This past Saturday, volunteers for Triple Ripple Community Garden at the Huss Project gathered to work together on some much needed projects. We had seven volunteers come out, enabling us to accomplish a wonderful amount of work in less time than we bargained for. What did we get done? We staked and caged all the tomato...
The *culture is not optional community got pretty excited when we realized we had raised enough money to pay the balloon payment on our mortgage and that we were going to be able to keep the historic Huss School property for continuing community development work in Three Rivers. We may have broken out into celebratory...
Future Festival is coming on July 20 (so soon!), and we are always looking for volunteers to help out with the wonderful chaos that the festival can bring. There is plenty to do before the event, and plenty to do the day of, so if you're looking to help out, we will welcome your willing...
There are things in life that we take for granted. One of those things is the ability to flush away our wastes and never have to see them again. Right now, we are lacking that ability at the Huss Project. And so our first Herculean task after the mortgage payoff is to furnish Huss with working...
(Past and present *cino staffers during a spring break service-learning program in March. Left to right: Deborah Haak, Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, Elizabeth Brouwer, Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma, Jordan Skinner, Jay Howard, Kyle Luck.) In the midst of our often chaotic lives, we must remember to be joyful ("though we have considered all the facts"). *culture is not optional has been...
In June 2009, after an unbelievable $25,000-in-40-days fundraising campaign, *culture is not optional (*cino) purchased Huss School on land contract. The contract stipulated a balloon payment of almost $50,000 in June 2013, after four years of monthly mortgage payments. In December 2012, we launched a Brick Campaign to raise $100,000: $50,000 to pay the balloon...
As of this morning, we've raised $44,400 together toward our Brick Campaign goal of $50,000 by June 15. Here's a quick rundown of some interesting numbers from the campaign so far: 149 donors have purchased bricks 110 donors have contributed $200 or less 9 donors have contributed $1,000 or more 48 donors are from Three Rivers 87 donors are from...
Re-posted from the *culture is not optional web site. Thanks to the amazing generosity of supporters near and far, we are less than $10,000 away from our big $50,000 goal with just under one month left until June 15 when our mortgage is due. We know we still have a lot of work ahead of us,...
As the Forsythia flowers bloom in the front yard, we're also getting ready for summer: new interns, summer programs like Family Fun Night and Future Festival 2013! Forsythia flowers are always a friendly reminder of the season to come -- bright and full of possibility. Summer is always a busy season at the Huss Project and we...
Julianna Sauber leads volunteers cleaning up the Triple Ripple Community Garden at the Huss Project during the garden's clean up day in 2011. As the weather heats up, we get closer to starting the garden's fourth season with this year's clean up day! On May 4, we will be at Huss from 10:30am to 1:30pm...
(David helping with our first Underground Supper Club.) I have lived in Three Rivers for close to ten years. Somewhere in that timeline, Three Rivers changed from being “someplace I lived for now” to “someplace I’m enjoying living and would like to remain in.” There weren’t any Hallmark moments to commemorate this transition from temporary to...
Dale Hasenick chats with students from Calvin College about farming at White Yarrow, and the importance of growing vegetables organically. For many of the students, this was the first time they'd ever visited a farm. In this photo, Dale explains how he starts many of the vegetables he grows inside and under lamps before transplanting...
