School is out, graduations are over, and there are big things happening in the Peoria area! Summer is a good time for community actions and block parties and that’s exactly what is going to be happening! Come August 5 at 5:00 in the evening, the entire East Bluff is coming together to do a peace walk and then celebrate the summer and a crime free area. Join AmeriCorps with our friends from the East Bluff Community for the Night Out Against Crime! There’s always delicious food and fun games along with lots of great people. AmeriCorps is very excited to be helping for another year and can’t wait to have fun.
But that’s not all that we have going on. Ignite Peoria is also coming up in August at the Civic Center. It’s an interactive art exhibit with visual arts, music, dance, theatre, and different unique arts. We are very excited to go and see that and we invite you to come as well since general admission and parking is free for the event! You can join us on August 9th for an entire day of fun!
(http://www.ignitepeoria.com/, http://artspartners.net/ignite-peoria/)
We have many new members starting a summer term and taking on a summer full of camp! They will enjoy long days with many kids of all ages at a variety of different camps. The members who are stationed at the Children’s Home will continue to find things to do all summer long while helping with the East Bluff Build It Up (formerly Taking Back Our Neighborhood), and will be visiting a few pre-schools for our literary projects. Our project from last year where we teamed up with Youth Build has gotten back together and they are currently working on fixing up houses on Frye. If you know of anyone in the East Bluff that may need some house work please contact Glen Oak Community Church about their In As Much program.
Of course, AmeriCorps would not be AmeriCorps if we did not start preparing for Keepsacks! Keepsacks is our annual project where we gather fleece and hygiene items in order to make blankets and hygiene kits to deliver to the shelters in the area. Did you know the average age of a homeless person in Illinois is 9 years old? This fact breaks our hearts and so we do our very best to help take care of them while their family gets back on their feet. Luckily, we have a surplus of hygiene supplies left over from our time in Washington to help make our kits but we will as always need donations for blankets.
Enjoy the sun and stay cool!
PeoriaCorps 