What was the best decision you ever made? And if you knew, would you share it? We’re starting our Summer Storytelling Series with a potluck and stories about “The Best Decision You've Ever Made.” Join us at the Huss Project on June 28 at 7:00 p.m.; we’ll begin eating at 7:00 p.m. and tell stories from 8:00-9:00 p.m. Please...
Setting up this past Tuesday evening, we hoped for but never expected the neighborhood-clearing success of our very first Family Fun Night of 2013! We had over 20 people show up to play kickball and basketball, compete in board games, blow bubbles, and make crafty, yarn-based cat's eye...
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...
We are very pleased to announce that, through a partnership with Three Rivers Community Schools, there will be FREE summer lunches for kids at the Huss Project. Wow! "WHEN?" you ask. Lunches will be distributed Monday through Thursday from noon-12:15, beginning next Monday on June 17 and ending August 8 (no lunches the week of July...
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...
This past weekend, we hosted our fourth Underground Supper Club to enjoy fresh, local food with a group of friends and raise money for the Brick Campaign. Our menu this time had an Asian theme, with coconut soup (thom kha) and spring rolls for appetizers, vegetable fried rice or chicken pad thai for an entree...
Are you ready for this? We can hardly believe it, but we are thrilled to announce: we’ve not only met our $3,000 match challenge, but we’ve officially reached our $50,000 goal before June 15! What does this mean? Lots of things! We’ve made it halfway to our overall $100,000 Brick Campaign goal. Next week, we’ll sign the paperwork to...
So much of what you've been hearing from us over the past few months has been related to our current Brick Campaign, which is an effort to raise money to secure *cino's ownership of the Huss property and begin infrastructure improvements so we can host fun, creative programming year round. We still need all the...
