Ruth Mott Foundation grants of $1.9 million catalyzing change in Flint’s north end
By Jan Worth-Nelson In the third year of a strategy focused on Flint’s north end, the Ruth Mott Foundation has announced new grants totaling $1.9 million distributed among 25 projects, both large-scale and small-scale. RMF officials say results from their multi-year efforts, which have corresponded to the worst phases of the city’s water crisis, are beginning to bear fruit: “bustling neighborhood hubs where there were none, formerly...
Riders help Doyle/Ryder students roar into the school year
By Harold C. Ford Some two dozen area motorcyclists obliterated the image of motorcycle riders as narcissists living on the edge of law as they welcomed Doyle/Ryder Elementary students back to school on Tuesday, Sept. 4. Dubbed “Rolling Into Success,” the event was organized by Kevelin Jones, Doyle/Ryder principal, and Urundi Knox, bishop of Burton-based Ebenezer Ministries. Adults lined the entranceway to the school and lavished the...
Woodside congregation buys Carriage Town Antiques building, Hoffman’s Deli moving
By Jan Worth-Nelson A half-dozen board members of Woodside Church explored their new home Friday at 503 Garland Street that for ten years has housed Carriage Town Antiques and Hoffman’s Deli. The antique store is closed but Hoffman’s Deli is expected to move and reopen at another downtown location in October. “We are on our way to who we are,” said Linda Angus, Woodside’s moderator and president of the...
Flint Youth Theatre becomes “Flint Repertory Theatre” amidst celebration, protests
By Patsy Isenberg The Flint Youth Theatre (FYT), for more than 60 years a haven in the Flint Cultural Center for young local actors, playwrights and theater production buffs, is changing. Theater executives unveiled a new name, a new look and a new emphasis at an announcement event Aug. 22. Defenders of the transformation, which has elicited some protests, say the changes will add to, not subtract from, the theatre’s...
Busy political weekend as GOP, Dem state conventions pick November nominees
By Paul Rozycki In an unusual move, the Michigan Democratic and Republican parties held their state conventions on the same weekend, in venues within a few miles of each other. On Aug. 25 the Republican Party held its state convention in downtown Lansing at the Lansing Center, and the Democrats met in East Lansing at the Breslin Center on Aug. 25 and 26. Typically the parties meet in different parts of the state, often on different...
Flint Community School district facing make-or-break challenge under state partnership agreement
By Jan Worth-Nelson and Harold C. Ford Behind the scenes as Flint students and teachers go back to school this fall, a make-or-break drama is underway that significantly affects the future of the Flint Community Schools, its 12 schools and 4,600 students. The district, which landed last year in the bottom five percent of districts statewide, has been placed in a category of “chronically failing schools,” and given 36 months by the...
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