first put in place in Boston’s Beacon Hill and which has since spread across the country. He said the villages are “comprised of member-volunteers and a small professional staff . . . who provide one-call-does-it-all access to the services members need to live safely and confidently in their own homes while staying connected to a supportive community.”
O’Neill said the Providence organizers have an online survey of needs at www.ProvidenceVillageRI.org and he urged people to take a look. He also noted their email address of ProvidenceVillageRi@gmail.com and a telephone number, 401-441-5240, for further information.
The SNA board agreed to serve as a conduit for interested neighbors and board member Jim Barfoot volunteered to assist.
