Brooklyn Beat of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn filed this report.

At around 12 noon, a bucket that apparently dropped from the repair and construction work occuring at 66 Court Street (at Livingston Street) and crashed through the roof of a NYC Department of Environmental Protection vehicle parked in front of the building.

It appeared that the bucket contained construction mortar and demolished the roof of the car. It further appears that no one was hurt. Spectators, under the nearby scaffolding, gathered round to view the accident. Construction workers continued to do their job, apparently unaware of the mayhem the bucket drop had caused.

I hope the rain stops so that the Philharmonic Concert tonight in Long Meadow in Prospect Park can go on as planned. Here are the ‘tails from the Prospect Park website.  I will keep you posted (with the help of the Park’s oracle, Eugene Patron, as to whether it’s on or off:

Monday, July 14, 8 p.m.
Each year, the New York Philharmonic returns to Prospect Park’s Long Meadow Ballfields for
an amazing free concert under the stars.  This year’s program will
include Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K.125a; Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 4; and Sibelius’ Finlandia.  Alan Gilbert will conduct; Sheryl Staples and Michelle Kim will be featured on violin.

A
fireworks display rounds out the evening. The concert space features a
state-of-the-art sound system with a wireless broadcast network and 24
15-foot speaker towers.  Park concessions will be on hand, selling hot
dogs, ice cream, and other great summertime refreshments.

As most of you know, today (July 14th) marks the end of the Park Slope parking vacation. In other words it’s back to the tyranny of alternate side of the street parking. But there’s good news, too. According to a press release from the DOT, in many cases parking restrictions are being reduced from three-hour intervals down to two. Woo hoo.

In Park Slope, where the first phase of this
sign replacement project started on May 19 and is now complete, the
2,800 newly posted ASP regulations will take effect and become
enforceable on Monday, July 14.

In many cases, residential street cleaning parking restrictions are
being reduced from three-hour intervals to just 90 minutes, and from
twice a week to just once a week, to ease parking for local residents.
On commercial corridors, some streets will now be cleaned more often
and regulations will be better coordinated to help ensure some curbside
parking for local shoppers. The new rules were established by the
Department of Sanitation.

Here are some of the specifics from the DOT website:

Monday, July 14, new ASP regulations will take effect within the following borders of Park Slope:

North: Pacific Street (included) from 4th Avenue to 6th Avenue
6th Avenue (not included) from Pacific Street to Flatbush Avenue
West side of Flatbush Avenue (included) from 6th Avenue to Plaza Street West

East: Plaza Street West (included) from Flatbush Avenue to Union Street
Prospect Park West (included) from Union Street to Bartel Pritchard Square
Bartel Pritchard Square (included) from Prospect Park West to 15th Street

South: 15th Street (not included) from Prospect Park West to 4th Avenue

West: 4th Avenue (not included) from 15th Street to Saint Mark’s
Place 4th Avenue (included) from Saint Mark’s Place to Pacific Street

For more information, please contact the Citizen Service Center at 311 or visit the Department of Sanitation’s web site at www.nyc.gov/sanitation, or contact Brooklyn Community Board 6 at (718) 643-3027 or online at www.BrooklynCB6.org.

Here’s something interesting for kids to do this summer. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, the New
York Audubon and the Coastal Marine Resource Center, invite children
(and adults) of all ages to experience the birds and marine life of
Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Thanks to Gowanus Lounge, I am now happily aware of Adventures of a Gal. The blogger has lived in a Carroll Street apartment for five years, and is now looking with her husband, for a house or apartment in Jersey City. Here’s a post about the pain of being priced out of where you want to live.

I guess you get to a point with anything — when the love just stops. I have been thinking about it and I think Brooklyn has stopped loving me (for now). That’s not to say that we won’t eventually come back here because we love Brooklyn, I think it’s just the time to leave for a bit. It seems many others are having the same problems as we are and hence, the same thoughts.

When you are getting priced out of your own hood (happening a lot lately in my fine borough) it makes it hard to move on with future plans for your life. Yes, it’s convenient to travel to our jobs, but is that enough? It’s finally a time in our lives when we can buy a property and it’s hard to give that up just because the place we live is too overpriced and inflated to buy anything.

Park Slope, Red Hook, Williamsburg, DUMBO and BoCoCa have been referred to as Brooklyn’s “Creative Crescent,” do to a high volume of self-employed creative professionals. Park Slope is in first place with over 3,500 self-employed creative pros reported in 2003. Now, there are many more. Recently, with the strange shift in the NYC real estate market, this group is getting priced out of Brooklyn. Not long ago, many of people like these professionals and a large number of artists were priced out of Manhattan. It didn’t take long to price the whole population out of Brooklyn. This crisis is being called the “single largest challenge facing New York’s creative core.”

What would New York be, – hell, what would BROOKLYN be – without this “creative core”? If all of the artists and designers, etc. keep being priced out of this town, where will they go? We are going to Jersey City, but where are all the others going? And what will this borough be in a few more years? Without culture, without art (or maybe just without the artists)… Whatever the case may be, the prospect seems bleak.

I’ve been thinking about Nancy, Nancy, that shop on Fifth Avenue that closed on May 29th. I’ve been wondering what the owner is up to. Here’s her blog post about her final day. She’s still selling stuff on her website.

WELL… its all over but the crying. That never seems to end. The store is closed and we are packing it up into boxes to be moved into storage until it all gets unpacked again, probably at NancyNancy@theBeach. Thats not a site or anything, I just like the name. The official closing day, last Saturday the 24th was really nice, as closing your business after 10 years can be nice. There were lots of hugs and cupcakes and flowers and I’ve probably seen almost every special customer from the past 10 years. Just a few hold outs. It was really loving and satisfying. I actually showed up and experienced the entire day with the appropriate emotional responses. Quite Mature I must say. Maura and I even managed to go see London through the telescope at Fulton Landing, on the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge, very cool and to top off the Brooklyn experience we wandered into St. Anns Warehouse and  stumbled upon the tiny toy theater museum. What could make me happier than a combo, of miniatures and theater. Truly inspiring and an amazing way to end the Brooklyn Days of our lives… The next day I was “stupid tired” I couldn’t even string a sentence together.  It was a beautiful almost warm Memorial Day weekend. Enjoyed Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and a small town parade. How much better does it get? For the moment I am grateful.  Thank you to everyone who has bought a card or a fairy, or a mini jesus, or just wandered around and laughed. So many people talked about finding refuge in the store. So what if I didn’t make any money. I think I said before, how cool is it to be a fond memory in someones life? Very Very Cool. I humblyThank You.

Gowanus Lounge reports some very alarming news about my favorite place to get great meats, breads, ready-to-heat Italian dishes and sandwiches: A&S Pork, one of the last holdouts of the real Fifth Avenue. It is not, however, as GL reports the last butcher shop in Park Slope. Western Beef on Fifth Avenue near 7th Street is also a great option.   aclose in June (I just found out thanks to an email from Gowanus Lounge). Here’s an excerpt from Gowanus Lounge about A&S:

On Friday, we posted a photo of the A&S Pork Store on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. We put it up because it was a GL Flickr Pool picture and just thought it was a cool image. What we’ve learned since then is that the A&S Park Store, which is the last surviving butcher shop in Park Slope, will be closing soon. The blogger who does Adventures of a Gal, which often touches on Brooklyn real estate issues, emailed us to say that the stores, which has been in the same location since 1942, is being “forced to move out due to a skyrocketing rent, they only have 3 months to find another place.”

Ann Farmer in the Times has a lovely feature about Brenda Becker’s fabulous blog, A Year in the Park. The article is called “Using Prospect Park as a Yearlong Oasis for the City Soul.”

Ms. Becker started her blog, “Prospect: A Year in the Park” (www.ayearinthepark.typepad.com) at the start of 2008 when she vowed to visit the park in Brooklyn every day for an entire year and tell or show at least “one cool thing” from each outing.

Ms. Becker, who is a writer, artist, bookmaker and a mother, has lived in Flatbush, less than one block from the park, for 21 years. But until now, she rarely visited. Her motivation was partly to upend her sedentary ways. But she also wanted to see what emotional effect the park might have on her.

“After a year,” she began her first entry, dated Jan. 2, “we’ll see if I am any less avoidant, mopey, somnolent and irritable; we’ll assess whether I can walk up a flight of subway stairs without gasping for breath at the tender age of 50; we’ll find out whether a daily encounter with the masterpiece of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux is better than Effexor.” (Effexor is an antidepressant drug).

More than 150 witty, engaging and informative postings (with photographs) have followed. And even though Ms. Becker has not completely fulfilled her vow to visit the park every day, her many visits have provided ample opportunity for foraging from one corner to the next, discovering much of its natural bounty as well as many of its man-made secrets

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Well, people are writing. Actually, they’re typing away on their computer keyboards, They’re reading, thinking, researching, planning, organizing; doing what writers do every day, day in and day out.

The Brooklyn Writers Space is, from what a hear, a bee hive of writing activity. Located at 58 Garfield Place, the cost is  $310 per quarter for full time membership (24/7 access to the space) $180 per quarter for part time membership (weekday evenings after 6:00pm and anytime on the weekends) $220 per quarter for part time 2 membership (after 3:30p weekdays/anytime on weekends)

If you live in Ditmas Park, the new Ditmas Workspace is a great option for this kind of thing.

On the Brooklyn Writers Space website, there’s a list of some of the authors and their books. What a fun, interesting list. I’m sure there are plenty more writers over there, with published works. This is just a sampling.

Go to the site’s Made In Brooklyn section and see what these authors have published.

Paula Bernstein
Alexandra Chasin
Erin Courtney
Adam Davies
Adam Fawer
Marian Fontana
Alex Halberstadt
Aimee Molloy
Aaron Naparstek
Margo Rabb
Alexandra Schwartz
Jacob Slichter
Alison Smith
Amy Sohn
Susan Gregory Thomas
Jonah Winter
Alice Wu
Adam Zucker

Sorry I didn’t put this up sooner. But it’s a really cool event and a great way to teach your kid to ride a bike!

WHAT: Ready to toss the training wheels? Take your kids to a free Bike New York class to learn the basics of biking in a safe, social setting. Best of all there’s no running behind the bike, strained backs, scraped knees, or frayed nerves. So far this year, more than 700 kids and their parents learned this method, and the program received the 2007 Best of Parks Best Partnership Award.
WHO: Children with their parents; recommended for ages 5 and up. Bikes and helmets required. Pre-register at http://www.bikenewyork.org/education/classes/teach_child.html.
WHEN/WHERE:
Sunday, July 13, 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m., Clinton Ave. between Myrtle Ave. and Willoughby Ave., Fort Greene, Brooklyn, as part of BAM’s AfroPunk Block Party. Closest subway: G train to Clinton/Washington Aves.

I just got this from Verse Responder, Leon Freilich.

On Sunday, the Park Slope Food Coop is collecting food for CHIPS, the Fourth Avenue soup kitchen. Anyone who wants an instant reward for his/her good deed may claim an on-the-spot personalized quatrain from the Verse Responder, who’ll be on hand both mornings. Couples, of course, may prefer couplets.

Dry, packaged food items only. Rhymes will also be dry though not packaged.

You’ve heard of the Brooklyn Writers Space in Park Slope, and Room 58 in Gowanus. Well, here comes the Ditmas Workspace set to open next week. Sounds like a great idea.

Ditmas Workspace in the heart of Ditmas Park, occupies a beautiful professional office space on the corner of Ditmas Avenue and East 17th Street, a short walk for Ditmas Park residents and just two blocks from the Newkirk Avenue B and Q stop, and three blocks from the Cortelyou Road stop.

Full-time and part-time members have access to all the amenities of an office: a desk, chair, wireless Internet, printer/scanner/copier/fax, tea and coffee, a quiet space to work, and a community of writers, editors, telecommuters, bloggers, graphic designers, and other professionals.

They are also considering making the space available in the evenings for meetings, classes, and other gatherings.

For tours, rates, and other membership information, please contact Liena by emailing LZS@ditmasworkspace.com.

Brownstoner broke the story. McBrooklyn’s been following it. Brooklyn Paper had this:

There goes the “there goes the neighborhood” story.

Word that the federal court system would open a probation office on Pierrepont Street, next to St. Ann’s School, spread like wildfire through Brooklyn Heights on Friday, with residents fretting that the facility posed a clear and present danger to neighborhood kids — but it turns out that two such offices have been operating in the area since the 1970s.

The “new” center would actually be a consolidation of the existing probation offices, one of which is at 75 Clinton St., between Montague and Remsen streets, near the Packer Collegiate Institute; and the other at 111 Livingston St. at Adams Street, near a Quaker elementary school. But few knew that the offices were operating in the area — and an initial report on the Web site Brownstoner.com only fanned the flames.

“Unbelievable; it is almost like there is a group conspiring to ruin all of the progress made over the last 10 years or so,” one person posted below the Brownstoner report.

Elected officials were flooded with calls from scandalized parents, prompting Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D–Gowanus) to issue this statement: “Locating a parole office just steps away from a school is extremely troubling from a school is extremely troubling. Anything that puts the security of our children at risk is unacceptable.”

Gowanus or Park Slope you pick. Some activities for a glorious Saturday.

The Yard (right next to the Carroll Street Bridge) presents Oneida, High Places, Titus Adronicus, Shy Child, Chinese Stars, Ponytail, Telepathe, Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Knyfe Hyts, Soft Circle, Soiled Mattress & The Springs. 10 bucks and the festivities begin at 12 noon. The Yard is an outdoor space on the banks of the Gowanus, where Issue Project Room use to be. They’ve got picnic tables, and food and drink for sale.

Celebrate Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. presents Beth Orton and Matt Munister.

JJ Byrne Park presents the Piper Theater’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream at 8 p.m.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the award-winning Brooklyn Paper:

Hepcat and The Oh So Feisty One spent the night before her graduation from PS 321 coloring her hair blue. Hepcat is quite the artiste when it comes to applying Manic Panic hair color with a paintbrush (it must be all those painting classes he took with renowned abstract artist Elizabeth Murray at Bard College back in the 1970s).

OSFO had her heart set on peacock blue and she’d designed her graduation outfit around it.

It took more than two hours, but when Hepcat was done, OSFO shampooed her hair and stared at herself in the hallway mirror, pleased with the results.

On graduation morning, she was a sight to behold: Electric blue hair, a white Empire waist dress with blue polka dots, black leggings and, the final touch, royal blue Converse high tops.

Voila.

The family, including a reluctant Teen Spirit and a less-reluctant Diaper Diva, walked proudly to the John Jay HS building on Seventh Avenue with their color-coordinated soon-to-be graduate.

Smartmom admired the other fifth-grade girls in their festive attire. Some wore high heels they could barely walk in. Even the boys made an effort to dress up, wearing suits, jackets, oversized button-down shirts, ties, good shoes, and hats.

Smartmom, Hepcat and Teen Spirit found seats in the balcony of the stifling auditorium. There was speechifying by fifth graders that tugged at Smartmom’s heart. One kid, a budding politician no doubt, spoke portentously, “This is not just the best school in the city, it’s the best school in the world!” Others talked about the friends they’d made, the teachers they’d loved and all the interesting things they’d learned.

The principal spoke directly to the kids: “As people, you understand the importance of working together and making each other look good.”

Borough President Markowitz delighted (the parents, at least) with his speech about eating right and getting exercise. But when he asked, “Any doctors in the house? Any lawyers? Any future borough presidents?” Smartmom was disappointed. What about artists, actors, and writers?

Marty ended the speech, as he has done for years, with a “Star Wars”-style light saber in his hand, “May the force be with you,” he said.

Teen Spirit napped, Hepcat snapped pictures, Smartmom skipped around to empty seats visiting friends.

Finally, the children received their diplomas. One by one, every name was called. Smartmom and Diaper Diva went downstairs to get a better view of OSFO receiving sheepskin. Then the children sang “Yonder Come Day,” a rousing Negro spiritual.

According to OSFO, none of the children wanted to sing that song. They wanted to sing, “Seasons of Love” from “Rent.” But you could barely discern their ambivalence because they sang so movingly and with such enthusiasm.

Smartmom cried, experiencing some release from the build-up of the last few weeks: the waiting to hear about middle school, the many end-of-year events, the endless sense of ending. It felt cathartic.

After the graduation ceremony, there were still two more school days before the last day of school. The kids aren’t required to attend — they’ve graduated after all. But most of them enjoy cleaning up their classrooms and hanging out with their teachers and friends.

On the last official day of school, it rained, and the playground began to clear not long after the noon dismissal. Parents clutched report cards, test scores, shopping bags stuffed with schoolwork, artwork, clay sculptures.

Some fifth graders cried. Some, like blue-haired OSFO, were very “whatever.” One mom’s eye make-up was blurry and black from the sadness and the humidity.

Another mommy friend told Smartmom, “You know, we’re moving…”

OSFO’s second-grade teacher looked on in disbelief that this class was moving on to the next big thing. Smartmom felt tears coming on for this beautiful, young teacher, who had some of these fifth graders in her very first class.

Smartmom ran into OSFO’s third-grade teacher, a spirited woman with a warm face.

“So this is it,” she said to Smartmom and gave her a hug. More tears just below the surface. As the backyard emptied in the light rain, Smartmom didn’t know what to do with herself. As she has done all year, OSFO was already on her way to a friend’s house.

Smartmom stood alone, looking for someone to talk to. And then it dawned on her: She has no business at this elementary school anymore. Sure, she could hang around at drop off, pick up and watch the parents of younger children as they move through the steps of elementary school. She could even pretend to have a child going there.

But what would be the point? Smartmom is no longer part of this place that engaged her in so many ways for 11 years. Without a child in school, the time has come to let go.

Next fall, OSFO, with her blue-streaked hair, will catch the B67 bus to her new school, New Voices.

And Smartmom will also begin a new adventure. She’s ready (she thinks!).

Ever wonder how a French bistro got that way? An article in the Times about the man who designed Belleville on Fifth Avenue and 5th Street in Park Slope and other bistros around town.

A Frenchman named Alex Gherab designed this place and many other Left Bank composites, including Belleville in Park Slope, Felix in SoHo, and Juliette in Williamsburg. A short, brusque tornado of a man, with ink-black hair and full beard, Mr. Gherab sweeps into a room with a vision of France in his head. He is aided by his brother, a demolition worker in the French town of Lille, and by a network of “pickers” that he maintains worldwide to collect objects of disparate provenance to outfit their spaces: twin doors from a post office, great lamps from a Calais asylum.

Friday evening at 7 p.m. friends called to say they were taking the shuttle bus to the new IKEA in Red Hook. The furniture behemeth closes at 10 p.m. and they were on the look-out for a new dining room table.

Fun, we thought and instantly decided to tag along though we were too late to catch the same bus they were catching.

At 8 p.m. we arrived at Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue and saw the bright yellow free shuttle bus. People streamed off with their large blue IKEA bags stuffed with IKEA items. We tried to get on but the driver informed us that the IKEA-bound bus stop is across the street on the northeast corner of 9th and Fourth in front of the church.

Indeed, when we got over there we a sign for the IKEA shuttle. It’s also where you get the B77 bus, which goes to, you guessed it, IKEA Plaza in Red Hook.

We should have hopped on that bus, Gus (and paid the fare). But we waited and waited with a small crowd for that free yellow shuttle. We even saw two dark green IKEA buses on the other side of the street (and then disappeared). But no IKEA-bound bus.

By 8:40 we decided it was a dumb idea to go to IKEA that late. While, OSFO had her heart set on looking at loft beds and Hepcat was looking forward to Swedish meatballs, it just didn’t make sense.

Finally, we decided to abort our IKEA mission. With no bus in site, we walk east to Fifth Avenue and ate dinner int he backyard at Willie’s Dawgs.

Later, we ran into our friends on Seventh Avenue. They had no trouble riding the IKEA shuttle from Park Slope. Her husband and son, however, grew weary of circling the store looking at furniture and home items they have no interest in.

When my friend wanted to browse in the Marketplace her husband snapped. “That’s it. It’s time to go.” Clearly, he had reached his big box store threshold.

A huge crowd boarded a bus at IKEA Plaza, which was overcrowded and sweltering. My friend’s husband was convinced that the air conditioner was malfunctioning. With no windows open, the bus was unbearably hot and stinky.

When my friend’s husband exited the bus he ventured to tell the driver that the air conditioning wasn’t working.

“Oh,” the driver said. “I forgot to put it on.”

Hepcat and I were walking up Fifth Avenue and noticed that Mediterra Restaurant on Sixth Street has a new sign: Corner Burger, Park Slope Brooklyn.

I did a real double take. Huh. What happened to Mediterra. Never got a chance to try that place.

First it was the Indain food side of The Park Slope Chip Shop, then it was a Turkish place, then Mediterra, now this. It’s a troubled restaurant spot for sure. Some are calling it cursed.

Has anyone had a burger at the Corner Burger?

Bird, the trendy, tres-chic boutique in the South Slope is closing its Seventh Avenue store and opening a much larger store on Grand Street in Williamsburg. If I am not mistaken, Jennifer Mankins, who owns the shop, is also opening a branch on Fifth Avenue.

On Brownstoner, Mankins is writing a weekly post about the renovation of her new 2000 square foot space in Williamsburg. Here’s an excerpt. There’s lots to read over there.

“A self-confessed fashion and real estate junkie, I am always plotting and planning new branches and outposts of the store – baby bird, green bird, bird dog, birdhouse, birdbath. My current stores, both located in typical 20’x40’ townhouses, are approximately 800 square feet, and I carry over 100 women’s designers. You can do the math. There just isn’t any extra space for adding new products. So I started thinking bigger. Instead of opening five separate small stores, why not put everything under one roof – a one-stop shop for the urban Brooklyn family?”

Here’s an update from City Councilmember Bill De Blasio about the DOT’s suspension of alternate side parking in Park Slope and other areas of Brooklyn:

Starting Monday alternate side parking rules will go back into effect in Park Slope and street sweepers will resume collection of trash and debris from neighborhood streets.

As some of you may know, on July 7th, the DOT suspended alternate side parking rules in Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and Gowanus. The affected area extends east to west from Court Street to Fourth Avenue, and from Wyckoff Street and St. Marks Place south to the Gowanus Expressway and 15th Street.

The DOT estimates that it will take six to eight weeks to replace all signs in these areas. I will ensure that all affected residents are notified as soon as the rules are reinstated in these areas.

If you would like more information on the dates of these suspensions or on the areas affected by these changes, please contact my office at 718-854-9791.

You’ve probably seen them all over the Slope: those small, red laminated sign that says, No Flyers Ads Menus. Well, they were created by the Park Slope Civic Council.

I know that people are wondering how to get one. Well here’s what you can do:

Download a “No Flyers, No Ads, No Menus” sign, a legally compliant (but less attractive) version of the sign, or a “Sorry Neighbor for Blocking Your Car” double-parking placard.

You can also pick up the PSCC version of the “No Flyers, No Ads, No Menus” signs at these neighborhood locations:

Community Bookstore
143 7th Avenue between Carroll and Garfield

Lion in the Sun
232 7th Avenue near 4th Street

Brown Harris Stevens
100 7th Avenue at Union Street

Warren Lewis Realty
123A 7th Avenue between Carroll and President Streets

Orrichio Anderson Realty
302 7th Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets

Assemblyman Jim Brennan’s District Office
416 7th Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets

Two versions are available:
Static Cling Version designed for the inside of glass panels on front doors.
Laminated Version designed to be tied into wrought iron gates.

How did I miss this? I guess I’ve been distracted or something. Maybe it was the heat.

On July 5th, Pastor Daniel Meeter, of Old First Church, posted this good news about the homeless men, who used to make their home on the steps of that church.

Well, good news. We’ve got our homeless men housed. The Three Homeless of Old First, plus three more who came to Old First asking for help. Thanks to Common Ground, and the city’s Department of Homeless Services, we’ve got a little thing going. Hooray.

Now the Park Slope Coalition for the Homeless, which includes Old First, Congregation Beth Elohim, the Park Slope Civic Council and some neighbors, is working on the next step, which is gathering all those things people need, as Meeter puts it, to turn a house into a home: Frying Pans. Curtains. Tea Towels. Dishes. Napkins (I must say his inclusion of tea towels on the list is very endearing).

Here are the details and ways that you can help:

Common Ground has selected ten clients (including the three who used to live on the steps of Old First) to receive housewarming care packages. Common Ground will help the clients with their wish lists (dishes, linens, bath accessories, small kitchen appliances, etc.). Once they finish the wish lists, it’s our turn to get to work.

First, we’ll collect donated items on the wish lists, from now through July 27. Next, we’ll have volunteers work with the DHS to gather the donations and package them for delivery to the clients, and then deliver them, starting at the beginning of August.

For personal items, we’ll help the clients choose their own items. They’ll get gift cards to use at a the store of their choice. We’ll need volunteers to assist the clients on their shopping trips, accompanied by a staff member from Common Ground or DHS.

Won’t you join us in this exciting opportunity to help our less fortunate neighbors? You can sign up with us at our coffee hour after church on Sundays. Or you can call the church office and leave your name and contact information. 718-638-8300

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