La Casa Chica

Editorializing about Kids and Community

2010-09-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

La Casa Chica provides a good vantage point from which to make sense of efforts going on in the broader community, as relate to kids. Click here to read what I had to say about the recent Children's Movement rally that took place here in Sarasota.

Rebirth of the Beach Caravan

2010-09-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

This summer, neighborkids discovered some of the special history of our Central-Cocoanut neighborhood and Newtown community. They found out about the 1955 beach caravan, which was started and led by our neighbors, which ultimately resulted in Sarasota becoming a county with all beaches open to all people. Click here to read an article that explains this special history.

This month, neighborkids have been busy creating their own version of the beach caravan. They've spent hours and hours making signs and spreading the word throughout the neighborhood.

When Mr. Ned and his family found out about it, they said they wanted to be a part too. They offered to contribute their limousine for the day!

Kids helped to get stuff ready for the big day...even some kids who did not actually go on the caravan!

And then it happened.

History reborn.

Hanging Out as Neighbors

2010-09-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Kids went back to school last month, and less than a month later, it feels like getting back together here on the block is already long overdue! On Friday, Dalisha and Dareeona asked if "the girls" could get together like we used to, which of course meant we needed to go pick up Holly, who now lives five miles away from our block on 15th Street but will always be a Central-Cocoanut neighbor at heart. Phone service was down, so we weren't able to call ahead. Fortunately when we dropped by her house she was there and able to come over, so the four of us headed back to the block on 15th Street. Can you tell by the level of silliness how excited the girls were to see each other again?

Back home in Central-Cocoanut, the girls got busy creating a celebration - baking pizza, making tea and lighting candles. Then Dalisha said it was time for a toast. She explained that "a toast is when we cheer each other after you get done saying something that you really want to say."

So here's what everybody's toasts were tonight:

"A toast to the girls night!"

"Cheers for the Cheetah girls!"

"Happy to see Miss Allison!"

"Happy to see Holly, Dalisha, and Darry!"

"To a great school year for all of the Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters!"

A few days later, it was the boys who stopped by - Quay and others who dropped in to reconnect.

Dropping by, hanging out, with no agenda, just to say hello -- this is what it means to be neighbors.

End-of-Summer Celebration

2010-08-14T22:00:00.001-07:00

Today the Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters hosted another neighborhood party to mark the end of summer. Beforehand, Amorie and Da'Sean made signs to post on the fence at the park and at Amorie's house on Cocoanut Ave.

Next they dropped off signs with fellow neighborkids on Panama Dr. and Janie Poe Dr. to spread the word throughout the neighborhood.

Later in the day, kids dragged the grill along with the folding table and a few chairs down to the Mary Dean park at the end of the block. Mr. Dennis came over to help grill, and about 25 folks showed up to celebrate.

We're establishing quite a record when it comes to neighborkid-led block parties. How cool is that?

The Love of Sharing

2010-08-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

This morning there was a knock at the door – it was Amorie, and he was excited to tell me that the church one block away was sharing food with all of us as neighbors. He insisted that we go check it out together. That is so like Amorie – whenever he comes across a great opportunity, his first response is to go tell others so they can benefit from it too. We headed over together and soon the exploration became a full-fledged neighborhood scavenger hunt, so you can read more about it on the Central-Cocoanut blog. Here are a few pics:

What impressed me this morning was how delighted Amorie was by having this food share here in the neighborhood, right down the street, and how his natural inclination was not simply to take the food that was offered, but to make sure other neighbors found out about it, and to contribute as well.

Amorie is a great example of a real-deal community-builder, and I have much to learn from him.

One in Food, One in Life

2010-08-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight there was a knock at the door and then...surprise! The D's brought me a plate for dinner! Their mom, Ms. Donna, made mac & cheese (my all-time favorite), baked ham, mashed potatoes, and apple pie for dessert. Yum, what a special treat! Neighbors have come to know two things about me: I love to eat, and I'm not much of a cook (though I'm determined to learn!)

Wow, it means a lot to know that neighbors keep me in mind, sharing homemade dinner and other good stuff. There is a saying: "Those who are one in food are one in life." Yep, I'd say so.

Well-Loved Homes

2010-08-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, Da’Sean was looking for something to do so he decided to take the neighborhood camera and photograph the houses on our block. Here’s what he came up with:

These pics communicate a lot about the street we live on. They show that we live in mostly single-story, single-family homes, with driveways, front lawns and greenery. They show that yards on our street are generally well-kept, though not typically pumped up with sprinkler systems or fertilizer. They show that front porches and front stoops are pretty common, with some folks preferring to keep neighbors at a distance with fences while other folks welcome people to stop by and chat.

“Housing conditions” are often recognized as an environmental domain that influences child well-being. Typically, though, measures and indicators of housing are problem-focused. Take, for example, this report titled, “Doing Better for Children,” issued last year by OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Indicators include things like “overcrowding,” “noise levels,” “litter," "dirt and grime,” and “vandalism.”

What if instead we were to see housing quality through the eyes of our neighborkids, and find corresponding positive indicators? Things like “outdoor play space,” “opportunities for gardening,” “spots to chat with neighbors” and “welcome signs?” What might we better notice by focusing on the positive, the way kids do?

High-Powered Neighborliness

2010-07-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Did you know that hundreds of wedding bands are buried throughout our neighborhood? It’s true!

When heading to work this morning, I encountered Mr. Ryan and some other men working on the new telephone poles on the corner of Central and 15^th. They took a few minutes to explain what they were doing, and to offer some words of wisdom for neighborkids. Click on this video to see and hear what they had to say!

Wouldn’t it be neat if we could have conversations like this with all of the folks who spend time and energy working in our neighborhood?

Seafood Social

2010-07-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

For the past few months, I’ve been going to one of the two churches in our Central-Cocoanut neighborhood: Payne Chapel A.M.E. Church on 19^th and Central, which is four blocks away. The folks of this church host lots of fundraisers to keep the church going strong, and today it was a seafood dinner, hosted by Ms. Adele up on Walker Circle. Neighborkids Da’Sean and Dareeona drove over with Tim and me to pick up a couple of dinners.

Amorie then joined us for an impromptu feast. Crabs are a favorite food and special treat here on the block. Though I’ve eaten crabs at earlier points in my life – back in college, and when my grandparents had a house on the bay at the Jersey shore – it’s been a while. Amorie was especially entertained by the difficulties I was having getting the meat out of the claws. Suddenly tables were turned, and I found myself being video’d by Amorie! With a bit of consultation from the neighborkids, I soon was able to get to the good stuff. Yummy.

Amorie & the Happiness of Giving

2010-07-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

The more we connect as neighbors, the more birthdays we seem to be celebrating on the block! This weekend, neighborkid Amorie dropped by with a reminder that it soon will be his cousin Deandre’s birthday. As we thought together about how to mark the occasion, Amorie pulled out a bag with small toys and favors like superballs, kazoos, and mazes in it. Originally, this was a prize bag for neighborhood parties, but Amorie suggested that one or two of these prizes could be wrapped up for Deandre for his birthday. On the heels of that idea, he suggested that for each neighborkid’s birthday, a couple of toys could be wrapped up as presents by fellow neighborkids, and then delivered to the birthday girl or boy as a surprise.

Amorie then picked out and wrapped a couple of toys for Deandre and placed them on the windowsill for Deandre to discover the next time he visits. We’ll see what comes of this latest innovation!

Amorie’s actions are a great example of how “Happier people give more and giving makes people happier.” This is what folks at the Harvard Business School reported in the paper they published last year titled, “Feeling Good about Giving.” Amorie was thrilled by his idea of giving presents to Deandre and his fellow neighborkids, and this idea grew out of delight, not out of feeling sorry for anybody.

What would it mean to follow Amorie’s example in a variety of ways here at La Casa Chica, and on the block in Central-Cocoanut? Hmm…

Welcome Neighbor-baby Jasper!

2010-07-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I had an amazing opportunity to be a part of a special moment on the block. Mr. Winton, who lives across the street, asked if I could give him a ride to Sarasota Memorial Hospital to pick up his wife and newborn son. Wow – talk about an honor! We got there and had a chance to visit with Nicole and little Jasper before they were discharged.

Then some of their relatives arrived, so Nicole decided that she and the baby would head home with them. That gave us a few minutes to get back to Central-Cocoanut and tell Jasper’s sister Jasmine, brother Jaden, and fellow neighbors that the magical moment would soon be upon us!

When mom and baby arrived, neighborkids started jumping up and down with excitement, and then ran over to greet our newest little neighbor. Here is a pic of a sacred moment on the block…Jasmine seeing her baby brother Jasper for the first time:

Neighborhood history in the making.

Birdwatching on the Block

2010-06-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

"Miss Allison, come see! And bring your phone!"

That's how Darry alerted me to this bird in the empty lot across the street, two doors down, today. (She snapped the cell phone pic.)

Here is a song about some birds who take back their neighborhood, in honor of Darry's discovery:

Keep watching...a similar story will be told of & about neighborkids of Central-Cocoanut someday soon...

Scavenger Hunting & Neighborhood Blogging

2010-06-14T22:00:00.001-07:00

The 2010 "season" of scavenger hunting has now started! Here are a few pics from the kick-off barbecue and also the first hunt.

This year we are going to try to use neighborhood blogging as a way to share the discoveries of the neighborhood scavenger hunters. We've been accepted as a beta test neighborhood for "Neighborlogs," a neat online blogging platform that makes it possible to share and also map stories by neighbors. Neighborlogs is described as an innovative technology for "community-driven, neighborhood-focused, sustainable sites," and Central-Cocoanut is the only neighborhood in Florida (as far as we know!) that has been invited to join as a test site.

All to say - instead of looking to the "La Casa Chica" blog for details about scavenger hunting this summer, check out the Central-Cocoanut neighborhood blog here!

Kid-to-Kid Reading

2010-06-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

The importance of reading...we hear about it all the time. Usually, the focus is on encouraging grown folks to read to kids. What I've come to realize, though, is that when there are books around, kids read to kids! Today that's what happened when Dareeona and Chunk Chunk stopped by:

This summer, the neighborhood scavenger hunters are working on putting together a website to share ideas and discoveries, and the video clip of Dareeona reading to Chunk Chunk is posted there too. If you want to check it out, click here. The D's mom, Donna, checked it out herself on the laptop - that's one proud mom:

So how might we rethink approaches to promoting "early literacy," to make the most of all the naturally occurring kid-to-kid reading, teaching and learning that's going on? Maybe we could take a few hints from Sugata Mitra, and the "Hole in the Wall" efforts he's leading in India, posted on TED here.

School's Out!

2010-06-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing quite matches the exuberance expressed by kids on the last day of school. Here's what that looked like today on the block when I opened the front door:

Kids of different grades, different schools, and different ages (including preschoolers!) marking the occasion with impromptu dancing, flipping, and singing. Yay!

Earlier in the day, I decided to head over to Gocio, the elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood are zoned to attend. I spotted Shy'Yah graduating from 5th Grade, with family members (including her cousin Ray Ray) there to honor her.

Earlier in the week I headed over to Gocio to check out the Renaissance Awards, too, since I'd heard that some of our neighborkids would be honored there as well. Ray Ray's brother James was a big winner, along with Amorie, Holly, and others.

Here is James with his mom, who text messaged his dad in Miami each time James was called up for another award:

What if we begin thinking about neighborhood-school collaboration in terms of partnership that is initiated by neighbors, rather than by schools? What new possibilities might we imagine then?

Silly Bands On the Block

2010-05-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever spotted something that you sense, from the moment you first encounter it, is something worth paying attention to? That's what it felt like today when Tamiyah proudly showed me these:

Evidently, these are called "silly bands." They are brightly colored rubber bracelets in different shapes, and some of the other kids were wearing some too. Is Tamiyah an "early adopter?" Will these bracelets become all the rage here on the block? We shall see...!

D&D Dinner x 2

2010-05-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

This month, the neighborkids of honor in Central-Cocoanut are Dalisha and DuShun -- both soon-to-be fifth-graders. They proposed that since they are older than neighborkids who have been honored so far, their celebration ought to include two kinds of dinners -- the "traditional" neighborhood dinner, and also a double-date of sorts. Curious to see what might develop, we said - why not?

Together, Dalisha and DuShun scoped out the restaurants of Sarasota for the double-date, and decided upon O'Leary's Tiki Bar & Grill, which is only 1.7 miles and 5 min. (by car) from our block.

Then Tim and I were honored to be chosen as fellow dinner-mates. Here are some pics of everyone enjoying the evening.

A week later, Dalisha and DuShun were honored on the block. DuShun's mom Ms. Cassandra and his auntie Angie came over to do the cooking, and there was standing room only for the celebration!

Dalisha invited Mr. Hugh too, whom she knows from the CSO Dinners. He brought neat packages of scavenger hunting supplies for Dalisha and DuShun, and one for the whole group of Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters. He also brought something incredibly special that his daughter (who is now in college) asked him to bring along: her childhood pencil collection! Hugh's daughter collected hundreds and hundreds of pencils when she was a kid. When she heard about the neighborhood scavenger hunters, and heard that her dad was one of the invited guests, she decided that the scavenger hunters would be a great group to take over her prize collection. Wow, what an honor! How's that for GenY-Z connection?

CSO Dinner with Our Neighbor Ms. Valerie

2010-05-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

This month's Community Self-Organizing Dinner featured our neighbor, Ms. Valerie Buchand. Ms. Valerie has been a long-time resident leader in the Janie Poe public housing development at the north end of our neighborhood. Her advocacy led to the mixed-income and mixed-use redevelopment of the area - now called Janie's Gardens. One of the new streets in our neighborhood is named after her -- Valerie Way!

As neighborkids served pizza they had baked, Ms. Valerie told us about the kids of Janie Poe and Janie's Gardens who come to her house to make dinner together and play games. They have named themselves the Mighty Mights, and they are figuring out how to organize themselves as a formal group, with officers and official meetings.

Ms. Valerie suggested that someday soon the two groups of kids could connect and work together as fellow neighbors. Then I bet we'll be able to see all sorts of natural connections that already exist among the kids of Central-Cocoanut!

Naturalists on the Block

2010-05-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

These days spring is busting out all over, which means there are lots of opportunities to check out nature here on the block. Today when I got home, Da'Sean, Holly and Dareeona proudly showed me the bug box they created, and their latest insect discoveries:

Later, I heard some excitement out front -- this time it was a bunch of kids figuring out together how to investigate a slug they just found:

The wild hibiscus is now flowering, too, so Amorie and Holly are tracking the ways the blossoms change colors over time.

Neighborkids are everyday scientists, making the most of nature on the block.

Neighborkids Start Microlending On the Block

2010-05-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

The kids who will be honored at this month's Neighborkid Dinner are Dalisha and DuShun. Dalisha is already thinking about what outfit she wants to wear, and concluded that she really wants a new pair of fancy shoes. She asked if she could borrow some money, and this led to the impromptu invention of a neighborkid loan option using the money in the scavenger hunters' cash box, which is money that the neighborhood scavenger hunters made at the yard sale a few months back.

Since the money belongs to the Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters as a group, Dalisha called a meeting of scavenger hunters to discuss the possibility of establishing the loan option. It took some time to explain the concept, with a little help from me, but finally everybody got it, and said yes, let's start with one person and see how it goes!

Dalisha wrote down how much money she is borrowing, on what date, for what purpose, to be paid back by what date.

With $20 in hand, she was ready for shoe shopping! Here's Dalisha trying on an especially fancy pair.

Who would have thought that the neighborkids would be the first folks to start up micro-lending here in Central-Cocoanut!

Rest in Peace, Snickers

2010-05-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

A sad day here on the block -- Gus' best buddy Snickers died. These two were the closest of neighbor-pups ever since they were tiny.

The D's are especially sad, as Snickers was their dog. Here are Darry and Dalisha reading the sympathy card that neighborkids gave them:

When pets die, neighbors are close enough to notice, close enough to grieve together, and close enough to comfort one another. Kids really seem to get this.

Rest in peace, Snickers.

A School Visit with Neighbors

2010-05-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Since different parts of our 50-block neighborhood are zoned for different elementary schools, not all the kids go to the same school. Kids play together everyday on the block, though, so they hear about each other's schools. This weekend, when the D's invited us to come to the spring fair at their school, Fruitville Elementary, Holly and I were eager to check it out. Once we arrived, Holly quickly spotted Dalisha, and hopped in line with her so they could get their hair spray painted.

Later we snapped pics of one another in these classic carnival poses:

Later, while Dalisha was playing with her school friends, Holly checked out the playground:

Before we headed home, Dalisha showed us a few more neat features of the fair.

Often, people with the Department of Education talk about the importance of "community engagement" in schools. What if we were to pay closer attention to the ways kids are able to drum up enthusiasm about the schools they attend, and the schools their friends and neighbors attend? We all might learn a lot.

Beauty on the Block

2010-05-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

When I got home today I was greeted by neighborkids Dareeona, Holly and Chunk Chunk, who had decorated our street with delightful "expressions of affection" -- chalk drawings of hearts, suns, and all sorts of creatures. Sarasota hosts an annual chalk festival downtown -- we are fortunate here in Central-Cocoanut to have chalk artists in the neighborhood all year long!

The light was beautiful this afternoon, so we decided to walk the three blocks from our houses to the bay and watch the sun set.

Wow, we live in such a beautiful place.

Neighborkid Pool Party

2010-05-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the birthday celebration for neighborkid brother/sister duo Amorie and Shyya. Their parents and extended family hosted a pool party for them at the La Quinta Inn, on the other side of Route 41, across the street from our neighborhood. Gus and I were lucky enough to be invited, so we showed up with a few noodles to join in the fun. While Gus hung out in the shade under a jasmine bush, I snapped some pictures of the festivities. I didn't realize how many of our neighborkids are talented swimmers!

To top it all off, there was a hotdog-eating contest.

I can just imagine all the great memories everybody will have of this celebration.

Thanks and happy birthday, Amorie and Shyya!

Celebrating Student Art in Our Neighborhood

2010-04-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

This evening, Tim and I headed up to the Ringling College of Art and Design, which is at the north end of our neighborhood, to check out the senior student projects. As I walked around the campus (for the first time ever), my mind was filled with ideas about how we might further develop the unique potential that relates to having an art college in our own neighborhood.

In addition to the students who were exhibiting their work, there were many of the students’ friends, family and community members there to tour the exhibits and to celebrate the students’ accomplishments.

Wouldn’t it be neat if we, as neighbors, were to similarly attend end-of-year exhibits and celebrations at the elementary, middle and high schools that our neighborkids attend? And the reverse, too – for classmates, school teachers and staff to come celebrate students’ accomplishments here in the neighborhood.

Here are some pics of Tim checking out some of the exhibits.

Wouldn’t it be neat to connect with some of the talented illustrators, animators, and graphic designers who are part of our neighborhood (by virtue of their being Ringling students/faculty/staff), so that we might together bring to life some of the innovative ideas that our neighborkids have been generating?

And here is a Ringling student whose last name is “Jones,” just like Amorie. She created a self-promotional graphic design election sticker that says, “Jonesing for [name].” When we told her that one of our neighbors, Amorie, also has the last name of “Jones,” she made this election sticker for him. Can you see what it says? “Jonesing for Amorie Jones.”

So does this now mean there’s only one degree of separation between the neighborkids and the Ringling folks? Probably not quite yet, but it seems worth paying attention to all the ways in which this weak tie might become strengthened…especially given the artistic talent among both groups of students...

Gardening Season is Upon Us

2010-04-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

The season is upon us once again – gardening season, that is! Neighbor Miss Joanna is a favorite among the neighborkids, as she’s always got a gardening project underway in her yard, and kids are welcome to help out and make a contribution. The kids told me that in exchange, she secret-surprises them with special trips about town, like to get their nails painted, or to get ice cream, or…

Here is a pic of Holly and Dareeona helping Miss Joanna to plant a palm tree. It’s no wonder Miss Joanna has become a regularly invited neighbor when it comes to the monthly Neighborkid Dinners!

Now THAT'S Neighborly

2010-04-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

This has been a crazily stressful week for me. At the start of the week, I received the news that the home I still own (and was renting out) in Tampa burned down when the tenants left cigarettes unattended.

Later in the week, I received even more devastating news, which I’d rather keep to myself. Needless to say, this was not the time to have overlooked paying my electric bill, but that’s exactly what I did, and today the electric company turned off my electricity.

So…it meant a lot to me when I got a call in the late morning while I was working up in Tampa – it was the D’s mom, my neighbor Donna, letting me know that FP&L had turned off my electricity, and there was a pink notice on the door. She said she wanted to let me know so there’d be time for me to pay the bill and get the power restored before I got home from work at the end of the day.

Now THAT’S neighborly.

When I got home, Donna’s son Da’Sean met me at the door, curious about the pink notice. “What’s this?” he asked, and then proceeded to read the announcement aloud, which gave me a chance to tell Da’Sean the story of how his neighborly mom had helped me out early in the day.

Because of my neighbors, it feels more and more like home around here. Thanks.

A Mailbox Balloon for Amorie

2010-04-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was neighborkid Amorie’s birthday. Since we recently found our neighborhood birthday calendar (after it went M.I.A. in the sunroom for a few months), we finally resumed our neighborhood tradition of surprising neighbors on their birthdays by tying a balloon to their mailbox, along with delivering a card signed by all of us as neighbors. Not only is it fun to get a balloon and card on your own birthday, it’s fun to keep up with who is celebrating every week / month, and to get in on the celebratory vibes. Here’s a picture of Amorie (holding a slice of his birthday cake), with his little sister Naya, next to Amorie’s balloon.

Amorie wanted a quick pic of himself with his auntie’s baby Trinity, too – one of his favorite babies these days…

Maybe Trinity will become a C-C Neighborhood Scavenger Hunter soon too :)

Neighborkid Holly's Art Review of Florence Putterman's Painting

2010-04-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I went on a tour of homes that are of the Sarasota School of Architecture. I was curious about the ways in which these relatively small, modern homes cultivate a quality of enchantment, and how they might contribute to a spirit of not only homeyness but also neighborliness wherever they are built.

One of the homes we visited was that of Florence Putterman, who is a local artist. She was present during the tour and was handing out books with prints of her paintings, and I was lucky enough to get a copy.

When I got home, neighborkid Holly was on my front stoop, ready to surprise me with a chalk note she had written for me on the front walk.

I told Holly about the architecture tour and showed her the book of paintings by fellow Sarasotan Florence Putterman. Holly was interested in the paintings, so I asked her if she could show me which one was her favorite, and then tell a story about it.

Here’s the story she told:

It’s think it’s about Indian stuff, where, I see some Indian stuff right there. There’s trees and there’s persons in it and they’re in the forest with a whole bunch of animals.

[Who are the people in the forest with a whole bunch of animals?]

That one would be Florence. That would be some guy, that’s a guy and that’s a girl, and that’s a guy. I don’t know what that is…

[So what are they doing in the forest with the animals?]

They’re trying to hide their selves ‘cause they think they don’t have no pants and stuff on.

[Oh, that’s kind of like Adam and Eve in the Bible, huh? And then what happens?]

And then when they get out of the forest they’re going to pick a leaf and hide their…you know…

[Hide themselves, sort of cover themselves up with those leaves?]

Yep.

[OK. Anything else about that story?]

No.

[Anything else you want to say about the paintings in this book?]

Oh, I like the paintings.

[What do you like most about them?]

I like the animals and the people in them. And the decorations.

[I like that too.]

Later in the day, I read the introduction to the Putterman collection of paintings that was written by David Cleveland, who was introduced as “an art writer, independent curator, and novelist who regularly reviews for ArtNews.” Here’s how he described Florence Putterman’s art:

“Florence Putterman’s free-spirited art is a bewitching brew of fantastic imagery…floating forms of animals and humans…from…Indian petrography. … Everything about the work speaks of joy’s discovery…a phantasmagoria of playful beings, both human and animal, though given the free interaction in what seems like some Edenic setting, their roles are interchangeable.”

Seems 8-year-old Holly was right on. Wow.

Discovering our Neighborhood Poet Laureate

2010-04-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, Gus and I needed to get out of the house for a while so we headed ten blocks down Central Avenue to a coffee shop in the Rosemary District – a place with outdoor tables, where I can write while we both enjoy the sun and breeze.

When we got there we ran into John, a fellow neighbor, who lives at Renaissance Manor on the other side of Mary Dean Park. He has stopped by the house a few times to chat, but this was the first time we had a chance to talk for a while at the coffee shop.

It turns out John is a great storyteller with a quick sense of humor, and he’s had some amazing life experiences. He has two grand-daughters named MacKenzie and Lyric. Lyric was born 2 days before the birthday of his wife, Carol, who died some years ago. He says he notices many of Carol’s features in little Lyric – “she got Carol’s eyes, and her hair too.”

Although John took classes in social work, what he really loves doing is writing poetry. He suggested that since he loves kids and also loves writing poetry, he’d love to teach the kids in our neighborhood how to rhyme and write poems. I can’t wait to find out from our neighborkids whether this is something they’d get into – it seems like it could add a special, artistic dimension to our summertime neighborhood scavenger hunts (which will start up again in just over a month!)

While we were at the coffee shop, John followed through on a promise he made to us earlier. When he bought a “detention Bible” at our recent yard sale, he told us he would write a poem about it. Sure enough, before Gus and I left the coffee shop, we had received that poem, signed with the pseudonym “Arthur Unknown.”

Here’s the poem:

The Book of Detention

by Arthur Unknown

When it came to my attention

In a house of retention

Where redemption lay heavy on our souls

Where the guards they were hardened

For their lives they were a hard one

And some seemed to find it easier to harangue and cuss us

Than to offer to extend a hand a trust us

Friend, I’ve painted you a picture

To help you see the mixture

Of the hate and some of the trouble

That often burst like a bubble

And found many a poor boy in lock-up

Where we often stayed to sun-up

Chained like a dog who was never given affection

Which brought on dejection

And times best forgotten.

But there in that house of Hell

God looked down and with a little hand

He did the deed

That old House of Detention shook

And today as I look

Back I wonder when we all might heal

Without the book

That set us straight

Released us from

Our common fate,

And with a little book

The House of Detention took

Us to the other side

So now you know how we discovered our neighborhood poet laureate.

Neighborkid Wisdom Revealed through Results-Based Accountability

2010-04-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight when I got home from work I was greeted by a bunch of neighborkids who were on an accountability mission. They remembered that I’d promised to share a chocolate Easter bunny with them, and they were ready for me to follow through on that commitment.

After everybody came inside and we’d divvied up / gobbled up the chocolate rabbit and washed it down with ice water, I asked the kids, “Will you guys help me out with my homework tonight?” I wanted to see if we, as fellow neighbors, could try out an exercise I recently learned that is associated with a community change framework called “Results-Based Accountability.”

The kids said okay, so I asked them to help me answer the following questions:

If all the kids in our neighborhood were
… happy…

…healthy…

…learning…

…loved…

…contributing…

…loving…
how could we tell?

Here’s what the kids (ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 10) had to say:

1. If all the kids in our neighborhood were HAPPY we would notice:

· Kids jumping on the bed and in trees

· Every kid would have a nice monkey …or pets…or puppies

· Kids drawing pictures with chalk

· Kids having fun with Miss Allison

· There would never be storms

· The whole world would have superpowers

· No kicking nobody

· No fighting

· No punching

2. If all the kids in our neighborhood were HEALTHY we would notice:

· More fruit

· Growing up bigger and bigger

· Lose weight / don’t be fat

· Don’t be skinny

· Have more superpowers

· Gus (Miss Allison’s puppy) would be bigger

3. If all the kids in our neighborhood were LEARNING we would notice:

· Thinking in your brain

· Go to school every day

· Learn about everything

· Don’t be bad – be good

· Listen to the teacher

· Follow the rules

· They’re going to be outside all the time

· Do all your homework

· Don’t stand around on the sidewalk

4. If all the kids in our neighborhood were LOVED we would notice:

· People saying, “I love you” more

· They would love dogs

· They would love school

· They’d go to somebody’s house every day and they’d let them in and they’d stay for like an hour

· Ask them and they would say, “I am loved”

· I love our neighbor Joanna

· They would say “I love you” really much

5. If all the kids in our neighborhood were CONTRIBUTING (doing things for our neighborhood and for the world, like grown-ups do), we would notice:

· Kids helping their moms

· Helping their dads

· Helping their parents

· Doing what your parents say

· Drawing pictures on the road

· Washing cars with grown-ups

· They would have a shirt on about what they were doing

6. If all the kids in our neighborhood were LOVING we would notice:

· Kids loving their parents

· Kids loving their grandmothers and grandfathers

· Kids loving their cousins

· Kids loving their pets

[What would that look like? How could we tell?]

· They would be happy

· Well, say they were crying – someone outside, they came and talked to them and then they really weren’t crying because they were loved.

I have to say, I am pretty impressed by how capable these neighborkids are when it comes to identifying what community planners and social service providers refer to as “population outcomes.” Sure, there were a couple of “strategies” in the mix (like “every kid having a nice monkey” to be happy and “more fruit” to be healthy), but overall these were legitimate examples of community-wide well-being!

The neighborkids’ brainstorm has got me thinking again: What as-of-yet-undiscovered potential might be revealed if we all were to orient in earnest around the wisdom of children?

Da'Sean's Birthday Party on the Block

2010-04-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend while my sister Ellen and niece Maddie were visiting for the first time from Paulsbo, Washington (near Seattle), and we were lucky enough to be invited to neighborkid Da’Sean’s birthday party! It was held at the end of our block, at Mary Dean Park. Here are some pictures from the celebration. Da’Sean’s dad Oscar came up with the idea of bobbing for apples…in ice water! Dareeona wound up being the most courageous, dunking her head in the freezing cold water time and again until she got an apple. Yikes!

Pin the Tail on the Donkey - on the jungle gym - was another big hit.

And of course, the swings are ALWAYS fun.

Glad my family was able to get a true sense of our neighborhood spirit - thanks, and happy birthday, Da'Sean!

Spiritual Aristocracy in the Neighborhood

2010-04-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading an essay titled, “The World of Science and the World of Value,” in which the great systems thinker Ludwig Von Bertalanffy said, “status symbols…must in some way be replaced by recognition of worthiness, of spiritual aristocracy, wherever it is found.”

This Easter, I attended church at Payne Chapel AME Church in our Central-Cocoanut neighborhood of Newtown in Sarasota, where the youngest members of the congregation – the children – led us in a reenactment of the Passion story. While I have participated in many Easter services over the past 40 years – mostly in churches of the Episcopal denomination – I was especially moved by the experience this year. The children’s account was more honest, and more earnest, than any I’ve participated in before. The adult members of the congregation were active contributors too – as narrators, musicians, and ushers – but it was most certainly the children who were leading us all in the worship experience. The Reverend Clarence Honor affirmed the significance for himself as well, noting afterward that sometimes it is better to witness a sermon than to preach a sermon.

As I read Von Bertalanffy’s essay today, I realized that this Easter I discovered “spiritual aristocracy” in my own neighborhood, in the children.

It reminded me, too, of how often I am noticing this same quality among my fellow neighbors -- especially the neighborkids -- as we venture about to discover and invent ways of connecting, and a sense of belonging, in the patch of Sarasota that we call home.

This truly is a special place to be living.

Thanks.

Impromptu Yard Sale

2010-04-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

I decided today that I need to get busy with some serious spring cleaning, so I figured it was time for an impromptu yard sale! After dragging a folding table out to the front yard, I put a few books, toys, and household goods on the table with a sign: "YARD SALE. Contribute what you think is fair; all $ goes to the Central-Cocoanut Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters."

Before I knew it, people were coming over not only to check out the goods, but to contribute items too! Tim brought over some furniture. 15-year-old Hope brought some books, stuffed animals, and posters. One person from outside our neighborhood who stopped by and bought a few things even said she'd come back later with a bag of clothes to contribute!

The neighborkids started getting into it, and wanted to take turns "staffing" the table, so we got the Scavenger Hunters "cashbox" out of the cabinet to deposit the earnings. Kids started putting items on "lay-away" and then running home to get their money. Kids who didn't have money started raking leaves for 50 cents a bag, and then using their earnings to make yard sale purchases.

After several hours, when it seemed that we weren’t likely to get any more visitors, and everybody present had selected all of their purchases, we decided to count up the money and call it a day. It turns out we made over $80 at the impromptu yard sale!

As we were cleaning up, our neighbor John, who lives on the other side of the park at Renaissance Manor, stopped by and made a "prize find" among the items that were left over. He discovered what he described as a “Detention Bible.” It was a bible with a stamp in the front that indicated it was given to someone as part of a juvenile detention ministry. John said it would be great inspiration for a poem, and told us he’d show us the poem someday, once he wrote it.

Amazing how something like an impromptu yard sale can wind up drawing people together to contribute and exchange resources with one another, ultimately generating more enthusiasm, creativity, and even dollars than we expected at the start.

A Neighborkid Hunt for Electric Transformer Boxes

2010-03-29T22:00:00.001-07:00

Today a few of the neighborkids (Dalisha, Dareeona and Da'Sean) and I followed up on our commitment to 6-year-old Hydaren and to our neighborhood as a whole. Block-by-block, we explored our neighborhood to identify anything that looks like it might be an electric transformer box, so that we can check with Florida Power & Light to make sure all the boxes are safe, so that no other kids (or adults) get shocked when they are playing or exploring. This is especially important since Scavenger Hunting Season (which begins as soon as school lets out) is less than three months away, and we want to make sure that our opportunities to explore (which is how we discover, invent, and otherwise learn) are not limited by safety issues in the neighborhood.

Today's scavenger hunters:

Dalisha, Da'Sean and Dareeona (& Gus!)

First we drove to the Orange Avenue apartment complex to take a look at the transformer box where Hydaren got hurt, so we would have a clearer sense of what the transformer boxes look like, so that we'd be able to spot other ones in the neighborhood. We remembered what the box looked like in the picture we saw in the newspaper article, and here's the picture that Dareeona took of what we are pretty sure is the same box today:

Then as we drove around the neighborhood, Dalisha and Da'Sean looked along the right side of the street, while Dareeona looked along the left side. Anytime one of the kids spotted a box that looked like it might be an electric transformer, they took a picture with my cell phone. Here are the boxes everybody spotted:

Our next step will be to share these pictures with the electric company and ask for their help in figuring out which of these are actually electric boxes, so we can make sure all are up-to-date with being tested and cleared for safety.

Stay tuned...

Lemonesque connector makes exubertea

2010-03-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I sent the following quick note to John McKnight, who has come to Sarasota many times over the past few years to share ideas with us and think together about asset-oriented approaches to community. The ABCD approach that he has developed over the past three decades (ABCD stands for "Asset-Based Community Development") often describes a community focus on assets, rather than problems, as a "glass is half-full" approach.

John,

Thought you might like this picture. When I saw this glass of iced tea, prepared by the neighborkids, on the kitchen table, I thought to myself: we've been asking ourselves "half-full or half-empty" while the kids are seeing instead an opportunity to flourish the glass with a lemon wedge, and take it upon themselves to pick one off the tree in the backyard to add a special touch, which in turn makes the iced tea enticing to EVERY child present...

(: allison
Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry

...and here is John's response:

Lemonesque connector makes exubertea.
John

"Exubertea" is a reference to the proposal (or "contest entry," as the kids described it) that we, the C-C Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters, submitted to the Knight Foundation News Challenge back in December. We titled our proposal: ExuberNews: Changing Our Community for the Better through Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters." We explained that if we won the contest, we would use the prize money to go on weekly scavenger hunts "on the lookout for exuberance and 'good stuff' happening," and after each adventure, kids would partner with adults to write stories about our neighborhood, as seen through children's eyes.

Here is a quote from our proposal, to give you a little taste of what it was all about:

"ExuberNews is oriented around exuberance, which as social science now confirms, both attracts and is contagious. When information is attached to good news, it is more likely to spread and we are more receptive to hear it. ExuberNews is also oriented around kids, who are naturally inclined to demonstrate curiosity and exuberance and so can attract and model this engagement for adults."

It turns out we didn't win the contest this year, but hopefully soon we'll connect with some folks who want to co-invest in our ideas and efforts and inventions -- together with the neighborkids, who are most certainly our first investors!

Visit from County Commissioner Carolyn Mason

2010-03-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today Commissioner Mason, or "Miss Carolyn" as kids call her here on the block, stopped by. She had called a meeting in Newtown a few months back for everyone to come together and talk about how Sarasota can respond to violence occurring in this community, and so I shared with her a little bit about the many positive contributions of our neighborkids, which are making our neighborhood a homey, friendly place. She stopped by today to meet some of our neighborhood scavenger hunters and maybe catch a glimpse of the magic.

The kids helped me tidy up and then prepared some tea and pretzels for her visit. When she arrived, we all chatted for a bit about what life was like for Commissioner Carolyn as a kid, when she was growing up about 10 blocks down Central Avenue. She also told us about what it was like living next to the railroad tracks, a few blocks up the road from us, when she lived here in Central-Cocoanut several years back. She shared some helpful hints about how we might get our garden to grow this summer as well.

Since the JAQS Dinner for James, Amorie, Quan and Semaj was this past weekend, we showed her the slideshow made in their honor which was premiered at their dinner. This hopefully gave her a sense of all the great things neighborkids are up to in Central-Cocoanut these days.

Thanks for dropping by, Commissioner Carolyn!

Google Fiber for Communities

2010-03-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

Last night, just in the nick of time, the Central-Cocoanut Scavenger Hunters submitted our entry to the Google Fiber for Communities challenge, and we thought you might like to see what we shared. We hope you'll check it out - As neighborkid Holly says, "It's great, and it's actually funny with the music :) "

***

Google Fiber for Communities

Contest Entry Form Questions

If you are responding on behalf of an organization or community group, please describe it:

The Central-Cocoanut Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters are neighbors in Central-Cocoanut, a 50-block area in the Newtown community of Sarasota, Florida. We are a neighborhood of about 1700 people and 500 homes, many with kids. As scavenger hunters, we are on a quest to explore all the great things in our own neighborhood, and to discover how we might increase our sense of connection and belonging in this particular patch of Sarasota that we call home.

Why should Google build a fiber to the home network where you live?

Google, we hear you when you say you are on a hunt to discover communities across the country where you can build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks, with Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone.

We hear you when you say:

You want to see what “next generation” internet users can do with ultra high-speeds, including uses you can't yet imagine.
You want to invent and test new ways to build fiber networks, and then share discoveries with the world.
You want to create an "open access" network where users have choices, with a network managed in an open, non-discriminatory, and transparent way.

The Central-Cocoanut Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters truly are the next generation – “Gen Z” and “Gen A” neighborkids who are already proving to be magnificent explorers, discoverers, inventors, connectors, communicators, internet users and leaders.

The C-C Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters are the WHO you are searching for.

So go ahead and check us out…

http://gallery.me.com/allisonpintosrq#100000

Keep On, Hydaren

2010-03-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

In yesterday's edition of the Herald Tribune, there was a front-page story about a terrible accident that happened just one neighborhood away from us, in the Orange Avenue housing development. The story explained that while 6-year-old Hydaren was playing outside in the courtyard at his grandmother's apartment complex, he came upon an electrical transformer box that was not properly locked shut by the electric company. When he explored the box, he got a terrible shock, with even more electricity than a person would receive if they were in the electric chair.

Today when the neighborkids dropped by in the afternoon, Da'Sean picked up the newspaper article and read it out loud to us. Right away, Dareeona, who was listening said, "Oh my God! Is he gonna be okay?" As I've come to expect, the kids were quick to express care and concern, sensing that this boy was not far-removed from all of us - a "fellow neighbor," regardless of whether he lives in Central-Cocoanut.

It turns out this is not the first time a little kid got terribly hurt at the same transformer box -- back in the 1970's, a 4-year-old boy got hurt the same way. And that boy, it turns out, is not only a fellow neighbor, but also a relative! When the D's dad Oscar came over and Da'Sean told him about the story in the newspaper, Oscar said that the little boy who got hurt back in the 70's was actually Dareeona's Uncle Tim! Knowing this made the whole situation feel that much more personally related to all of us.

To let Hydaren know we're thinking of him, the kids decided to make a huge neighborhood card for him. They thought together some about what message they wanted it to say, and decided to write, "Keep On, Hydaren." Here are some pictures of the neighborkids making the card.

After they had decorated the card and we all had signed it, the kids took it around the neighborhood and others signed it too.

Mr. Dennis, who dropped by my house just as we were heading out, signed.

Kids playing in the park at the end of our street signed.

Neighbors sitting out in their front yard on 18th Street signed.

Kids at the Payne Chapel AME Church, practicing for their Easter pageant, signed.

One of Mr. Dennis' fellow residents at Renaissance Manor, known as "The Admiral," signed.

This is when we found out that our neighbor (who is my next-door neighbor), Keneisha, is actually Hydaren's cousin! She told us that his nickname is Dro, and that when the kids finish gathering signatures on the banner, she will take it to their next family gathering to deliver to him in person.

It turns out this boy is even closer to us than we first realized.

So this is a tribute to our fellow community member, Hydaren "Dro" Taylor. We want the very best for you, and we will also do our part to follow up in making sure our neighborhood is safe for you and all the other neighborkid explorers.

Take good care.

St. Patrick's Day Community Self-Organizing Dinner

2010-03-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a brief account of our March dinner gathering around Community Self-Organizing:

We met on Saint Patrick’s Day, so dinner was corned beef and cabbage. Among us were 4 grown-ups and 5 kids. Grown-ups included:

Hugh, who lives in the Palmer Ranch development and works downtown at the Sarasota County government
Tim, who lives in the Alta Vista neighborhood and works in Central-Cocoanut at SCOPE
Dennis, who lives in the Central-Cocoanut neighborhood, where he leads a resident weather monitoring team
Allison, who lives in Central-Cocoanut as a neighbor-psychologist and works in Tampa at the Children’s Board

Here is a picture of the grown-ups in attendance:

Kids included:

Amorie and Holly, who live in Central-Cocoanut and work at Gocio Elementary as first-graders
Dalisha and Dareeona, who live in Central-Cocoanut and work at Fruitville Elementary as a fourth-grader and first-grader, respectively
Chunk Chunk, who lives in Central-Cocoanut and works at home-based childcare in the neighborhood.

Here is a picture of the kids in attendance (eating dinner picnic-style on the front stoop):

When he arrived, Hugh surprised the neighborkids with a gift of…SEED PACKETS from Burpee Farms! (What he didn’t realize is that Burpee Farms is located in the very same town in Pennsylvania where Allison grew up.)

This led to some fun conversation about the possibilities of homegrown food – a topic that is receiving increased attention here in Sarasota and also in communities across the country. Those of us who live in Central-Cocoanut talked about where in the neighborhood we’d like to plant the various vegetable seeds, and which neighbors we’ll approach for help (15^th Street neighbors who immediately came to mind were Deacon John, who is a professional gardener at Plymouth Harbor, and also Jack and her roommates, who planted a massive, very productive front-yard vegetable garden last summer. These are neighbors we’ve met while exploring Central-Cocoanut through scavenger-hunting.)

Since it was Saint Patrick’s Day, the kids got busy creating a festive atmosphere by rewarding everyone who showed up wearing GREEN – and pinching anybody who was green-less! Amorie then offered homemade Shamrock tattoos for anyone who hadn’t received one earlier in the day at work or school. Although the “fun factor” is often overlooked when discussion groups meet, it is such an important dimension to cultivate for the sake of cohesion and creative thinking, so the neighborkids’ contributions were very much appreciated.

The kids also made another batch of Google Juice to share with everyone – the sweet, lemony elixir they invented as part of their strategy for entering the Google Fiber contest. Tart and refreshing J

As for the discussion that developed over the course of the evening, here are some of the themes, and how they might relate to concepts of community self-organizing:

CELEBRATING NEIGHBORKIDS:

We talked some about the monthly neighborkid dinners that have begun in Central-Cocoanut. As the invitations state, these are celebrations during which we gather in honor of a particular neighborkid, “To express appreciation for our scavenger hunters, to invest in their potential as individuals, and to come together as a neighborhood.” The featured neighborkids describe their hopes for themselves and the neighborhood, and we consider these aspirations in light of current realities, as reflected in aggregate data (available through local systems such as the school district, the sheriff’s department, the health department, and social service networks), and as revealed in the “scrapbook of assets” discovered through neighborhood scavenger-hunting. Our aim is to have some serious fun identifying ways of connecting, and re-constellating efforts as needed, in order to realize the local potential expressed through the wisdom of our neighborkids.

The most recent February dinner was in honor of 6-year-old Dareeona, and she had invited “Mr. Hugh” to attend, after getting to know him at the January dinner on Community Self-Organizing. So tonight we took a look at the folder of materials prepared for all members of “Team Darry,” which included this summary of her expressed hopes:

A year from now:

That I can hold the baby. [Darry’s 2-month-old sister]

As a teenager:

I can do anything I want, like cook, and find a job, and work in class.

As a grown-up:

I will be a teacher and teach reading books.

For the neighborhood:

The trees would be different – green - and all the houses would be yellow, like Miss Joanna’s house. [Fellow neighbor Joanna recently repainted her house, and many neighborkids were actively involved as house painters.]

We also took a quick look at the aggregate data about the student experience across elementary schools in Sarasota County -- with an intentional focus on Fruitville Elementary, as this is Darry’s school and is one of the two elementary schools to which Central-Cocoanut kids are bussed. We briefly examined patterns in publicly accessible data associated with academic achievement (math skill and reading at grade-level), involvement (daily attendance and school-year stability), and characteristics of the student body (ethnic diversity, language talent, and family income). This is deserving of more time and attention, but at least began to illustrate how aggregate data pattern-tracking, when combined with an awareness of the particularities of lived experience, can be useful in spotting community dynamics and detecting community-wide self-organizing, particularly as this relates to the experience of local children.

GOOGLE FIBER:

With the renaming of City Island and Mayor Clapp’s recent dive into the shark tank at Mote Marine, we’ve got some great examples of active community engagement in Sarasota these days. The enthusiastic and notably whimsical efforts of local folks to convince Google to choose this community for super high-speed Internet have been providing fascinating examples of community self-organizing!

Tonight we talked some about how the Internet can make such a difference when it comes to the democratizing of knowledge. We noted, however, that there is a risk of dramatically reinforcing the digital divide if some folks wind up having Internet capacities 100x faster than current options while others are not yet able to afford Internet access whatsoever. We talked some about the neighborkid-oriented Google Fiber submission being prepared in Central-Cocoanut, and how it might be synchronized with the applications being prepared by the local city/county government and other citizen groups in Sarasota, in order to optimize the likelihood of increased local dialogue about technology and community. Tim and Hugh also shared some about their recent efforts -- through SCOPE and the County government, respectively – to explore the possibility of establishing wifi networks for whole neighborhoods.

TEDx:

As we talked about features of community that optimize potential for learning, we then found ourselves discussing TED talks, with their emphasis on “ideas worth spreading,” and Hugh told us about TEDx, which is described online as “a new program that enables local communities such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighborhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events.” He shared some ideas about ways to bring TEDx to life here in Sarasota, and we considered some ways that this might happen both through formal institutions and through more informal neighbor-led efforts.

To be continued next month…hope you'll drop by then!

Neighborkid Dinner in Honor of Dareeona

2010-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today we continued our tradition of Neighborkid Dinners: each month, one neighborhood child who volunteers (with the support of their family) is featured at a special dinner in their honor. This month, we gathered in honor of 6-year-old Dareeona.

Dareeona developed an invitation list of the people she would like to have at the “Dareeona Dinner” – a group of people she likes and hopes will work together with her, and with each other, to help realize her dreams for herself and for our neighborhood. There are no limits placed on who each child invites. Here’s who Darry chose: her best friend on the block; her parents, sisters and brother; four grown-up neighbors; her Grandpa who lives down the street; and one classmate (who lives 11 blocks away, at the other end of our neighborhood).

Darry also set the menu, so here’s what we had for dinner: Steak, Corn on the Cob, Macaroni and Cheese, Scalloped Potatoes, Strawberry Juice, Sparkling Grape Juice, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These are the activities we planned for the Dareeona Dinner:

eat, drink and be merry,
honor Darry with a special slide show in her honor,
share thoughts about what we like most about Dareeona, and
hear from Dareeona, as our guest of honor, about what she hopes for herself and our neighborhood.

Here’s what Darry had to say in response to the 4 Questions:

A year from now: That I can hold the baby. [Her baby sister was born in December.]
As a teenager: I can do anything I want, like cook, and find a job, and work in class.
As a grown-up: I will be a teacher and teach reading books.
For the neighborhood: The trees would be green and all the houses would be yellow, like Miss Joanna’s house. [Miss Joanna is our neighbor who painted her house last summer and the kids on the block are often helping her out with yard work.]

And finally, here’s a glimpse of the celebration!

Thanks, Dareeona!

Community Self-Organizing Dinner

2010-02-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

This evening, nine of us met up for the second monthly “community self-organizing dinner,” intended as an opportunity to come together around ideas of community self-organizing, and to reflect on how we might most optimally participate in community self-organizing for the better here in Sarasota. Those present included Hugh, Tbone, Kenneth, and 15^th Street neighbors: Chunk Chunk, Holly, Dareeona, Dalisha, Allison and Dave. Here is a pic of the group (2/3 at least):

Since the diversity of individuals at any gathering influences the conversation that is generated, it seems worth noting that those of us who were present are of:

Four neighborhoods in Sarasota: 6 from Central-Cocoanut, one from a neighborhood off University Parkway, one near Fruitville, and one from Palmer Ranch
Three age groups: 4 kids (6- to10-year-olds), 3 adults (40- and 50-year-olds) and 1 toddler (2-year-old).
5 “sectors:” elementary education, county government, emergency services (fire), the arts, and neighborhood life.

So what did we talk about, and what happened? Here’s what I remember…

The kids took over dinner prep, Hugh graciously offered to help out and made an impressive salad, and Hugh, Tbone and Kenneth provided disaster response when the yellow rice was burning. Cooking seems to be one of those activities that can easily foster cross-generational collaboration.

When Kenneth arrived, the kids did not recognize him as fire chief because they expected him to be in uniform, rather than wearing a business suit. Despite the curiosity about him that they’ve expressed when he’s not present, they seemed to become somewhat bashful when he was in the house! A reminder of how anticipation can influence the way we are with one another in the here-and-now, perhaps.

Conversation among adults revealed a common past connection to…Buffalo! Three of us lived there earlier in our lives. It turns out that D.C. is another shared former hometown / hometown of relatives. An example of how sometimes the first connections we find among us are invisible ties to places elsewhere.

Hugh let us know that Kenneth is a talented chef, and it turns out his brother is a professional chef too, so it runs in his family. Tbone suggested that we might call upon this talent in the service of these monthly dinners, which I do believe could be an adaptive group response to my relative deficits when it comes to cooking J

Kenneth shared some details about efforts he is working on to develop a national meeting for fire department professionals, to take place here in Sarasota. Hugh shared some about changes in programs within the County government, and Tbone mentioned some details about the arts-related efforts he’s developed with kids who live in Newtown. Throughout, kids piped in with comments about life here in Sarasota as they experience it as well.

Although Kenneth had to leave before eating dinner, he secret-surprised everyone before he left. To everyone’s delight, a fire truck showed up on the block, with lights flashing, and the kids were invited to check it out up-close-and-personally. They even got a chance to practice firing the hose! This brought out many folks on the block, with both kids and adults commenting on how neat it was.

What struck me about this, as a child psychologist, was how timely this special opportunity was, in light of our neighborhood experience less than two weeks ago. At that time, fire trucks showed up in response to an emergency involving one of our neighborhood families, and a small group of neighborkids gathered in my front yard expressing concern and anxiety. As we watched from afar, all we could really do with/for one another was soothe each other by talking about what we were witnessing. We also played some hand-clapping games to generate some positive emotion so that the feelings of anxiety would not become overwhelming.

In contrast, the secret-surprise visit during the community dinner provided a chance for the kids to have a sense of control over their interaction with the fire truck, and to experience it as a source of excitement, rather than as an indicator of distress. It got me thinking – what if emergency responders were to make it their practice to reconnect with those blocks / neighborhoods where they have been called in for situations that are likely experienced by the children as scary, and in reconnecting soon after the crisis, to create with the children opportunities for the restoration of well-being and relationship between emergency service providers and neighbors? What if neighbors were to help emergency service providers to know when the kids on the block are expressing distress about recent situations they have witnessed, so that all of the adults – parents, neighbors, and service providers, could together help to restore the kids’ sense of well-being?

The dinner ended with another secret-surprise, this time from the kids, for the grown-ups. Evidently, the kids had been practicing a song-and-dance routine that they made up after school, and they were eager to present it to everyone. So Hugh, Tbone, Gus (my puppy), and I sat in a row on the couch (along with Dave, a neighbor who had dropped by) and we were entertained by kids singing neighborhood-related adaptations of I Carly songs, with dancing that looked like a hybrid of moves borrowed from both the Woo Tang and songs of praise they’ve learned at church.

How’s that for innovation?

The dinner left me with mixed feelings – on the one hand, I thought it was neat for us to be interacting across generations, and perhaps finding our way toward a new way of inter-relating across ages, neighborhoods, and sectors. On the other hand, I feared that the adults present might have experienced it as overly kid-oriented. But maybe I was the only one feeling this. While I have been immersing myself in the experience of neighborkids, in order to bring into focus the ways in which they naturally cultivate community in everyday ways, I have been feeling lately a bit like a stay-at-home parent who craves adult conversation at the end of the day.

All to say, tonight I think we’ll try something a bit different. I hope neighborkids will drop by, as they often do, and will hang out with us until dinnertime if they want. But then I’m going to let them know I’d like to have some time together with just grown-ups, and they’ll be welcome back after dinner for dessert if they’d like. We’ve begun using my grandmother’s dinner bell as a way of calling folks together for our monthly neighborkid dinners, so maybe we’ll use the bell to let everyone know when it’s dessert-time this evening.

So there you have it.

Hope you'll drop by next month.

Where we love is home...

2010-02-14T18:12:00.000-08:00

"Where we love is home,

home that our feet may leave,

but not our hearts." 

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Today I am feeling genuinely grateful that this is now where I love, and where I love together with so many others.

Here is where I love my puppy Gus, who is celebrating his first birthday today.

Gus looking out the living room window, watching his neighbors.

Here is where I love my neighbors.

Holly and Dareeona writing Valentines for our neighbors.

Da'Sean and Holly delivering Valentines to our neighbors.

Chunk Chunk reading the Valentine she just received.

Mr. Dennis spotting Holly on the monkey bars at the park.

Mr. Dave surprising Holly with a Valentine's bear.

Here is where I love my confidante and closest collaborator, Tim.

Here is where I love my little 1920’s Spanish eclectic house.

Here is where I love the magical, overgrown hibiscus in my backyard.

Yes, this most certainly has become my home.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

The Big Possibilities of Small Change

2010-02-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

I am reading a book right now that was recommended to me by Michael Batty, who is the author of "Cities and Complexity" (2005). As I read, I am trying simultaneously to keep in mind the wisdom of our neighborkids, including that of our neighbor-babies, like one-month-old Onna.

Here is a quote that resonates with me:

“In order to do something big … one starts with something small and one starts where it counts. …[It] is about making the ordinary special and the special more widely accessible – expanding the boundaries of understanding and possibility with vision and common sense. It is about building densely interconnected networks, crafting linkages between unlikely partners and organizations, and making plans without the usual preponderance of planning. It is about getting it right for now and at the same time being tactical and strategic about later. This is not about forecasting, nor about making decisions about the future. But it is about the long range, about making sure that one plus one equals two or even three, about being politically connected and grounded, and about disturbing the order of things in the interests of change."

Nabeel Hamdi, 2004

Small Change: The Art of Practice and the Limits of Planning in Cities

This has got me wondering: What new possibilities might come into focus if we combine the wisdom of our neighborkids with the wisdom of writers like Mr. Hamdi with the wisdom of all of us, every day?

How might paying attention here in Central-Cocoanut to what Onna and Logan and Chunk Chunk and Cassi and Daree and Naya and Toby and Holly and Amorie and Semaj and James and Quan and Da’Sean and Dushun and Alex and Ray Ray are experiencing with us right now, as neighbors and fellow community members, help us all to realize our potential in the long range?

I truly believe that this is where it’s at…

A Hometown Circus Great On the High-Wire

2010-02-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

Today was an exciting day here in Sarasota…it was the day when our own town’s circus great and Guinness Book of Records world record-holder, Nic Wallenda, performed a high-wire act at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, just a mile down the street from where we live! He rigged a tightrope (only the width of a nickel!) between the hotel and the building next-door, 200 feet up in the air, and then walked the 600 feet across it, even with the blustery winds blowing! Not only that, he stopped a few times along the way to KNEEL on the wire, and in one instance he actually LAID DOWN on the wire! Wow…talk about a real-deal daredevil with some SERIOUS talent when it comes to balancing! You can watch it here.

There were lots of people crowded below to watch, and others watching from balconies in the nearby buildings, and all of the television news crews were there, including the ABC Channel 7 station (which is also just down the street from us, located right in our neighborhood).

Although Nic Wallenda has performed in circus acts and set world records in other cities around the world, this was the first time he ever did so here in the town where he grew up, so it was a special event all-around.

Unfortunately, I was at work in Tampa today, Gus was at daycare, and all the neighborkids were at school, so none of us were able to witness the amazing feat in person - not even our own neighborhood acrobats!

Instead, when we met up at the end of the day, we decided to watch the video on the internet. While we watched, we listened to the story of Nic Wallenda. We learned about how he is a seventh-generation circus performer. His family started starring in the circus back in 1780, first as a troupe of acrobats, clowns, jugglers, and animal trainers, and then also as a flying trapeze act known as The Flying Wallendas.

Nic’s family came to America from Germany in the 1920’s, when they were invited to join the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus after John Ringling witnessed their amazing 3-level human pyramid on the high wire. Nic has continued the family tradition, setting new records by riding a bicycle on the high wire, and now preparing to cross the Grand Canyon on the high wire! He has said that he wants to do this to honor his grandfather, the great Karl Wallenda.

Nic’s connection to his family over many generations is a lot like the cross-generational connections that many scavenger hunters have with their families here in our neighborhood. Like how Amorie and his brothers, sisters and cousins have a special connection with their great-grandmother, Miss Barbara.

And how Aaron, Tyler’s baby son, is growing up with his mom, his grandmother, his great-grandmother, and his great, GREAT grandmother…not just in our neighborhood, or on the same block, but right next door to each other! Here is a picture of Tyler and Aaron's great, GREAT grandmother:

The other thing about Nic’s story that reminds me of our neighborhood scavenger hunters is that Nic’s talent as a high wire artist first started to develop when he was a kid – no older than our neighbor-babies Chunk Chunk and Cassi!

Nic told reporters, “I started walking the wire at 2 years old and started getting pretty good at 4 and my first performance up high on a wire was when I was 13. Since then, I've broken a couple of world records and don't plan on stopping soon."

That reminds me of another fellow Sarasotan I met last year around this time – Mercedes Pages, of the Flying Pages.

Mercedes and her family were at the special circus mass at St. Martha's Catholic Church, which is also just down the road, less than ¾ of a mile from our neighborhood. St. Martha’s is known as "the church the circus built" because in the 1930’s circus families put on special performances to help finance the construction of the present church building. Many circus families are still part of the St. Martha’s congregation, and there is a special circus mass each January.

Mercedes is now 12 years old and she lives not far from us, just outside Sarasota. She is already a world-renowned trapeze artist and circus performer, with a special pony act where she rides two ponies at one time! Her whole family is part of the fabulous Flying Pages, including her mom, her dad and her older brother.

Here is a video of them practicing together, and here is a video of Mercedes leading the family in their amazing performance. While Holly watched the video of the Flying Pages she said, “I bet Mercedes could skip 4 monkey bars at a time on the jungle gym at our park!”

We are lucky to live in a circus town - not only is Sarasota the winter home of the Ringling Brother Barnum and Bailey Circus, but we've also got Circus Sarasota and Sailor Circus here, and a close-by opportunity every year to see UniverSoul Circus, the world's "first black circus!"

Marveling at all of these local circus greats has got me thinking – what are the world-class talents growing in each of our neighborhood scavenger hunters – talents that we might already be able to notice if we pay close attention? And then, once we begin spotting these talents, how might we all be able to play a part in helping these talents to keep growing? Seriously – with all the gifts already sprouting in each and every one of our scavenger hunters, not to mention gifts that even the scavenger hunters themselves have not yet discovered, just imagine what’s in store for our neighborkids and our neighborhood!

First Official Neighborkid Dinner

2010-01-31T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today we held the first of our official, monthly Neighborkid Dinners, with 8-year-old Holly as our honored neighbor. This tradition really got its start a couple months ago, when the neighborkids planned and hosted a “Da’Sean Dinner” here at “La Casa Chica” as a way for us to rally around and inspire our fellow neighbor Da’Sean - power-reader, puppy-lover and lizard-catcher extraordinaire.

Since then, other neighborkids have been saying, “Let’s have a dinner for me!” This seemed like a great idea, so a new tradition was born.

One thing that makes the monthly neighborkid dinners are a bit different from other student-oriented gatherings is that they are not in response to challenges that kids are experiencing. Rather, they are a way for us to celebrate and honor our neighborkids and hopefully to discover and invent even more ways that the kids as individuals, and all of us as neighbors, together might reach our fullest potential.

As the January Neighborkid of Honor, Holly decided on the invitation list and menu, and then picked out pictures that she wanted to include on the invitation that we created together to announce the dinner. Here is the cover of the invitation, with photos we’ve taken in the neighborhood over the past 6 months that illustrate just a few of Holly’s many neighborly ways:

Holly invited a variety of people from the neighborhood, all of whom live on our block– neighborkids (including one of our 2-year-old neighborbabies), a few adult neighbors, and a neighbor-pup, along with some family members: her parents, her teenage aunt, and her cousin’s girlfriend. She also decided to invite a couple of classmates (one boy and one girl), and some school staff (the principal and two teachers: not only her current-year teacher, but also her last-year teacher, whom Holly describes as somebody who has loved her). Holly raised the point that we would need to give these school folks a map, so they could find their way to the dinner.

Another thing that makes these kid-oriented gatherings unique is that the invitation list is totally up to the child, rather than being decided upon by adults. This then makes it possible for us to follow kid-wisdom, from which there is much to learn. Holly’s selections help us to recognize that:

Even babies play a significant role in supporting the well-being of kids on the block, and the neighborhood as a whole. Pets too.
Kids are able to spot particular adults in their life, even beyond those in their families and schools, who they sense matter in helping them reach their potential.
Kids recognize the value of loving bonds formed with teachers, which do not evaporate when a new school year begins, and have the potential to provide ongoing caring, even when an everyday classroom relationship no longer exists between the teacher and the child.

Holly also decided on the meal for the dinner: Cheese pizza, Chicken, Corn on the Cob, and Double Chocolate Chip Cookies. Here’s a picture of her working on the menu:

One thing that surprised us about the menu was that Holly included wine! When asked about that she said, “Well, I want us to use your grandmother’s special wine glasses!” (These are crystal glasses I inherited from my grandmother, which the kids know I only bring out on very special occasions.) We talked a bit about how some adults don’t drink wine, and we wouldn’t be able to serve wine to the kids either, so how about sparkling grape juice too, which would be just as deserving of the special wine glasses? So that’s how sparkling grape juice made it on the menu. What struck me about Holly’s menu planning was the natural way in which she began incorporating tradition and ritual into the celebration.

In planning for the dinner, we also spent a lot of time preparing materials to share with all the invited guests – “folders” for all the people invited to be on “Team Holly.” We started by creating a “neighborkid profile” for Holly. Holly picked out a photo to include at the top of the page – she chose a picture of herself in her fancy Easter dress. Next she filled in responses to all the questions we came up with: age, school, grade, teacher, favorite color, favorite subject, favorite book, neighborly talents, etc.

Next came the “4 hopes” section. What do you hope for yourself in a year? For yourself when you are a teenager? For yourself when you are a grown-up? What do you hope for our neighborhood? Here are Holly’s responses:

In a year: To stay on track in school.

As a teenager: To go to high school and graduate.

As a grown-up: To have a car.

For our neighborhood: To have fun as a neighborhood.

So…talk about neighborkid wisdom! That these are Holly’s particular wishes is revealing of the extent to which she, as a first-grader, is paying close attention to the messages of the world around her. My sense is that she is listening to the stories she is hearing (which I have heard in this neighborhood too) about how opportunities are limited without a high school diploma. She is experiencing both the limitations of not having a car readily available (which means she has no guaranteed way to school if she misses the bus) and also the opportunities that are available within driving distance, when a car is on hand (for example, church, parades, and stores). She is both generating and involving herself in neighborhood fun, so that she has a genuine appreciation of how fun "on the block" matters.

When we combine Holly's wisdom with a heightened awareness of place (taking a look at a neighborhood map of assets, and a city map of our neighborhood among many, and a county map of the neighborkids' schools in the context of the entire district, along with some distributions that reveal where their schools compare to others on various features), we can begin to better understand the current realities affecting kids in our neighborhood, and to spot opportunities for each of us to make decisions and take action that might help our neighborhkids - and all of us - to reach our fullest potential.

OK, enough already - this is a blog, not a chapter book! So here are some pics of the celebration itself - thank you for being a great neighbor, Holly!

Scavenger Hunters Published in Our Local Newspaper, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune!

2010-01-31T20:00:00.000-08:00

Today was an exciting day because the Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters’ "Central-Cocoanut Supreme" was published in our local newspaper, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune! It turns out the newspaper editors read our blog entry posted on January 8, and decided to include it with other community members’ responses to the Herald-Tribune “Suncoast Supreme” challenge! Here is a link to the Herald-Tribune website, where there is not just a published version of the C-C Supreme, with a cartoon drawing to go with it, but also a picture of some of our Central-Cocoanut Scavenger Hunters!

I was happy to see our neighborkids' wisdom in print, but I did have some concerns about the ways the newspaper introduced us, so I submitted a Letter to the Editor to provide some clarification. I don't know whether this Letter to the Editor will be printed in the newspaper, but either way it seems worth posting here on the blog as well:

To the Editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

I am so glad to learn that the Herald-Tribune has been following the adventures of the Central-Cocoanut neighborhood scavenger hunters and chose to publish the “Central-Cocoanut Supreme” in Sunday’s paper. However, the introductory description of the scavenger hunters provided by the Herald-Tribune, and my role in relationship to the scavenger hunters, deserve some clarification.

Our Central-Cocoanut neighborhood scavenger hunters are neighbors on a quest to explore all the great things in our own neighborhood, and to discover how we might increase our sense of connection and belonging in this particular patch of Sarasota that we call home.

While there are several of us adults who are “honorary” scavenger hunters, the great majority of the scavenger hunters are neighborkids. We follow our neighborkids’ lead because kids are naturally inclined to make friends, tell stories, and be curious, playful and exuberant – the very qualities that make for gifted neighborhood changemakers, community leaders, and social innovators.

Neighborhood scavenger hunting is something we do together as neighbors because it’s fun, and we love it here, and we are explorers and inventors at heart. This is not a formal service program. It is not an “out-of-school-time initiative.” It is about being neighbors together, with intention and awareness.

The Herald-Tribune introduced me as a “children’s advocate and mental health professional.” I am so grateful for the education, training, and experience I have gained as a child psychologist and children’s advocate because it has shaped who I am, and it helps me to pay attention to and recognize the wisdom emerging on the block every day. However, when I am at home in my neighborhood, these are not the “hats I wear.” At home in Central-Cocoanut, I am not Dr. Pinto; I am Miss Allison -- a name bestowed on me by my fellow neighbors, which I have come to treasure.

The scavenger hunters are not “my” scavenger hunters as reported in the Herald-Tribune; rather, we all belong to one another, as fellow neighbors.

And before we know it, we might just turn this community upside down.

Allison Pinto

Each of Us - One Wild and Precious Life - Together

2010-01-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today I witnessed something incredibly special when I visited the D's across the street. Our newest neighbor, little Oschonna (or "Onna," as she is affectionately nick-named), has grown a bit since she was born a month ago, so her mom finally let Onna's oldest sister hold her. Seeing 1-month-old Onna and 10-year-old Dalisha together felt like seeing the best of what's in store for all of us in the future. I was reminded of the question Mary Oliver asks in her poem, "The Summer Day:"

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?"

Sisters Onna and Dalisha are to me a real-life image of "pure potential," and a reminder of all we have to be so very hopeful about...

Our Neighborkids are Some Serious Award Winners!

2010-01-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

Today puppy Gus, Holly, and I stopped by Amorie’s house and were chatting with his family. Suddenly Amorie’s grandma, Miss Barbara, called over to him and said, “Amorie, did you tell Miss Allison about your awards?” When he said no, she replied, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell Miss Allison about them!” At that, Amorie darted inside, and in a few minutes he came out with not one but a handful of awards that he received in school this week! It turns out that at Gocio Elementary, this is a time of the school year when “Renaissance Awards” are given out to students, as well as classroom awards.

Thanks to Holly, who shared her Gocio student agenda book with me later when we got home so that I could read some about the Gocio school traditions and culture, I soon learned that these are a few categories included in the Renaissance Awards:

The “Principal’s Award” is given to students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, O’s (outstanding) and S’s (satisfactory) in all academic areas, and behavior and work habits that reflect ongoing student effort and no office referrals resulting in in-school or out-of-school suspensions.
The “Super Citizen” award is given to students who are respectful to others and positive role models.
The “Awesome Attendance” award is for students who are present and on time every day.

Luckily, I had my camera with me when Amorie came out with his handful of awards, so I said, “Amorie, let’s take a picture - this is definitely a photo op!” The next thing I knew, Amorie was offering to share his awards with Holly, so they both could be in the picture. Holly told us that she got one of the same awards that Amorie got, so that is the one she is sharing in the picture.

Once we snapped the photo, lots of other neighborkids started talking about how they got awards at school too! So here are some pics of some preschool award winners I had the honor of photographing on Amorie’s front porch:

It didn’t stop there. Soon Ray Ray was saying, “Miss Allison, we have lots down at our house too – why don’t you drive down to our house to come see?” And at that, a bunch of kids hopped on their bikes and sped down the street, so Holly and I hopped in the car to follow. DuShun told us that his bicycle tire was flat, so he hopped in the backseat with Holly too. To add to the excitement, DuShun brought along Semaj’s electric guitar, and as we were driving down the block he was playing it, and even teaching Holly how to play. DuShun is one talented musician!

Before long we were at Amorie’s cousins’ house (Ray Ray, DuShun, Quan, James and Semaj). Ray Ray had already announced to her brothers that we were on our way to see their awards, so when we arrived…WOW! They weren’t kidding! I couldn’t believe how many awards they had to show us! Turns out we’ve got some serious high achievers in our neighborhood!

What a tremendous discovery we made today – finding out that our neighborhood is chock-full of award-winning neighborkids. This is yet another reason I am so pleased to be living in Central-Cocoanut, as a neighbor.

Dinner Gathering Around Community Self-Organizing

2010-01-21T22:30:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the first of hopefully many monthly dinner gatherings for those of us with an appetite for reflecting on community self-organizing. A few of us (adults and kids, neighbors and others) got together for a homestyle Italian meal of chicken cacciatore, salad, garlic bread, and red wine. The prep itself was a bit of an exercise in self-organizing, as the first people to arrive scrambled to help finish cleaning up, get the pasta on the stove, and take care of puppy Gus…then, before we knew it, our first monthly gathering was officially underway!

Some folks had not met before, so as you might imagine, we started out with the kind of everyday dinner conversation that fits when people are first getting to know one another. It was a reminder of how different it feels to chat around the dinner table than to discuss around the office table.

Since the gathering was intended as an opportunity for those of us who are interested in community self-organizing to get together to talk and reflect, our conversation then began to take shape around a single question: Why does each of us choose to live here? Not what brought us here initially, but rather, what keeps us here today?

Some people responded in relation to Sarasota as a whole, and others in relation to their particular home neighborhood. These are some of the responses folks shared:

I came here, and stay here, to be with my boyfriend.
It feels like there are more opportunities for me here – school-wise, and work-wise.
I want to live where my family lives.
I like that there are lots of people to play with around here.
I like the energy in the neighborhood – there are always people out and about, and neighbors say hello.
I like that the bay is close by, and there is a bay-front park within walking distance. I can go there to sit and look out over the water and think.
I like the architecture around here, and that you can hear the train rumbling by every so often – it feels soulful.

It seems that we are attracted to this place for a motley assortment of reasons. Some of us are choosing to stay close to a beloved somebody; some to stay close to the possibility of opportunities not yet fully realized; some to stay close to surroundings that, for now at least, soothe the spirit and feed the soul.

Why are you choosing to live here today?

When we pause to consider the great diversity of motivations and attractions that connect us to one another, to various places in our midst, and to the invisible-yet-felt “vibes” particular to this locale, we begin to sense the wonderful, ever-changing, self-organizing nature of our community. It will never be fully known; it cannot be controlled or forced; it will emerge in spite of and because of us all.

So how might each of us make decisions and take action that optimally contribute to our community self-organizing for the better?

We’ll keep asking ourselves this question as we gather once a month for dinner and conversation.

Celebrating Martin as Everyday Neighbors

2010-01-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

Today Holly stopped by after riding her scooter for a bit and worked some more on the invitation we are making for the Holly dinner. Earlier this week she made a list of people she wants to invite, decided on the menu, and selected which scavenger hunter and neighborkid photos of herself to include in the celebration. Today, she arranged the pictures and typed up some more information for the invitation. Here is a picture of her sounding out her words to spell them as she types.

We’ll tell you more about the dinner when it happens next week…

Soon it was just after noon, so we telephoned the D’s to see whether they wanted to head over to the MLK parade that was getting started on Main Street in downtown Sarasota, which soon would be coming to our neighborhood. The D’s dad, Oscar, said Dareeona was getting her hair done but if we could wait until around 1:00, then she could go as well.

That gave Holly time to run home because she wanted to get her purse. Soon it was 1:00 so Dareeona and Da’Sean came over. Daree grabbed the copy of My Brother Martin that she’s been reading (it’s the book about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King as a child, written by his sister), to bring it along to the parade, and Da’Sean took along the 15^th Street banner we made for last year’s parade and saved for special occasions like today.

Then Holly’s Me-Ma came to pick her up for their weekly Monday afternoon visit, and when Holly told her about the parade, Me-Ma decided to come along too.

We text messaged Tim to find out how far along the parade was, since he was marching in it. He said they were at 10^th and Orange – perfect timing! So we decided to head up to the northern-most street in our neighborhood, MLK Jr Way, and then head east a few blocks to the corner of MLK and Orange.

When we got there, we could see that the parade was fast approaching – it was less than a block away!

While Da’Sean, Holly and Daree got the banner ready,

Gus and Holly's Me-Ma kept an eye out.

Soon Da’Sean, Daree and Holly noticed something incredible - there was an actual HORSE leading the parade! That was a surprise for all of us - since we live in the city, we don’t often see horses walking down the street in our neighborhood! Can you see it behind the police car?

When we realized the parade was turning down MLK Way, we decided to cross Orange to stand on the other side of the road. This was a perfect spot because we got to see some of our neighborhood stars in the parade, up close and personal, like Ms. Valerie and Commissioner Carolyn. Then Da’Sean saw his cousin, who was in the parade and waved! We saw the people who work at SCOPE too (which is where Gus and Tim work). We looked for Tim, but he wasn’t with them – he must have stopped marching a bit earlier. Da’Sean said, “That’s okay – it’s still fun!”

We were standing in a spot that was perfect for receiving all the treats that the people marching in the parade were throwing out to the crowd, like chips and candy. Here is a pic of some of the students from our neighborhood high school, Booker High, sharing chips. Yum!

After the parade passed by, we decided to head over to the MLK park in our neighborhood – it’s the same park we went to for the Juneteenth celebration this past summer. Since Ms. Allison is still recovering from having her appendix removed, Da’Sean kept hold of Gus’ leash. That’s when Da’Sean realized how much Gus has grown since the summertime – Gus is so strong now that Da’Sean had to use all his strength to keep him from bounding off, especially when he encountered other dogs he wanted to befriend!

We checked out the different booths and stands at the park but found none that were selling candy apples, so we decided to head back down MLK to a roadside stand where we saw some earlier.

Unfortunately, when we got there Ms. Allison realized that somewhere along the way she had accidently dropped the $5 that we were planning to use for candy apples. We were so disappointed! Since the apples cost $3.50 each, and we only had 2 other dollars, Da’Sean and Daree decided to buy something else from our neighbor Ms. Theresa who was running the candy apple stand. Da’Sean used his dollar to get 4 pickled eggs and Daree got a hot sausage, which left her with a quarter in change. Not the same as candy apples, but still very tasty! And it was everything we could do to keep Gus from eating the sausage and eggs on the car-ride home!

When we got home we used the apples in the fridge and the leftover dipping chocolate to make our own version of candy apples. As usual, Da’Sean proved how much he LOVES chocolate!

Daree got My Brother Martin out of the car so we could read the really good part together, but before she started reading she became curious about the “20 Q” toy that was left out on the counter.

This is the gadget that asks 20 questions and tries to guess what WE are thinking. We decided to see whether it could guess “Martin Luther King” if we provided it with answers to its questions. Then Daree and Da’Sean began giving it clues:

Is it an animal? NO.

Is it a vegetable? NO.

Is it a mineral? NO.

Is it bigger than a breadbox or a microwave oven? YES.

Here are some of the clues that they provided that made the biggest impression on me, because of what they revealed about who MLK is to neighborkids today:

Does it bring joy to people? YES.

Can you touch it? No.

Is it intelligent? YES.

Does it communicate? Yes.

Is it an abstract concept (in other words, just an idea)? No.

Is it a spirit? Maybe.

Do you love it? YES.

Moments later the D’s family was heading out to the store, so Da’Sean and Daree had to go, and Gus finally decided to take a nap.

There you have it – another rich slice of life on the block here in Central-Cocoanut.

Neighborkids Respond to News of Earthquake in Haiti

2010-01-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, neighborkids Da'Sean and Holly stopped by. Da'Sean told us that at school today he found out about yesterday's earthquake in Haiti. He asked if he could go on the computer to show us. He googled "earthquake" and found some stories about the disaster and read them out loud to us.

He also took this cell phone picture of a computer screenshot of the damage:

In a few minutes Dalisha and Chunk Chunk came over too, and then everybody was crowded around the computer to find out what happened. Dalisha said she wasn't sure what an earthquake is, which is understandable since we don't have earthquakes here in Florida. Da'Sean explained, "Right now we're floating on lava and plates. The plates, they be sometimes going wiggly and that makes the ground shake."

The neighborkids checked out some more stories, and these were some of their quiet comments in response:

"I feel bad for these people."
"They don't got nowhere to live."
"Some are kids, some are grown-ups, and babies too."
"Poor little baby."

The kids then counted the money they keep in the baby wipes container that they turned into a cashbox:

This past summer, the scavenger hunters chose to use some of their car wash earnings to bake a cake and make some fruit salad for the family of our neighbor Will Holley after he was shot and killed in our neighborhhood. Later in the summer, they decided to put some in a card for our neighbor Miss Gloria when her husband died. Today Da'Sean, Holly and Dalisha talked for a bit about whether they wanted the scavenger hunters to contribute some of the ten dollars left in the box to help the people in Haiti -- because even though they are not our neighbors, as Holly said, "They're still friends."

When it comes to our Central-Cocoanut scavenger hunters, it seems the spirit of neighborliness reaches far...

One Pooped Pup!

2010-01-12T05:31:00.000-08:00

Although there are some signs that the country’s economy might change for the better soon, job cut-backs and lay-offs are still an ever-present reality around here. This week it hit close to home when Gus got his hours reduced at SCOPE. SCOPE is the organization that's in our neighborhood, just four blocks away, where Gus has been working for the past 6 months as the Office Pup - as greeter, filer, and occasional photocopier. Here are some pictures of him on the job:

Did you know that dog-friendly workplaces have been touted for several years as a way to attract and keep great employees and humanize the workplace? And this year, there is finally a company considering the same possibilities with babies! Now I am going to think some about what the implications might be for La Casa Chica - how this place can be just as embracing of our neighbor-pups and neighbor-babies…

Anyhow, with Gus' reduction in work hours and my continued work commute to Tampa, we needed to find another weekday option for the little guy. Thankfully, one of the special places in our neighborhood, just a block away, is Central Pups. (You might remember hearing about Central Pups in our scavenger hunt chapters - it's where our neighbor Jenterrio worked for a bit this past summer.) Gus went for the first time yesterday, and loved it! A chance to make a bunch of dog-friends, to play non-stop, and to learn some self-control too. Mr. George, who is our neighbor and the man who runs the place, has a great way about him - firm and loving at the same time. I know because there is a "doggie-cam" on the website, so you can watch the dogs playing throughout the day!

Gus was pooped by the time he got home - climbed up on the couch and fell asleep right away! Eager to discover what he learns next with his new friends...

Scavenger Hunters' C-C Supreme

2010-01-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

This week, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune is running the annual "Fill-In-The-Blanks Challenge," a Mad Libs of sorts. This year there is a "Top Chef" theme so it's called, "How To Make a Suncoast Supreme." Here's what's posted on the SHT website:

Seemed like it would be fun to ask the Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters what they thought would make for a good C-C (Central-Cocoanut) Supreme, so as they stop in and hang out for a while at La Casa Chica I am asking them for their recommended ingredients for the recipe - here's what they've come up with so far...

1. First, place all the trivial problems like ___ on the back burner – (something grown-ups think is a big deal, but you think really is no big deal)

jumping on the couch
sneaking to a friends house
jumping on my bed
us running around playing in the roads

2. and move the seriously hot ones like ___ to the front burner

(something you think is a big problem in our neighborhood)

calling names, like cracker
fighting
not getting along with friends
getting hit or throwing stuff
drug dealers
too much dogs

3. or more entertaining ones like ___ to the front burner

(something some people think is a problem in our neighborhood, but you think is actually kind of funny)

kids doing silly dancing
people getting mad at other people
kissing
telling jokes
the park
the pool

4. Pepper the area with a pinch of ___

(something you would like to have more of in our neighborhood)

being funny
teenagers
toys
dancing with hula hoops
computers
computers

5. and generous portions of ____

(something else you would like to have A LOT more of in our neighborhood)

scavenger hunting
scavenger hunting
scavenger hunting
phones
phones

6. Stir up some local businesses by adding a slice of ____ to the mix.

(a store you would like to have in our neighborhood)

toy stores
a Walmart
another Publix
a bookstore
another Publix
another Publix

7. Chill those annoying impatient drivers on our highways and byways by ___

(a way to get people to drive their motorcycles or cars safely around here)

saying “can we PLEASE clean the place up?!?”
stop signs
stop signs
saying don't bump to people
put a sign up
keep their eyes on the road

8. Toss out all of the unnecessary ___

(something you wish we didn’t have in our neighborhood)

sad goodbyes
mean people
driving where people are walking
bad dogs
bad cats and kids

9. Last, but not least, don't even think of adding ___ to the recipe!

(something you think we DEFINITELY should not have in our neighborhood)

beer
drugs
weed
guns
bad people

Dalisha in the Smokifier

2010-01-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

Today we read in the Herald-Tribune that the Smokifier vans will be coming to Sarasota this weekend. These are the vans with photo booths that use age-progression software to show you how you will look in 20 years if you smoke. Ten-year-old Dalisha, who seems to be one of our most health-focused neighborkids, was captivated by the Smokifier. She made a strong case for submitting a scavenger hunter pic of herself to the online Smokifier so that we could see what she’d look like in 20 years if she smoked. Here it is:

Yikes! Looks like Dalisha is ten, going on 65!

If you want to see what you might look like in 20 years if you smoke, here’s a link to the Smokifier.

These kids, they are a-changin'...

2010-01-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

What I Learned Over Winter Vacation - Part III

It has only been four months since we were spending daily time together on the block, but how quickly our neighborkids are changing! Our neighbor-babies are now walking and talking, and new ones have arrived and are on their way.

Our puppies are full-grown dogs.

The Woo Tang has been replaced by The Jerk as the dance-of-choice.

Kids are reading and writing words they could barely sound out in the summertime.

Shared memories are becoming more interconnected too. “Remember when…” is now followed by an even richer array of recollections than several months ago. We are developing a history together, and kids are proving themselves to be natural oral historians. It feels like a neighborkid culture is emerging…

As my former supervisor and mentor Dan Siegel talks about in his book The Developing Mind, "shareable stories...determine patterns of behavior...and may influence our internal lives in the forms of dreams, imagery, sensations and states of mind (p. 62)."

Glad we've got our neighborkids helping us create new stories together - and imagine what could happen if we all allowed their perspective to influence our states of mind...

How Thin a Veil...

2010-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

What I Learned Over Winter Vacation - PART II

In my work life, I am often part of conversations among professionals concerned about children’s learning difficulties. Basically, the question goes: Why aren’t kids – all kids -- learning in school? Why aren’t they engaged in learning?

The last two weeks have convinced me once again that if there is a veil cloaking children’s enthusiasm for learning, then how thin a veil it is…

I am remembering the chain reaction of enthusiasm for reading that Da’Sean set off last week when he pulled “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” back off the bookshelf, got comfy beside me on the couch, and started reading it out loud -- with inflection. Next thing we knew, Dareeona was proclaiming that she would be reading “My Brother Martin” over the break, and Dalisha was chiming in, “No fair! What am I going to read?” Even 23-month-old Chunk Chunk was pulling books off the shelf (she seems to have a preference for non-fiction “chapter books”) and play-reading alongside the others!

I am remembering the neighborkids reaction to the letter left by Santa – how one boy’s initial reluctance to read the note, murmuring “I’m not a good reader,” gave way to curiosity, inspiring him to snatch the letter from another boy’s hands so he could read ahead and be the first to find out all that Santa had to say.

I am remembering the excitement of Dantrae, Dalisha, and Dareeona when they got special permission from their dad to open the family’s decorative gingerbread jar and use the layered ingredients inside to make ginger cookies. They invited Holly to join in the fun, and once again it was a recipe they followed entirely on their own, careful to keep from burning themselves as they slid the cookie sheet into and out of the oven.

And then the fun we all had on Christmas Eve making a Feast of the Seven Fishes, even though none of us are Italian. Daree made the clam dip and it turned out to be everyone’s favorite, and for the rest of the night we heard her say every so often, “I’m a good cooker, huh?”

I am remembering Dmitri dropping by one afternoon and telling Quan and me over cocoa about how he got in trouble with his teacher the week before when he was urgently trying to let the teacher know about an amazing discovery he had just made. After the boys commiserated some about what its like to get in trouble I asked: So what was it you had discovered? With that, Dmitri announced excitedly, “There is a sea sponge that is so big, a person can fit inside it. And they don’t even get stung!”

And finally, I am remembering Amorie and Deandre’s responses to the question I posed on the eve of their return to school. “So what are you hoping to learn when you get back to school?” I asked. “To do my work,” said Deandre; “to behave,” said Amorie. What?!? Those sound like the kinds of responses you tell grown-ups when you think you’re supposed to tell them what they want to hear! “No, I mean what do you really want to learn?” I asked again. After a long pause, Deandre said with certainty in his voice, “Math. I really like math.”

Enthusiasm for learning – yep, our neighborkids definitely have got it. Who knows, Deandre might wind up following in the footsteps of Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Dr. Hrabowski, who grew up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960s, still remembers, “When I was a child I used to get goosebumps doing math problems." He shared that with the audience when he was giving a speech to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and then asked, “How do we help every child have that curiosity that drives them to work through the problem, and that sense of exhilaration when they finally figure it out? There's something very special about that."

It is special, and I’m glad our neighborkids keep reminding us what that enthusiasm looks and feels like – seems to me it’s important not just for kids to experience, but for all of us.

For Neighborkids, Love Comes Easily

2010-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

What I Learned Over Winter Vacation - PART I

Today, as our neighborkids head back to school after the holidays, I have a moment to reflect on what I learned with and from them over the past two weeks. This was the first time since August, when summer ended and the school year began, that we had a chance to spend an extended period of time all together as neighbors. Although we weren’t scavenger-hunting in the “traditional” sense, there were still plenty of opportunities to explore how we might increase our sense of connection with one another and our sense of belonging in this particular patch of Sarasota that we call “home.” As usual, the neighborkids’ wisdom-in-action was spilling out all over the place - it was just a matter of paying close enough attention…

Love Comes Easily…

One thing that I noticed, time and again, was how much the neighborkids naturally express love. Maybe the holiday season amplifies this in all of us, but wow, I could really feel it among the kids…

I am remembering how Holly warmly welcomed Tanaysia back to the neighborhood when she returned from her school-year home with her dad out west to stay with her mom for two weeks. Soon they were coloring, playing dress-up, chatting and hugging like the best of friends.

I am remembering Rashad’s big-hearted greeting of grown-up puppy Gus when we zipped down Central Avenue and dropped by to visit the kids on his block. “Here Gus, have one of my peanut-butter crackers! Have another!” he insisted. Gus of course loved them, tail wagging like crazy as he gobbled them up. And when I mentioned that we probably ought to hold off on giving Gus anymore crackers since he’d been eating all sorts of stuff that afternoon, Rashad insisted that I take a whole pack, and save it for Gus for later, when we got home.

I am remembering our first round of Christmas caroling on the block, when a few kids scrambled to be the designated gingerbread delivery crew – the ones to hand out tinfoil-wrapped gingerbread that fellow neighborkids had baked the night before. When Deandre, who was not part of the gingerbread crew, saw what fun the other kids were having sharing with neighbors, he asked if he could give neighbors the lantern and holiday decorations he was carrying. Dushun overheard him and immediately recognized what he was really trying to say, responding, “Here, Deandre, you can have some of this gingerbread to share.” And then, when we came to a house where no one was home, Dushun insisted that we still leave for them a piece of gingerbread on the doorstep, as a secret surprise. As far as Dushun was concerned, just because they weren’t home was no reason not to share!

I am remembering when one of the littlest carolers, 3-year-old Quentin, got knocked over in all of the excitement and started crying, “I want my mommy!” Since his mom was not along on the adventure, I asked his cousin Tanaysia what she could do to comfort him, since he knew her best. Tanaysia launched into a tender rendition of “Rock-a-bye-baby,” and one of the older boys who had accidently knocked Quentin over comforted him as well, saying, “It’s okay. Jesus loves you.”

I am remembering when the D’s came tumbling in one evening after receiving the latest report on their newborn sister, still in the NICU. “Miss Allison, we gotta pray,” they announced, and moments later we were all sitting around the kitchen table, hands held, heads bowed, with heartfelt prayers offered up by each child asking God to keep watch over baby Oschonna and bring her home soon.

And I am remembering all the impromptu love notes that kids wrote and left around the house – notes slid under the front door, scattered on the counter, and on some occasions delivered face-to-face, with such earnesty.

Love seems to come so easily to little ones, and that is no small thing. As psychiatrists Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon wrote in their book A General Theory of Love, “where intellect and emotion clash, the heart often has the greater wisdom,” and “as individuals and as a culture, our chance for happiness depends on our ability to decipher a hidden world that revolves – invisibly, improbably, inexorably – around love.” Kids are tuned into it. Just last month, the New York Times published an article headlined, “We May Be Born With an Urge to Help,” reporting that developmental science now confirms that children – actually, babies as young as 12 months – demonstrate a natural tendency to be sociable and help others (in other words, to be loving) before they are ever taught to do so.

For kids, it comes naturally.

I admire our neighborkids for their willingness to keep showing us how.

Santa's Note Reaches More Scavenger Hunters

2010-01-02T15:15:00.000-08:00

This afternoon Amorie and Deandre stopped by and finally had a chance to discover what Santa had left for the neighborhood scavenger hunters. Have you heard yet? Truly unbelievable - on Christmas morning here in La Casa Chica, there was a big blue sack beside the tree with an envelope sticking out that was addressed to "Central-Cocoanut Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters." When a few of the neighborkids stopped by on Christmas, we opened it to find the following note:

In case you can't make out Santa's handwriting, here's what it says:

December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas, Central-Cocoanut Scavenger Hunters!

While Rudolph catches his breath and brightens his nose for a minute on the roof, I am writing you this note.  I have been so eager to meet you ever since I first got word about your neighborhood scavenger hunts this past summer.  When I first heard about what you were doing, we were already busy making toys up at the North Pole so I couldn’t take a break to come see you.  Since then, I have been saying to Mrs. Claus, “I can’t wait to finally take to the skies at Christmastime, and go down to Sarasota to visit the neighborhood scavenger hunters!

I want to let you know that what you are doing for your neighborhood is very special, and I am so proud of you all.  I have been receiving regular reports on you as you have been exploring your neighborhood, getting to know your neighbors, and discovering all the great things about the place where you live. Along the way, I have seen and heard that you are sharing what you are learning, and bringing other people happiness.  That reminds me a lot of myself when I was a young boy!  Those are the kinds of things I used to do, and they are the kinds of things that made me want to be Santa Claus when I grew up.

I have left for you a few gifts to help you continue exploring and having fun in Central-Cocoanut.  I hope that you will continue to be good friends to one another, and to bring fun to your fellow neighbors (including the grown-ups, who sometimes forget how important it is to have fun)!

I can’t wait to see what you are up to next, and to visit you again next Christmas, to see how your neighborhood has changed because of everything you do.

You make me so very proud!!!

Love from a fellow scavenger hunter (of the entire world!),

Santa

In the sack, we discovered a new marker set, some more sidewalk chalk, a balloon pump, finger puppets, and a pair of real binoculars! Here are some pics of scavenger hunters testing out the new stuff.

Thanks Santa - a true honor!