O. .0 IV C C C X 0 0 Nick Bringardner and Ben Falik enjoy the view from the porch of the house. Top Row: Brad Snider, Detroit; Jen Rusciano, Detroit; Mike Dunn, Philadelphia. Middle Row: Nick Bringardner, SITC crew members Brad Snider and Andrew Sokoly Farmington Hills; Abby Hunter, Northville; Elise Kulik, Ann Arbor; Caitlin Welsh, Grosse Pointe. Bottom Row: Will move boxes to the truck at the old Burton elementary McDowell, Detroit; Andrew Sokoly, Troy; Ben Falik, Huntington Woods. school as Elise Kulik and Jen Rusciano assist. Grassroots charity Summer in the City gets an HQ thanks to the Jewish Fund. Hannah Posen Jewish News Intern 0 n Sunday, Aug. 21, Summer in the City (SITC) moved into its new house at the corner of Clark Street and Vernor Highway in southwest Detroit. SITC is a grassroots organization that recently finished its 10th summer of service in Detroit, cleaning up parks, painting murals and working to build strong neighbor- hoods. "Like many grassroots endeavors, Summer in the City was conceived at a kitchen table, nurtured in basements, housed in garages and operated out of coffee shops:' said Ben Falik, co-founder of the program and columnist for JN's sister publication Red Thread. "Summer remains our 'season of service, but it now takes a year-round effort — recruiting, capacity build- ing, project planning and fundraising — to make each summer bigger and better than the last." After nearly a year of searching, SITC came across this house, which it got for a bargain at a short sale. SITC received $25,000 from the Jewish Fund a year ago and decided that the best way for the money to have the 16 September 1 • 2011 maximum positive, lasting impact was to have a head- quarters. The grant was followed by donations from the Jewish Women's Foundation, the Edward C. and Linda Dresner Levy Foundation, Davis Drugs, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, individual SITC patrons and, most recently, $7,000 from Quicken Loans. The 2,400-square-foot house has five bedrooms and room for five core leaders of SITC to live there year- round. In its inaugural year, four tenants will live in the house, Will McDowell, 22, Samantha Nawrocki, 22, Brad Snider, 23 and Jen Rusciano, 23, all SITC board members and project leaders. "We are cultivating new groups of leaders who have already materialized. We needed that physical and con- ceptual space for them to reach their full potential," Falik said. "All our tenants have internalized what SITC is and have impacted it and built it to where it is now. Each of them will be doing other relevant work in Detroit and will put their own sweat equity into running the organi- zation during the yen" The house will serve as the residential leadership pro- gram for SITC as well as a headquarters for SITC opera- tions. In one of Detroit's most dynamic neighborhoods, the house will also be a space for community meetings, reflection and dialogue programming, administrative work for SITC and a place to house out-of-town volun- teers. SITC will also use the basement and shed as stor- age for their supplies, which they recently took out of a classroom at the old Burton elementary school on Cass Avenue in Detroit. With SITC's new house comes the hope that it will be able to administer year-round service projects in Detroit. In the past, SITC has had to turn down service oppor- tunities, but now it will be able to grow its school-based service programs in an effort to create partnerships and service projects that will continue into summer. As SITC moves into the house, members are still work- ing on finalizing funding and furnishing it. They are committed to not tapping into program funding for the house and are looking for monetary and in-kind dona- tions. Their wish list includes things like a mezuzah, kitchenware, beds, lawn furniture, a washer and dryer, an upright piano and a laptop computer among other things. For more information on the SITC headquarters go to www.summerinthecity.com/hq.