A *culture is not optional project
The Three Rivers Area Community Foundation recently awarded *culture is not optional, the Huss Project’s parent organization, a $20,000 grant for the Imaginarium to be made in two $10,000 payments. We are honored to receive the support from the Foundation, which continues to show community support for our work at Huss. The Imaginarium and Front…
One of the core ideas shaping the work of the Huss Project is that we all need a balance in our lives between stillness and activity. People describe this balance in various ways: contemplation and action, inner work and outer life, and so on. At the Huss Project, we love to play, make music, grow…
For several years, we’ve been tossing around an idea to turn a portion of the Huss Project property into a small park designed for quiet reflection and observation of the wild creatures in our neighborhood. In the past few weeks, we’ve identified dozens of trees and plants, marked and mowed and path, and narrowed down…
We all have stories to tell. On June 22, friends and neighbors came together at the Huss Project to talk, share stories, and eat way too much dessert. Our brave host kicked the night off by introducing the event with a story of his own—one down. Then we’d exchange glances, nudging our friends, mouthing an encouraging…
Here is a draft of our new site plan for Huss (read below the image for more information): When we first purchased the Huss School property in Three Rivers, we had a lot of ideas, but no specific plan. That was intentional. We knew that if we were going to help create something that contributes…
Last year, the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM) gave the Huss Project a grant for $800 to build eight picnic tables. So we were excited when they mentioned the possibility of being featured in an upcoming episode of The Bright Side, a video series highlighting good projects around our state. The good folks at…
*culture is not optional, the parent organization of the Huss Project, recently received a $2,500 grant from Omni Community Credit Union to help pay for an outdoor pavilion that will be constructed on the north end of the building this year. This funding comes alongside a $2,000 grant received last year from the Three Rivers…
Winter tends to be a quiet time at the Huss Project, but there’s always plenty going on behind the scenes. This year, we are honored to be participating in a visioning process for the City of Three Rivers. The first session on January 21 was a wonderful opportunity to hear about the city staff and…
We’ve invested quite a few person-hours over the past few years removing the ubiquitous drop ceilings from the Huss Project, as well as the commercial carpeting that covered the original maple floors. Some of the drop ceiling materials made their way to a local church, and some of the carpeting is keeping the weeds down…
Last Monday was definitely our last *cino volunteer staff meeting in the un-heated Huss Project building — in spite of the space heaters, I was shivering so much, I couldn’t write legibly. We are SO looking forward to having a heated room, hopefully by the end of this year! In the meantime, we’ve continued to…
We’ve been pretty quiet on the Brick Campaign front for the past few months while we focused on summer programming, including interns, Huss Future Fest, Triple Ripple Community Garden, Family Fun Nights and the summer lunch program. It’s been good to get outside, kick a ball around, paint some murals, grow some vegetables, sing some songs…
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…
