News
A Clean Sweep
Over 300 HSU students embarked on the NorthPark and College Heights neighborhoods on Saturday August 22nd. The students were involved with New Student Orientation at the University and participated in the 5th annual neighborhood clean up.
For the fifth year in a row HSU students were involved in helping beautify the NorthPark and College Heights neighborhoods through a partnership with the Friendship Houses. Students worked to help neighbors in each neighborhood to haul off trash to two dumpsites located in the neighbor
hood which were set up by the City of Abilene. Students were split up in teams of 8-10 students and were assigned various locations to go help neighbors. Some students worked with the neighborhood churches, University Baptist and NorthPark Baptist to help them haul off and clean up around their buildings, and some students helped the City with cleanup in alley ways in the college heights neighborhood and nearby, and other students were sent directly to neighbors homes where they helped with yard work, painting, picking up trash and hauling truck loads of brush and leaves, tires and other debris to the dumpsites. Students and neighbors alike enjoyed the day and getting to work together and know one another.
At the Vasquez family home where students were helping them paint, the family prepared for the students coming this week by getting some scraping and priming done and then buying paint for the students. The group was enjoying their time with the family so much they stayed 2 hours past the work time to finish painting Mr. and Mrs. Vasquez house. In return the Vasquez family ordered the group pizza and brought them drinks because the group missed their lunch break because they were so set on working.
Other groups would finish a job and come back to the friendship house and ask where they could go next to help, several neighbors called or walked over and asked for help and students were available to go over and work with them. It was great to see the HSU students and neighbors working together to help make our neighborhoods cleaner and safer. Through the neighborhood clean up our neighborhood is not just a cleaner place but our new students now living in the neighborhood on the HSU campus now feel more a part of the neighborhood.
Changed Lives, Changing Lives
Local news station KRBC does story on CCC's Robert Lilly
CCC's Community Coordinator Robert Lilly has a unique story of redemption and life change. He joins CCC's work to change the life of others and of a community he once helped destroy.
See KRBC's Brittany Pelletz's report at BigCountryHomePage.com here: Back From Behind Bars
Neighbors Call for "Death of the Fourway"
CCC coordinates town hall meeting to jump start neighborhood renewal in west Abilene.
On Wednesday nights, churches typically host mid-week Bible studies or worship services in their buildings. This past Wednesday night, August 12, however, over 100 residents gathered at a local congregation to discuss neighborhood problems and to seek solutions together to address them. The neighbors gathered as part of the new city-wide Abilene Neighborhood Initiative announced Monday by Councilman Anthony Williams.
The neighborhood, known as the Alameda Addition but sometimes called the ‘Fourway’, has boundaries that include include U.S. Highway 83/84 to the north, South 7th Street to the south, Winters Freeway to the east, and Ruidosa Street to the west. Residents rallied by several neighbors, including Darrell Moore who said, “Let tonight be the death of the ‘Fourway’” as they reclaimed their neighborhood from the problems plaguing the area and the derogatory name and reputation the area holds.
Neighborhood residents met for two hours at New Haven Community Church, 650 Corsicana, where they encouraged each other to take responsibility for the neighborhood’s problems and to work together with the city, police department, churches, and local nonprofits to make a difference. Some neighbors praised the efforts of the Abilene Police Department while others requested increased patrols and faster response times. Issues discussed included trash, parking, loud music, crime, drugs, sand speeding.
“We need the neighbors to get to know one another and to watch out for each other and take care of each other,” said Alameda Addition resident Heloise Munson at the start of the group discussion. Others echoed her call for banding together and watching out for one another.
Youth from the neighborhood requested a crosswalk at South 7th Street and Corsicana. They cited this as a difficult intersection to cross between their homes and schools. The students gathered over 200 signatures in a petition requesting the crosswalk they presented at the meeting. Over 25 of the residents took the stage to provide their input and ideas.
Alameda Addition residents were joined by city officials including the city manager, Councilman Anthony Williams, APD chief Stan Standridge and other city staff. City officials, as part of the Abilene Neighborhood Initiative, were in attendance to gather neighborhood input on addressing issues in the area. Connecting Caring Communities, an organizer of the meeting and initiative partner, also participated. The town hall meeting was hosted by New Haven Community Church who also held a cookout before the meeting and provided childcare so parents could attend.
Read the Abilene Reporter News report on the meeting: City leaders, community meet to discuss neighborhoods
And watch the report from KRBC who also attended: Goodbye 4-Way?
High Schoolers in the Hill Country
Abilene teens get to experience Camp of the Hills
Seventy-eight young people from across Texas and Oklahoma, including four from Abilene, recently participated in High School Week at Camp of the Hills, near Marble Falls, Texas. The teens enjoyed many traditional summer camp activities, including fishing, swimming, canoeing, basketball and volleyball, as well as times of Bible study and personal spiritual growth.
The three young ladies and one young man were from the College Heights and North Park neighborhoods.
In addition to the other activities, Camp of the Hills provides numerous opportunities for interaction between the campers and their counselors - college students with a love of Jesus and a passion for working with kids. In fact, many of the counselors come back year after year and form real bonds with the campers - evidenced by the screams of delight from some of the Abilene girls when they saw counselors they had met at previous years at camp!
In the evenings, the campers enjoyed different activities on each day of the week, from the fun of "Freeze Tag" and "Spa Night," to the seriousness of a moving re-enactment of Jesus' crucifixion. When they see the counselors they have grown to love, playing the parts of Jesus, the disciples, the soldiers and priests, it creates lasting memories and makes the events of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection "come alive" for the campers.
In the end, the four Abilene teens enjoyed their time at Camp of the Hills, and all said they were looking forward to next year. Meanwhile, they will be putting into practice the life lessons and spiritual principles they learned, in the process becoming better neighbors - and better persons.
Party Over Here!
NorthPark Neighborhood held its 5th Annual Neighborhood Pool Party at the HSU pool last Saturday and enjoyed a good time of swimming, eating, and getting to know new neighbors.
This past Saturday almost 70 NorthPark neighbors gathered at the HSU pool for a neighborhood swim party. Neighbors Jay and Wilma Barbian prepared briskets and smoked ham for everyone to enjoy while other neighbors brought side dishes and desserts. Len Bailey donated bread and d
onuts, and JD and Gene Atkins cooked beans and Mary Jo Petty made potato salad even though they couldn't attend the party, they said, "we just want to do our part". We discovered a neighbor Ann, new to coming to neighborhood events has wonderful secretary skills and showed up early to help set up, and made sure neighbors all felt welcome and got them signed in. The kids and adults had a wonderful time swimming and playing and of course eating. The best part of the party was the two neighbors new to NorthPark neighborhood who were welcomed and several senior adult neighbors who gathered all the non-swimming adults together around one table to talk, visit, learn about one another and to make the new neighbors feel welcome to the neighborhood. It was a beautiful sight to see neighbors bringing food to share with one another and being willing to pitch in to help set up and clean up, and old neighbors sitting around welcoming new neighbors. This was one of our smallest turn outs for the pool party for various reasons and because numerous families were out of town but it truly was one of the best parties we've had because it was a great neighborhood effort and fun time of fellowship! 
Hardin-Simmons Faculty, Staff and Students also helped contribute school supplies for the neighborhood children in attendance at the party. Each child and teen received a bag of supplies including pens, pencils, paper, notebook, folders and various other items such as crayons, rulers, erasers, etc. Thank you HSU for helping make sure our neighborhood kids have what they need to start back to school, and thank you NorthPark neighbors for preparing food and joining in the fun, and most especially for making Carol and Verna feel welcome to our neighborhood!
What is that Smell?
NorthPark and College Heights Friendship House kids and teens got a sneak peak at various functions and operations of the City of Abilene during the last week of July. Each day was a new VIP behind the scenes tour of how the City runs; including, the Fire Station, Water Treatment Plant, Department of Public Health, Storm Water Team, the Zoo, the airport, the Recycle Center, Library and yes even the Waste Water Treament Facility. The emphasis for the week was on how the city addresses issues of health related to individuals, our water and our environment.
"Whew, yuck, that smells horrible, what is that smell?" were the responses of most of the kids and teens from the Friendship Houses as we stepped out of the vans at the Waste Water Treatment Facilty at Buck Creek and out toward Hamby. We were getting a tour of a facility most people will never get to see in their life time, and frankly our kids didn't want to see, but we wanted the kids to be able to answer the question, "what happens when I flush the toilet, or take a shower, or run food down the sink?" and they got to see, or better yet smell first hand where that water goes.
They also got to learn about how our city recycles that water through the use of bacteria and chlorine to then use for the universities and various businesses and individuals to water their grass and plants so the water is not wasted and doesn't become a pollutant. Their favorite part of that field trip was seeing the fabulous turtles that live at the plant as well as the candy they were given by our jolly city tour guide who obviously loved his job and didn't seem phased by the kids obvious dislike for his work. Overall the week our kids got to spend participating in a mini city university was an excellent learning experience. Joy and Jayme from the City coordinated tours for us with various departments and one thing that stood out at each department with every tour guide was their excitement and love for their work.
At the Public Health Department the excitement of the nurse telling us about hygiene and immunizations was contagious as well as the fun and nutritious foods we learned to make and the pushup challenge led by one of the local city staff who runs Sears Park Recreation Center.
At the water treatment plant the fascination with the huge drums of water and the fact that our drinking water that comes out of our sink was once water in lake Ft. Phantom was new information. And we have already discussed the Waste Water Treatment tour.
We even got to tour the new library branch on Mockingbird which many of our kids have never been to, and they got excited about the great computers and the wii. The trip to the Recycle Center was eye opening as the kids saw how recycled glass can be ground up and used in your yard, and how old blue jeans can be made into rulers, and money taken out of circulation can be used for making pencils and how glass can be made so fine it looks and feels like hair...and how one diaper stays in our environment for over 650 years.
From the storm water team the most fascinating discovery about storm water for the kids was how much pollution is caused simply by run-off of dirt from new construction or peoples yards. The kids even got to perform an experiment to make mulch sleeves/buffers and see how much difference they make when used properly.
The visit to Fire Station Number 5 was fun, as we got to see where the firemen both live and work and hear stories of various rescues and fires, and from there saw the fire trucks at the airport and how they differ. The behind the scenes tour at the airport which included a trip through security and a metal detector was a first for many of the kids who have never been to an airport or never flown. However, the highlight of the airport was the escalator, apparently they are rare around here and this was a first for some.
The final day included a trip to the Taylor County Extension Office 
with a demonstration on rainwater collection and runoff and a tour of the zoo to see the butterfly garden followed by a behind the scenes look at the operations of the zoo. The kids were able to pet a ferret and visit a special room where animals are kept for education purposes. They also got to see the cougars which are not currently on display and enjoyed getting soaked in the rain. They got up close and personal with a rhino, white tiger and lion and got to see them eat and ask lots of questions.
WOW! we learned a lot and appreciate all the work our city staff does for us everyday to ensure we have a clean place to live, water to drink and the opportunity to stay healthy-thank you Abilene! and thank you to all the City Employees who helped our neighborhood kids and teens gain a new appreciation for what it means everytime they flush their toilet, or turn on their sink or throw away a piece of cardboard. This was an experience they will continue to learn from for years to come.
Paint, Tie Dye, Epoxy and Chocolate Turn an Ordinary Week into a lot of FUN!
Neighborhood teens and children from both the NorthPark and College Heights Neighborhoods spend a week at the Friendship Houses for Art Camp learning from Connecting Caring Communities talented Assistant Director, Lori Thornton; not only a great grant writer but an artist as well.
During the week of July 13-16th children and teens from both the Northpark and College Heights neighborhoods met at the Friendship Houses to learn various types of art and have a lot of fun. "When is it my time to paint, Mrs. Danyel, I love painting", said Elijah. "Man, my tie dye t-shirt did turn out awesome, " said, Emanuel. "Those are neat paper weights, what are they made out of?" said a Friendship House visitor. "I am still thinking about that chocolate butterfly we made at art camp, yum!" said Damaris.
Thanks to Lori Thornton and some help with planning from Dusty and Danyel, the two Friendship House Coordinators, and with input from Tiesha, Texas Workforce Solutions teen assistant we had four days of fun, messy chaotic, but beautiful art making. Each day a "thought for the day" was presented to the group about God and His creation and various aspects of the beauty of his creation and how God interacts in creative ways in our lives and gives us the ability to "create" as we are made in His image. Following the thought of the day the group of near 30 kids and teens was split into groups to work on various art projects for 3 hours of art fun. The projects included making edible art, with chocolate and candy molds, sculpture making, tie dye t-shirts and homemade paperweights, as well as learning about various styles of art and artists such as Impressionist, etc., and trying out some of the styles le
arned, to making a moveable mural that will be ready for display in the new NorthPark Friendship House when it is open. Ring, Ring, Ring, went my phone this Monday morning, after art camp was complete, "Mrs. Danyel, are we going to be doing anything fun at the Friendship House this week?" asked Josalyon, one of the neighborhood teens. She had enjoyed art camp so much she and the other kids on her street are ready to come back for more fun---this week we will have a neighborhood game day and Friendship Friday.
Our latest tax filing
Want to see our latest tax return? Download a copy of our 2008 Form 990-EZ.
Each year nonprofit organizations, like businesses and individuals, also file a tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. Over the past several years the IRS has been updating the nonprofit form (called a 990) to increase transparency and help donors and stakeholders (that's you!) access more thorough information into organizational operations.
As part of CCC's commitment to transparency and openness, our 2008 Form 990-EZ is available here on our website or you can view a paper copy in our office anytime.
Download a pdf copy of CCC's 2008 IRS Form 990-EZ here.
Texas Heat Does Not Stop Clean Up Efforts
Teens help clean up an illegal dumping site in Abilene.
A group of fifteen 14-15 year olds will be working the clean-up this week with Robert Lilly, Emily Kotchetkova and some other supervisors in the Goodlow area. This area is directly west of Cal Young Park (next to Jane Sellers Softball Complex) on ES 7th Street. The area has been abandoned for many, many years and has become an illegal dumping area. The youth will be working with city staff to get the junk out of the area. This will allow the city to come in to prune the trees, cut the grass and follow-through on their commitment to clean up the area and transform it into a usable public space.
These teens have been working very hard in very hot weather cleaning up the Goodlow area and next week will be working in neighborhood alleys that need some extra attention and clean up. One mid-morning Abilene Police Officer Irby and Officer Aulerich came to visit with the teens during their lunch break and thank them for their efforts in helping clean up Abilene.
Baked Goods Equal Summer Camp Opportunity
North Park Neighborhood children and teens gather together to learn to make nutritious homemade baked goods and sale them as a way to earn money for attending summer camp at Camp of the Hills.
“Eww, yuck, you are going to put zucchini in that?”said Sophia. “Yum, those muffins sure smell good, do we get to eat them?” asked Ty. NorthPark Neighborhood children and teens got an opportunity to learn to bake nutritious homemade goodies with special help from CCC Volunteer Mary Gauldin. This past Tuesday over 15 neighborhood children and teens gathered and crowded in the kitchen taking turns making applesauce muffins with whole grain flour, banana bread, cookies with zucchini puree and flaxseed, rice krispy treats made with brown rice cereal, flaxseed and all natural peanut butter and several other goodies. The group had a blast, one of the neighborhood moms, Rachel commented that “even my oldest son came home excited telling me about all the goodies that he was getting to make and the fun at Friendship House.” While the kids got to make a bunch of nutritious baked goods, they snacked on veggies and pretzels dipped in peanut butter, and learned some basic ways of better preparing nutritious snacks such as using whole wheat products, and adding vegetable purees into baked goods. The best part was getting to sample some of their own goodies, and then having a bake sale on Wednesday and selling around $150 worth of goodies, enough to help cover the cost of 6 neighborhood children to go to Camp of the Hills this summer. I loved getting to watch them help each other, some of the kids who are not even going to get to go to camp came just to help those who are earn their money for camp. When it came time for the bake sale the children and teens took on different jobs from holding up signs for passing cars, serving lemonade outside, opening the door to the Friendship House, greeting customers, telling them about all the goodies they made, and counting the money over and over and over again (this was a favorite job to have). The experience was fun for all and the kids were able to learn some basic nutrition and baking skills as well as learn ways to show respect toward customers, basic money handling principles and learn the value of earning their own way to camp rather than purely being given a handout. I am so proud of their hard work and know their parents are as well. How often do you hear about elementary, middle school and high schoolers spending over 6 hours working in the kitchen making healthy goodies with few complaints and lots of laughs? Thanks to all of you who came over to buy goodies-Dr. Heflin, Logsdon Seminary professor even emailed to say how delicious the treats were he purchased for he and his wife.