humble beginnings & major progress

From the bottom of our hearts, thanks to everyone we knew before and especially everyone we met for the first time this morning at the first Community Clean-Up Day! Before-and-after photos will be posted soon on flickr. Thanks to all the amazing volunteers who braved 100-degree heat, stinging insects, and poison ivy to help us fill the largest dumpster we could find with heaps and loads of trash, *including* a kitchen sink! Many helping hands posted signs so volunteers could find us; shared tools, gloves, trash bags, sunscreen, and snacks; worked very hard quite early on a Saturday morning; and documented our progress. It's inspiring to see so many willing to give of themselves for the benefit of the community, and as a whole we are far more than the sum of our parts.

Special thanks to The Oak Cliff Tribune for getting the word out in advance and covering our event, Gus Treviño at Nodding Dog Coffee Company in the Bishop Arts District for donating five gallons of cool iced tea to refresh our volunteers, and to Moonlady Amy Martin for helping us set the tone.

The La Reunion coffers are still light about $100, which will cover the cost of removing our now-full walk-in dumpster from the site. So if you were unable to attend and still want to aid our effort to transform Dallas through art and green living, please contribute through our website, or PayPal us some funds c/o donate [at] LaReunionTX [dot] org.

Local media continues to smile upon us. Thanks to Daily Candy for advance publicity, and to Frank Trejo, who interviewed several La Reunion supporters for The Dallas Morning News.

Please plan to join us for future clean-up efforts and a lecture in late September by advisory board member Dr. Charissa Terranova from SMU. For details, sign up for our mailing list online.

Reminder : Clean-Up : This Weekend

With well over 30+ volunteers and two days left, we are gearing up for the Community Clean-Up day this Saturday from 8AM to noon. Please join us. Email sarah@lareuniontx.org for directions etc..

Long pants, sturdy shoes, and water are a must! All volunteers must sign a waiver. Please join us as you are able.

Behind the scenes // updates

We have all been busy doing mundane behind the scenes work lately. It's a learning curve to be sure, but nice to know all the intricacies of zoning, platting, engineering, and escarpments. In gearing up for the community clean-up day on July 15, I met with the city arborist and had an interesting conversation about the land, the vegetation, and some creative options on how to proceed. Catherine and I also did an interview with Quin Mathews for Art Matters that will air on WRR on Sunday, July 9 at 4PM and Thursday, July 13 at 6:30PM. Be sure to tune in! Catherine and I have also met with an architect who is a member of the USGBC for advice on a LEED certified structure. It's all been fascinating thus far.

Other behind the scenes work? We're working on putting together our advisory board. With a killer interdisciplinary cross-section of working Dallas artists and professionals, we will have the qualified input to make decisions about which artists stay and for how long. More information on that on the La Reunion website soon.