volunteers

Bloombars Fundraiser Thurs. Night and DC CARES Volunteer Info

By Prince Of Petworth

Support Bloombars. From an email:

“On Thursday, July 2nd, “Friends of BloomBars” will host a fundraiser at 1212 Lamont St. NW from 6:30 – 9:30 pm. Your thoughtful and generous contributions will help open the doors to array of arts and community-based programming. Checks can be made payable to: BloomBars, LLC. Give what you can. Suggested Donation: $25-75. If you are not able to attend but wish to give, please send checks to 3222 11th Street, Washington, DC 20010. Thank you.

The party goes on at BloomBars starting at 9:30pm. Meet and experience Artist in Bloom residents and other amazing talent in bloom!”

And another worthy cause. From an email:

Get Involved in Your Neighborhood!

Join the Neighboring Initiative!
Team up with fellow residents of Petworth and Columbia Heights at the following events to create sustainable activity in neighborhoods! Join Greater DC Cares in its goal to reach every resident of these areas, and motivate them to become active participants of their own communities. If you would like to learn more about or attend one of these events, email Meghan at [email protected]. Continues after the jump. (more…)

PoP/NCHCA Clean Up A Great Success

By Prince Of Petworth

It was awesome to see so many folks out. Folks from all over DC. It was great to see the Social folks as well. It’s nice to see businesses get involved in these types of events. The picture above is from just one of the pick up spots so we put a good dent in! But more importantly were all the folks from the neighborhood who saw us walking around. I know my little clean up group of three had lots of people thank us for our efforts. I think this is just as important as the actual clean up. So thanks again for all who made the effort to come out. Next month we should have a hundred people! For a little more than one hour it is a great statement to make! Next month is Mt. Pleasant – stay tuned for details.

Don’t Forget PoP Cleanup this Saturday 10am

By Prince Of Petworth

We will be partnering with NCHCA to clean parts of Columbia Heights this month (Mt. Pleasant in June). Meet at Columbia Heights Coffee (11th between Park and Monroe) at 10am. Let’s represent!

Next PoP Clean Up May 30th!

By Prince Of Petworth

And this one is going to be even better than the first. We will be partnering with NCHCA. We will be cleaning in Columbia Heights this month (Mt. Pleasant in June). We plan on meeting at 10am and a meet up spot will be determined. So mark your calenders for Sat. May 30th 10am! Let’s represent, yeah? It’d be great to have the PoP contingent contribute 50 volunteers. I think we can do it.

First PoP Monthly Cleanup Kicked Ass

By Prince Of Petworth

Thanks to all who turned out Sat. morning (I know there were a few other clean ups scheduled that day). Thanks, also, to Councilmember Bowser for showing her support. But a special thanks to Cynthia for dealing with the city to get garbage bags and a pick up scheduled. We cleaned from the Metro up New Hamphire Ave to and around Grant Circle including the road, some pocket parks and some side streets. I have to say when I walked down New Hampshire Ave later that night I nearly choked up it looked so good. I know that it will get dirty again, but I think we really had a good showing. Plus all sorts of folks on the road and on the street were thanking us for our efforts. So once again, thanks to all who participated.

Next month I’ll work with some pre-existing groups in Columbia Heights and we’ll have a joint clean up. Details to be announced later in May. More photos after the jump including a very interesting find by one participant… (more…)

Qualia Coffee Opens Today! PoP Petworth Cleanup Tomorrow!

By Prince Of Petworth

A reader writes:

“I am happy to report I was the first customer at Qualia Coffee this morning. The cafe is lovely, the coffee strong and bursting with flavor, and the WiFi is fast and easy.”

Qualia Coffee is located at 3917 Georgia Ave.

And don’t forget the PoP Cleanup tomorrow at 10:30 am meeting at the Petworth metro by the leaf sculpture.

Help House Some Actors

By Prince Of Petworth

From an email:

My name is Hannah Nielsen-Jones, I work at GALA Hispanic Theatre at 14th and Park. I’m emailing you with a somewhat bizarre request. In June, we will be premiering a new musical called ‘Momia en el closet,’ about the journeys of the embalmed corpse of Eva Peron. We are bringing actors and dancers to DC from Argentina to be a part of this production. We’ve already got several of them staying with our people who usually provide artist housing but we need spots for three more, ideally for $300 a month
per person (which is crazy, but theatre budgets are crazy!) either in Petworth/CH or near a Metro so they can get home late after rehearsals. The dates they would be here are April 24th through June 30th.

I think what we would get ideally are some people who have basement apartments they don’t want a long-term tenant in, or are
in-between tenants, who are interested in an intercultural experience, for whom the cash would be a secondary factor … we can offer free tickets to the show as well.

It runs Thurs-Fri-Sat at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm, from June 4th through June 28th, at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 14th
St and Park Road, NW. Rehearsals for the show start next week and we are looking for housing asap! People can call Mariana Osorio, the Production Manager, at the GALA office at 202 234 7174, if they have any leads.

OK, Looks Like Folks Are Up For a PoP Monthly Clean Up and Chat

By Prince Of Petworth

I’d like to make this a monthly event. I think the third Saturday or Sunday of every month for a two hour period. Obviously many neighborhoods are quite large so we’ll have to pick small sections and return for other sections. But I’d like the neighborhoods to rotate so that if folks participate in the clean up who live elsewhere their neighborhood will eventually be hit as well. I’ll select a “winner” on Sunday night.

Dear PoP – How ‘Bout a Day of Service?

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

So, I was reading the rock throwing post and all the diatribe that always comes with such discussions of our neighborhood. It seems to me that there is a split – those of us who love the beautiful life and want to work to make it better and those who hate the beautiful life and want the rest of us to join them. For those of us who want to make it better, what would you think of organizing a different kind of PoP happy hour? We complain about litter, general apathy in the neighborhood, etc, so I was thinking we could do a spring cleaning day somewhere in the neighborhood. Again – there are ways other than violence to show the thugs that they aren’t in charge any more.”

I think this is a great idea. And I believe we should do it once a month in a different neighborhood from April – September. We can pick a new neighborhood every month. I suggest we make it the third Saturday of every month. And I know folks are busy so let’s just plan on two hours of not only cleaning but also chatting neighborhood folks up and perhaps grabbing some beers upon completion. Ideally it would be great if everyone could participate even if it falls in a neighborhood that they don’t live in. And we should be a force. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get 50 people together every month for this? I think it is doable. But if there’s only 6 of us it’s not going to work. So let’s see if folks are into this in the comments. If there is a positive reception I’ll put a poll up to see which neighborhood we’ll start with. Sound like a plan?

Tina Interviews (and Plays Laser Tag) With The Folks From ‘In Da Streets’

By Prince Of Petworth

Youth violence, street harassment and the like are clearly very heated topics here at PoP, as they should be…I mean, these are serious issues. But, as we’ve seen in the past, and I’m sure we’ll see again, the internet – and the relative anonymity it provides – can be a dangerous place for discussions like this. As sad as some of the negativity and hateful comments on PoP’s post about his run-in with some rock-throwing kids made me feel, a meeting I had that very same afternoon definitely lifted my spirits. Regardless of where you stand on the issues at hand, I am hopeful that most of you will be as interested as I was to hear about what Landy Thompson and Andre Latimore are trying to do about it.

Thompson and Latimore are just as tired as anyone else of seeing kids causing trouble in the streets and no one knowing how to (or even wanting to) deal with them. They look at these kids and see good hearts suffering from a lack of love and attention at home that’s fulfilled through involvement in gangs or street crews, they see smart kids with poor self esteem, they see anger and pain that can manifest itself in ugly ways. On top of everything else, they see themselves as youth growing up in the Streets of Columbia Heights not too long ago.

Based on their own life experiences and modeled after a west coast organization called Homeboys, Inc., they are working to create their own non profit organization to reach out to at risk youth, called In Da Streets. And just as the name suggests, they are literally in the streets approaching youth, trying to deter them from fighting, bad choices, drug use, and future criminal activity. Continues after the jump. (more…)

View More Stories