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| The Flint Club Diaspora Newsletter |
June 2008 |
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| Save the Date
June 13th Juneboree in
Downtown Flint
June 14th Fun and Games in
Riverbank Park
June 16th Sen. Obama at
Kettering Univ.
June 19th Flint Club Benefit in
Royal Oak, MI
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Greetings!
Flint Club is always changing and looking for new and better ways to serve our members. This month our newsletter-The Diaspora- debuts its updated look with new features such as a hyperlinked table of contents and inline viewing right in the body of your email - without any additional clicks. In the weeks ahead, you'll see a dynamic new look to our web site (www.flintclub.org) with new features including a weekly blog and a link to our new online social network. We hope you enjoy the new look and the new services. Tell us what you think. Drop us an email at info@flintclub.org to share your thoughts and suggestions.
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Fun and Games in Riverbank Park
Join Flint Club Saturday, June 14th for an afternoon in Riverbank Park featuring: bounce house, carnival games, checkers, chess, dominoes, music and karaoke, popcorn, hotdogs, ice cream and more.
Sponsored by Flint Club and made possible through the generous support of the Ruth Mott Foundation. Additional funding provided by the C.S. Mott Foundation.
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Flint Club Benefit
 You are cordially invited to join our hosts for "Not Your Average College Road Trip!" Kick-off Benefit for Flint Club. Find out how Flint Club is playing a vital role in the city's transformation from a car town to a college town. Join us for food, fun & sangrias!
Location: Sangria Tapas Café
401 S. Lafayette
Royal Oak, MI 48067
Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008
Time: 6:30-8:000pm (stick around for the Flamenco performance at 8:00!)
Donation: $50/person
RSVP to carol-anne@flintclub.org or call (810) 233-5468
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Not Your Average College Road Trip!
Flint Club is kicking off its summer campaign with a tour of college towns across the Midwest. The Club hopes to benchmark these campuses/towns and gain some insights as to what makes them successful. This information will help guide the Flint community as it transforms itself from a car town into a college town. The tentative schedule is outlined below.
Thursday, June 19 pm Road Trip Kick-off Benefit @ Sangria Tapas Café Royal Oak, MI
Friday, June 20 am University of Toledo and surrounding area Toledo, OH
Friday, June 20 pm University of Michigan and surrounding area Ann Arbor, MI
Shaman Drum Bookstore visit & interview Ann Arbor, MI
Happy Hour @ Conor O'Neill's Ann Arbor, MI
Saturday, June 21 am Notre Dame University and surrounding area South Bend, IN
Saturday, June 21 pm Western Michigan University/Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo, MI
Sunday, June 22 am Grand Rapids area colleges/universities Grand Rapids, MI
Sunday, June 22 pm Membership event (details tba) Grand Rapids, MI
We will be interviewing, blogging and uploading content to our website throughout this exciting trip. Send your personal comments and insights to info@flintclub.org. We will try to include them when feasible. |
| Happy Hour with Ann Arbor members!
Are you in the Ann Arbor area? Then join tour participants on the 2nd day of the "Not Your Average College Road Trip" for Happy Hour at Conor O'Neill's in Ann Arbor. We plan to arrive around 6pm so get there on time to get your complimentary appetizers. Admission is free but donations are welcome! RSVP to carolanne@flintclub.org. Hope to see you there! |
Flint Club Receives Grants for Pen Pal Mentoring Program
The Community Foundation of Greater Flint's County-Wide Youth Advisory Committee has awarded Flint Club a $2,500 grant and the Merkley Charitable Trust has bestowed an additional $1000 grant to further a Pen Pal Mentoring Program for local students.
Flint Club's Pen Pal Mentoring Program seeks to connect Flint-area students with caring adults from all walks of life who have demonstrated an interest in the future of Flint's children. Mentors and their pen pals will exchange weekly letters. This correspondence will provide another source of positive reinforcement for the student's academic and social development and will also seek to develop the students' grammar and writing skills.
Sign up to be a Pen Pal Mentor today! Please contact Sonyita Scales via email at Sonyita@flintclub.org or by phone at (810) 233-5468.
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Community Corner
4th Annual Juneboree
The 4th annual Juneboree kicks off at 6pm this Friday, June 13th in downtown Flint. The celebration features visual artists and live music throughout downtown. The annual event is sponsored by the Greater Flint Creative Alliance with help from Flint Club, Buckham Gallery, The Greater Flint Arts Council, The Lunch Studio, and Pages bookstore. Stop in to the Flint Club headquarters on Second St. for a map of the festival locations.
Flint Looms Large this Election Season
Flint is a microcosm of urban communities across our nation. The Sub-prime mortgage crisis, rising unemployment, and access to affordable health care are just a few examples of how the challenges we face in Flint affect the nation as a whole. Hopefully, the scheduled appearance by Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama this coming Monday at Kettering University (contact Good Beans Cafe for more info) will be just a first for both candidates during this election cycle. Urban centers across the country need and deserve meaningful public policies that will aid in their revitalization. May Flint lead the way! |
Member Profile by Bryan K. Sutton
I was born in Flint, MI in 1959. I attended Stewart Elementary,
Whittier Junior High, and Flint Southwestern where I graduated in 1978.
I then went to Washtenaw Community College. My biggest influences were my brother Harold who encouraged me to go on to college, and my father and mother who taught me construction and canning. This became the basis for me understanding science as I know it today.
I currently live in Flint where I started Universal Development in 1994,
which is now known as Universal Development and Design. I first started out doing what I knew--excavation and landscaping, but after incurring a lot of debt and an illness, I decided to approach construction from a different way, in order to stay in the field that I knew and loved.
During my rehabilitation, I picked up a dictionary, encyclopedias, math and science books and began to study the art of development and design, hence Universal Development and Design. After struggling financially, I was able to pay for my first patent in April of 2006.
As a child, I enjoyed it when my father and brothers taught me how to operate heavy equipment and I was able to learn it well enough that I was allowed to drive on the streets of Flint at the age of 13. Nothing was more important to me than getting out of school and learning to landscape homes and dig basements. Living in Flint has allowed me to learn educational as well as personal and professional skills, and offered me contact with skilled and professional people.
I would like to tell the people of Flint to look at all the things that we need in Flint as opportunities for entrepreneurship. Where there is a need or a problem, there is a solution. We in Flint have the knowledge and abilities to solve it. Technology is our future. If we can somehow connect our youth and the older "GM generation," we can't be stopped.
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Volunteer Opportunities
June
Fun and Games in Riverbank Park
Saturday June 14th 2-5pm
Youth Awarness and Empowerment Weekend
Thursday June 26th 5-7pm at the Clio Rd. McDonalds
Local Agencies and Organizations will be on hand to offer information on careers and STD awareness. Volunteers are needed to help with setup, cleanup, and distributing information.
July
Fourth of July Festival at Atwood Stadium
Volunteers needed for human checkers. For more information contact Carolanne@flintclub.org
GM 100th Anniversary Events
Saturday July 19th-Volunteers are needed to great visitors on home tour. Morning and afternoon shifts available.
July 17th through July 20th-Volunteers are needed at Riverbank Park to help coordinate paddle boats. Contact Carol-Anne carolanne@flintclub.org for more information and to sign up. |
Flint News Wire
New TV show to be filmed in Flint
Saginaw native Mike Matthews plans to film a televison show about the hards streets of Flint. Click the link above for more information. | |
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Subscribers are welcome to reproduce, utilize and distribute any and all portions of this newsletter on the condition that Flint Club/Flint Diaspora is cited as the source. Subscribe by joining Flint Club online at www.flintclub.org/membership. Unsubscribe by sending an email to info@flintclub.org.
Further information about the newsletters and an archive of recent issues are available from www.flintclub.org.
Flint Club is a globla network created for people who care about Flint, Michigan. The Club is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization with more than 800 members that aims to link people to the life of the city no matter where they live. Contact Carol Anne Blower carolanne@flintclub.org for more information.
Send correspondence to Flint Club, P.O. Box 7604, Flint, MI 48507. Visit Flint Club World Headquarters, 134 E. Second St., Downtown Flint, next to the Capitol Theater building or call us at (810) 233-5468.
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