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A New Twist on
Apples & Honey

Jewfro

Refl ecting On 17 Summers In Th e City

T

Thence comes it that my
name receives a brand,
And almost thence my
nature is subdued
To what it works in, like
the dyer’s hand

movement, and our volunteers got
down and dirty there all summer. But
the location had to be hush hush — the
corn have ears and the potatoes have
eyes, after all — until the deal was
finalized for them to be a permanent
fixture at … Eastern Market.
Formerly in the shadow of the MGM
Grand Casino, the farm is, in KGD’s

When I was seventeen,
It was a very good year...

— SINATRA

own words “the place where all of
our work comes together. Our farm
is where half of the Garden Resource
Program transplants and the Motown
Music garlic seed is grown. It’s where
many of our workshops are hosted and
where growers of all ages practice and
hone their skills. It’s also where KGD
grows our share of grown-in-Detroit
produce and connects with good food
enthusiasts from Detroit and beyond
to explore what fresh, seasonal, and
diverse fruits and vegetables look, smell
and taste like.”
The Summer of 2018 culminated at
the (recreation) center of Highland Park
to help the city mark its centennial.
Murals on the Ernest T. Ford Rec
Center drew on local lore (McGregor
Library, Davison Freeway, Water Tower,
City of Trees, Polar Bears) while Reggie
McKenzie Field buzzed with activity
and bees. Even a broken water main
and looming thunderstorms (and
bees) couldn’t stop 1,200 campers from
having a backpacktacular time playing
games with volunteers and “earning”
school supplies for the new year. With
Mayor Hubert Yopp, Highland Park’s
Summer Youth Workers, School Board
President Alexis Ramsey and Hooper
on hand, SITC’s cast of thousands
assembled into HP100 with a hearty
appetite for the city’s next century and
the afternoon’s barbecue.
June 25, 2019, is right around the
corner; 2018 co-director Aviv Lis and I
hope the Jewish community will join us
to help make our chai year the holiest
season of service we’ve ever had. •

Program For
High-Schoolers
And Their Parents

The Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit
and its Youth Mental
Health Initiative will
present “Where you go
is not who’ll you be,”
an evening with New
York Times best-selling
Frank Bruni
author and columnist
Frank Bruni 7 p.m.
tlight o
Wednesday, Oct. 3, at
spo
the Berman Center.
mental health
Bruni will facilitate an
important conversation
about the unnecessary
mental anguish students
often endure when
they measure themselves by the colleges
that accept them. He will share what his
research has revealed: that a student’s
worth and future success are not deter-
mined by the university he or she attends
and that gaining admittance into a partic-
ular school can never guarantee a higher
salary or a happier life. Bruni will also dis-
cuss how parents, students and educators
can avoid the undue stress, anxiety and
depression that often accompany the col-
lege application process, sometimes years
before it even begins.
The event is ideal for middle and high
school students, parents and educators. It
is being offered at no cost to the commu-
nity thanks to the Norm and Susie Pappas
Challenge Fund.
Register online at https://jewishdetroit.
org/event/bruni/ before Sept. 21. Seating
is limited.
For more about Federation’s Youth
Mental Health Initiative, visit www.wn2t.
org. •

teen

jn

n

Williams Recreation Center, a facility
built to revitalize the neighborhood
and named for the Philadelphia Street
neighbor and former student of George
Washington Carver who spearheaded
the effort.
Engagement around our daylong
project led to a dynamic partnership
that grew to be more focused on the
next 50 years than the last. This
summer, we returned to join the
Detroit Parks and Recreation
Department in offering an
eight-week summer camp,
replete with swim instruction
and academic enrichment.
Friday the 13th proved to
be an exceptionally lucky day
for Summer in the City. While 300
campers and high school, college and
Quicken Loans volunteers descended
on our Destination Downtown Friday
Field Trip, another group — from
Bloomfield Hills, Grosse
Pointe South, Cass Tech,
Western International and
Cody high schools — painted
Woodward Avenue. With the
Spirit of Detroit gazing down
on them (sort of sideways)
and dozens of commuters
and visitors stopping to
lend a hand, they painted
a brilliant (chromatically, if
not cartographically) map
mural for people to walk
— SHAKESPEARE all over. In the weeks since,
the pedestrian Spirit of
Detroit Plaza has hosted,
symbiotically, food trucks and
jazzercise.
Here are some of my notes from
Every camper’s SITC T-shirt reads
Summer No. 17:
“Future Volunteer” and we mean it.
It’s still “fun, flexible and fulfilling”
For the first time this year, we had
to “paint, plant and play” in Detroit.
Through some combination of accident former SITC campers return as paid
crew members through the city’s Grow
and adaptation, SITC has a portfolio
Detroit’s Young Talent Program. Maria
of projects and programs that tap into
Vela and Camille Johnson served
people’s values to create community
as captains for the Southwest and
value. Helping bring that energetic
Northwest JV Teams, cohorts of kids
supply of and authentic demand for
who graduate from being campers into
volunteers together has never lost its
Junior Volunteers after sixth grade.
magic, even when the van won’t start.
And now, thanks to Maria and Camille,
Last summer, many organizations
the JVs have models for how they can
came to Rosa Parks Boulevard
continue their careers next summer
( formerly 12th Street) in pursuit of
and beyond.
reflection, reconciliation and renewal
This summer had a savory secret:
50 years after the civil unrest that
the new location of Keep Growing
erupted there in 1967. Summer in
Detroit’s farm. Keep Growing Detroit
the City brought Finale Friday and
is the taproot of our urban agriculture
all three P’s to the Joseph Walker

he winter I
turned 17, I
donated blood
for the first time.
For that first pint
and the 40 since, I’ve
overcome my anxiety
based on both giving
Ben Falik
of myself and taking
of cookies and apple
juice.
This year,
Summer in the City
(summerinthecity.com) turned 17, and
I found myself in a similarly sanguine
and sweet scenario. As the interim
executive director of the organization
I co-founded in college, I knew that
Summer in the City and I had the same
blood type (Yay Positive) and that many
of its strengths and struggles traced
back to those early days before most of
this summer’s volunteers were born.

What better way to bring in a sweet new
year than by learning where honey comes
from? This ritual food item is a big part
of our celebration, and the animals that
bring it to us are facing serious chal-
lenges.
Learn more Wednesday, Sept. 5, from
6-8 p.m. at Yad Ezra’s Giving Gardens,
when Luke Mattson of the Southwest
Detroit Bee Collective will discuss the
basics of beekeeping and why pollinators
are important to global food security.
Sample different kinds of honey, includ-
ing some for the collective’s and Giving
Gardens’ hives. This class is too sweet to
miss.
The class is free to current and former
Yad Ezra clients; sliding scale of $5-$10 for
others. For information and RSVPS, con-
tact Carly@yadezra.org, (248) 548-3663. •

August 30 • 2018

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