Neighborhood Clean up Campaign

It’s the summer of 1970. Hub’s Liquor Store is the first stop of many stops along the route of the neighborhood clean up campaign created by my father. My father has convinced several local businesses to donate plastic bags, rakes, shovels, gloves and food items. His friends, Mr. O. C. Miller and Mr. Isaiah Stevens, who both work for the Syracuse Department of Public Works, have commandeered a city garbage truck. They also have “volunteered’ their children for this summer clean up campaign. We receive hotdogs, soda, chips and plenty hand claps from bystanders for our efforts. We really prefer “helping hands” to “clapping hands”. We make this known to our father when the people refuse to help. Our complaints don’t stop the clean up campaign. Our father is determined to teach us responsibility for our neighborhood. My father believes in taking ownership of the problem, in other words, “Making It Your Own.” When we complain about the lack of help my father says, “Someone has to do it, it might as well be you and I.” I’ve learned that the key to getting a “helping-hand” is to find people with like-minds. This is what the UNCommon Council is about, namely connecting like-minds in an ever increasing circle to collectively clean up the problems in our community.

Old Syracusans Picnic

Let’s take the expressway to August 6, 1988 to the “Old Syracusans’ Picnic” being held on the grounds of Southwest Community Center. The SWCC and the Syracuse Crusader, one of two community newspapers published by my father, sponsor the picnic. In the January 1989 issue of the paper (volume 2, number 1) my father writes, “But while the “Old Syracusans’ Picnic” is designed to pay homage to “old Syracusans” – those who have resided in the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County for a period of 40 or more years – it seeks also to bring together residents, as well as their descendants and friends, who lived in the old predominantly Black and Jewish area called the 15th Ward, prior to Urban Renewal in the late 50s and 60s.” He continues, “The affair is opened to the public, and everyone, the young as well as the old, is invited to attend.” This is what the UNCommon Council project is all about, namely bringing together residents, family and friends into a circle of “dialogue and doing” that creates opportunities for “everyone, the young as well as the old” to life more abundantly. This is the spirit that drives me and has carried me on this road to the final four. Catch the spirit. Visit www.casefoundation.org/myvote and vote for the UNCommon Council. This completes our trip down memory lane, but the rich tradition of services continues with F.O.R.C.E., Inc.- the organization behind the UNCommon Council.