November 21st – As Pittsburgh 250 draws to a close, we'd like to encourage all the people, organizations, and advocates who've made Community Connections a success to take a look back at what you and your neighbors have accomplished this year - and maybe glance forward to see where we might go in Pittsburgh 251.
November 15th – "The new building's just across the street," says Pastor Phil Beck, pointing to a building, painted a bizarre grayish-pink, across the four lanes of Route 18 from Beck's Central Community Church in Transfer, PA. It's about 200 yards away from where we stand in the Church's parking lot, but Phil Beck is walking towards his car, not the street.
October 5th – Trader Bob stops through this territory frequently with his wares: muskets, ammunition, pipes and blankets, whatever the natives want in trade for the beaver and deer furs they've got in plenty. He might be based out of Fort Pitt, like so many of the traveling traders
October 4th – Standing next to the small run-off that leads into the apocryphally named Crooked Creek, environmental scientist (with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission) Tom Clark shakes two small test tubes in his hands. In each one, a tiny amount of reactor powder is mixed into a few ounces of water - the way you might test the Ph balance in a swimming pool. The first one he shakes turns instantly bright rust-orange; the second, remains clear.
September 9th – We've already told you that two of Community Connections' film-related projects have some exciting screening events coming up - with Greetings from Pittsburgh: Neighborhood Narratives making its debut, and East of Liberty beginning a round of community screenings around the city. With the online debut of Neighborhood Narratives, on that bastion of video democracy - Youtube - it seemed right to show you a little of what to expect out of each film.
September 2nd – Over the past three years, filmmaker Chris Ivey's documentary film series, East of Liberty, has looked at hot-button urban social issues - race, class, gentrification - with a brutal honesty that's impressed filmgoers from 'Sliberty itself, all the way to London, Berlin and Barcelona. But the audience Ivey wants the most has sometimes alluded him: The work-a-day residents of those neighborhoods most touched by these issues.
August 26th – There is a folktale that persists from the glory days of Ebensburg, PA - the late-19th-century period when the small Cambria County town, 30 miles north of Johnstown, was one of the jewels of Pennsylvania, used as a summer home and getaway for the robber barons of Pittsburgh.
August 25th – When the Nathanael Greene Historical Foundation holds its third-annual Creative Communities Conference in the tiny borough of Greensboro, PA this Friday, it may seem like a bold vision of the future - a community in which artists and craftsmen create and trade their works in small, neighborly settings, removed from any bustling town.
August 20th – By now, you're probably familiar with Greetings from Pittsburgh: Neighborhood Narratives - the Community-Connections supported project for which nine Pittsburgh filmmakers have each made a new short film based in one of the city's unique neighborhoods.
July 9th – In her time as the program manager for Pennsylvania's Mobile Agriculture-Education labs, Tonya Wible has come to terms with the disconnect in kids' understanding of agriculture's role in their lives. Ask an elementary school student where eggs come from, "they say, ‘Foodland,'" says Wible. "What I didn't anticipate was in rural Adams County - there was an apple orchard outside the classroom, but when I asked the kids, ‘What do you think comes from farms,' not one kid answered ‘apples.' They're losing that connection."
June 25th – I doubt that anyone in Pittsburgh heard the barrage of artillery that signaled the beginning of the Battle of Bedford, the way that the "softening up" of Union troops echoed over 140 miles to the 'Burgh just before Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. But to these 21st-century eyes and ears, Saturday's reenactment of a Civil War assault on the new pan coupe redan at Old Bedford Village was close enough to the smokey chaos of 19th-century combat to make me thankful when my cell phone rang, hauling me back to the modern age.
June 6th – Sitting on the lakeshore, Rodney Bryant points east, away from the North Park boat house, towards the deeper part of the lake. "Down that way, I used to catch catfish, trout, everything," says Bryant, sat in his combination walker and chair. With a blue fishing hat, complete with 2008 license stapled to its lid, Bryant's the kind of venerable fellow says things like, "I caught a fish this big!" without even holding his hands out in fish-tale implication: It's not cliche, it's just Rodney.
June 5th – Beginning the week of June 4, 2008, The Allegheny Front's Environmental Oral History Project will begin airing stories from across Southwestern PA that capture and communicate residents' experiences with Pittsburgh's environmental past, present, and future.
June 2nd – On a gorgeous June morning, in the equally gorgeous Connoquenessing watershed, located but one hour’s drive from Downtown Pittsburgh, two dozen people gathered to experience the calming effect of Wild Waterways--the Wild Waterways Conservancy, that is. For many of us, this was our first experience with the Connoquenessing watershed, or the Connie as it's affectionately called, but I'm convinced it won't be our last.
May 21st – On May 17, 2008, a performance by the Southmoreland High School Band roused the veterans, dignitaries, and townspeople proudly congregated to dedicate a freshly completed memorial in honor of the 24 servicemen from Everson, PA who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and for their hometown.
May 20th – Raise your hand if, while watching the anthology-style, multi-director love-song-to-Paris film Paris Je T’aime, you thought, “Hmm … Pittsburgh!” Yeah, me neither. But fortunately for the rest of us, that’s exactly what local filmmakers Andrew Halasz and Kristen Lauth Shaeffer thought of the Paris Je T’aime’s concept – different directors setting short stories in specific Parisian neighborhoods – and thus, Neighborhood Narratives was born.
May 20th – The Sprout Fund and Community Connections join the entire city of Butler in mourning the passing of Jimmy Bashline – father, veteran, and artist extraordinaire - on May 15, at the age of 90.
May 15th – In conjunction with the release of our second Community Connections newsletter, The Sprout Fund is also pleased to launch a new website that offers regular blog posts and links to news stories, in addition to periodic newsletter content. To help you get around, I'll describe a few of the new sections.
May 13th – Congratulations to Community Connections Regional grant recipient The Allegheny Front, Western PA’s long-running environmental radio show, which took home three of The Press Club of Western PA’s prestigious Golden Quill Awards on Monday.
May 5th – Apparently, I’m the last person in America to find out what a doula is. Which is fine: I’m used to being out of the loop when it comes to the latest in natal care trends and techniques. But talking with the Birth Circle Doulas, a non-profit, volunteer organization that works with East End mothers and mothers-to-be, it’s obvious just how out of the loop I am.
April 27th – If, over the past few months, you’ve noticed a higher-than-average number of people stroking their chins while sizing up a 54C bus shelter, it’s no cause for alarm. That’s just the city’s artistic up-and-comers plotting their submissions to Citywide Salon, a Community Connections Grassroots grant-funded art project curated by The Academy of the South Side.
April 14th – One day in 1991, shop owner Stephen Burke and his Ithaca, NY, neighbors came to a realization about their economic state. Townspeople had all the skills and goods they needed to exchange. “The only part missing was the currency,” says Burke, president of the Ithaca HOURS local-currency project. “So, we just started printing our own.”
Community Connections is a grassroots initiative of Pittsburgh 250 supporting projects that encourage civic engagement throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania, commemorate the region's 250th anniversary, and provide lasting value to communities and the region as a whole. More than 500 applications for funding were submitted by individuals, community groups, and organizations to celebrate the "Pride and Progress" of Southwestern Pennsylvania—the theme of Community Connections. A region-wide community decisionmaking process selected 100 projects to share $1 million in funding for events and activities occurring throughout the anniversary year of 2008.
