Stories
Present in the City: Grace
Wednesday March 14, 2012 @ 7 pm
1051 West Pleasant Grove Road, Rogers, AR
Description:
The Cobblestone Project & People of the Second Chance invite you to gather for an evening that promises to radically transform your understanding of grace and second chances.
Please plan on joining us on Wed, March 14th at 7 pm as we gather as a community and raise a banner of grace.
(click to download “Present in the City: Grace” printable announcement posters)
Mike Foster
We are lucky to have Mike Foster as the keynote speaker for Present in the City: Grace. Mike is a speaker, author, and consultant helping people live and tell a better story. Mike is the Co-founder of “People of the Second Chance” a radical grace movement made up of activists, artists and imperfectionists. He serves on the Executive Team of PlainJoe Studios and is the author of “Gracenomics: Unleash The Power of Second Chance Living” He lives in Southern California with his beautiful bride and his 2 young children.
People of the Second Chance
People of the Second Chance is a global community of activists, imperfectionists and second chancers committed to unleashing radical grace everyday, in every moment, for everyone. We challenge the common misconceptions about failure and success and stand with those who have hit rock bottom in their personal and professional lives. We are a community that is committed to stretch ourselves in the areas of relational forgiveness, personal transparency and advocate for mercy over judgment.
Almost planting time!
It’s hard to believe, but it another 2 to 3 weeks (weather permitting) we’ll be putting our first seeds in the ground for the 2012 season. Yes, we have high hopes and great plans for this year; however, we will do our part and leave the weather part to the One who holds this entire initiative together. Truth be told, we are selfishly asking for a little break compared to last season. 
As many of you know, last season we produce 8,700+ pounds of food and gave approximately 52% of that food away to local hunger relief. This season our production plan tops 20,000+ pounds of food not counting the corn (which we struggled with last year). So, God willing and creek don’t rise, we are planning for a great season.
Over the winter months…
- We’ve finished our pole barn which will serve as base of operations for produce processing and cold storage.
- Purchased some equipment to make building raised beds and laying irrigation tape a whole lot easier (with the tractor vs people).
- Purchased a High Tunnel that will allow us to significantly increase our growing season.
- Framed up a small greenhouse to allow us to get started earlier with seeds for each season.
- Removed some dangerous barbwire from around the front of The Farm (too many kids around for barb wire).
- Trellised the blackberries
- Prepared and fertilized the soil.
- Gained our “Certified Naturally Grown” certification.
- And we are almost ready to reset our poultry operations to increase the flock size.
This past Saturday we had a great group of people come out to The Farm to help get us one step closer to planting. Here is quick update from Gary…
Special thanks to Teen Action & Support Center for their continued support of The Farm. We would not be where we are today without them!
Bentonville High School Kicks off Cobblestone Project Chapter
For those who don’t have the opportunity to work directly with teenagers it might be hard to understand where they are coming from. They might seem a little odd to most adults, as they have their particular set of interests and ideas about the world. Most of them might seem silly, or rude, or awkward to many outside of their culture but after 9 years of teaching and 3 years of youth ministry this seemingly different group never ceases to surprise me. Maybe they are hard to understand as we (adults) see them but at every turn there are some that are every bit as excited about making a difference in the world, bringing dignity to their fellow humans, and fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves, as we think that we (adults) are.
Putting feet to their desire to serve their community set in motion the establishment of BHS Cobblestone Project. After sharing with some students the driving force and mission of Cobblestone Project and mentioning to them that there might be a chance for a club to form and then work with local NPOs they didn’t hesitate. To borrow language from Cobblestone project and having adapted it to fit BHS Cobblestone Project our mission statement is as follows: Our purpose is drawn from the belief that every person has a unique and immeasurable value because of our shared human story. It is this story that is defined by a movement towards the renewal and restoration of the image that all people were created for a purpose. Every human heart deserves dignity, respect and the opportunity to fully realize this purpose.
The strategy to take these ideas and turn them into action will be approached by 1) Identifying Issues of Justice & Mercy, 2) Connecting Needs with Willing Resources and 3) Fulfilling Needs with Sustainable Solutions.
Among other things we will be doing an annual coat/shoe drive, participating in regular initiatives from Cobblestone Project as well as conducting a school wide imitative in the Spring called “30 days for change” (more info coming).
The students are fired up! Every meeting I seem to see new faces and on a weekly basis encounter fellow staff members or parents who are increasingly interested in what we are doing. We have been interviewed in a High School sports talk magazine, broadcasted by our student newscast in the daily morning announcements (reaching approximately 4000 people every morning) and approached by the Executive Director of community relationships and PR for the Bentonville Schools.
It’s been a fast and encouraging journey so far. The “30 days for change” initiative has sparked a lot of interest with students this spring as we have almost 40 participants signed up to work with now 7 local non-profits. I am inspired by the energy, passion and desire in the students at Bentonville High School to improve the local community of NWA. The students in the club come from all types of lifestyles and personal beliefs but see a common goal as more important than self-promoting and are willing to put aside their busy schedules to be a blessing to their community and without question their teacher and club sponsor. I am very thankful to Cobblestone Project and their willingness to partner with Bentonville High school as well as the principal of BHS, Kim Garrett for her continued support of our student body and their desire to be creative and active in their communities and am excited about what the future holds.
- Scott Herron (@scaherron), BHS Teacher
For more information on how you can get involved or follow along with this amazing movement, please email BHS@CobblestoneProject.org and you can follow along on Twitter (@CSProjectBHS) or Facebook.
Update from The Farm
Spring is quickly approaching & believe it or not if the weather cooperates we could have seeds going in the ground in another month. Our production plans are 98% of the way complete with the total production for 2012 season planned at 20,000 pounds of food. This would be almost 3x the amount of food grown in 2011, but we learned a lot last season and we think it’s an achievable goal. We had a good rain on Friday, and that meant that some of the site & soil prep we had planned for Saturday would have to wait.
However, this past Saturday an incredible crew of community friends come out to The Farm to help get us one step closer.
Specifically, they help make a lot of progress on laying down a rock layer under the pole barn. This will serve as a solid surface for our wash stations, produce preparation, and cold storage that will soon be build on site. They help clear rocks from the north end of the field and ensure the chickens were all set.
We grabbed a little video from the day and got to hear from Hannah & Gary on what’s ahead plus from we had privilege of having Andy, Kari & their son come down to help us continuing clearing the north field.
We have purchased a few pieces of equipment that have finally arrived.
Our High Tunnel (Hoop House) arrived on Friday & we had planned to prep the site to install it; however, the ground was too wet from the rain the day before so that will have to wait until the next opportunity. We are really excited about the High Tunnel as this will be a significant step in extending our growing season. Once completed, it will serve as a greenhouse to allow more delicate plants to get started earlier in the season and protect them during the more extreme summer months.
For more information on how High Tunnels are used there is a great article from the University of Arkansas Department of Agriculture “Horticulturists focus on organic and high tunnel production systems.”
Additionally, we were able to purchase a “Plastic Mulch Bed Laying” attachment for the tractor (see example picture below). This will allow us to layout all the beds, weed control, and irrigation tapes with the tractor and save us a lot of time and energy that we can allocate towards putting more plants & seeds into the ground, produce harvesting & processing, and pest management.
As you can see, we’re hard at work getting ready for spring. However, we could not do it without the tremendous support of the community. You are all amazing!!!
We still have some Harvest Share Subscriptions available that will allow you to take home a portion of the harvest (this is how we cover our costs for seeds, fertilizers, water, etc. at The Farm), so you get fresh, local, sustainable food, and we get to give a whole lot of it away to those at risk for hunger in our community!
We have Spring Preparation Volunteer days scheduled every two weeks for the next month, so check out the calendar and come out and join us!
Help Portrait NWA
The first Help Portrait event for the year will take place on April 28th, 2012.
We’ll be focusing on doing portraits for High School Seniors and we’ll have locations in Fayetteville and Bentonville.
Volunteer registration is taking place on the Help Portrait NWA website (http://www.help-portrait-nwa.com).
Volunteer signups are underway so sign up today and spread the word!
Sat April 28, 2012, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
For more info, please email info@hpnwa.org
Paty and Sandra
It was a little over 2 years ago whenever I first met Paty and Sandra. I remember being at Laundry Love, which is one of our regular events as 3 bags, and meeting Paty for the first time as she came to get a bag. We instantly hit it off and started talking all about her life, family, and school. I was completely blown away by her story of wanting to be one of the first in her family to go to college and how she loved to serve people and one day hopes she can help her family out. Her face lit up when she talked about how in her free time she loves going to the nursing home and hopes one to day work there. I could see the determination in her eyes and I knew that she was going to be a person to make it happen. In that very same night, I was able to meet her younger sister, Sandra. A sweet, kindhearted spirit who made anyone feel welcomed and was inseparable to her sister. I quickly realized they were the best of friends and that the relationship they shared with one another was something rare and something they both cherished. It was in that moment that I realized these girls were going to have a huge impact on me but what I wasn’t expecting was just how much.
Sandra (left) Paty (right)
- on seeing Paty pray to accept Christ
- Seeing Sandra shortly thereafter follow her sister’s footsteps
- Seeing them both share by example what Christ has done for them with their friends and family
- Sandra play the clarinet in the Christmas concert, with all her anxious nerves, and watching Paty leap for joy and clapped when she finished, even while everyone else in the room was still sitting
- Seeing Sandra turn 15 and watching her be moved to tears while she was speaking to a room full of people she loves.
- Paty receiving a scholarship that would enable her to go to college to pursue her dream
- Seeing them find a church they love and getting plugged into it all on their own
- Meeting their new friends at church and having a potluck meal with them and watching them beam with joy from ear to ear
- The moment where Sandra asked me if she could volunteer with 3 Bags and having them both come out for a packing night… it melted my heart
- And finally, seeing the strong bond these two sisters have and how they are impacting the world bigger then they even know
Spring will come!
While things may not be growing right now at The Farm, there is a lot of work that has to be done so that we can hit the ground running in the spring. Believe it or not, we’ll start putting seeds in the ground in just over another month. So, huge thank you to all of those who have come out to The Farm to help us prepare for spring…
Walmart PMDC
Our friends from Walmart PMDC in Bentonville have truly given countless hours over the past year, and we are thankful for their help (especially on a below freezing day this past week).
Spring Prep Volunteer Saturday
Thankful for so many who helped us on our last open Spring Prep volunteer day. It’s people in our community who truly make The Farm vision come alive, and we are truly thankful for families just like the Coleman family for spending the day with us.
The Farm Weekly Update
For a list of our next volunteer opportunities, please visit the events schedule or send an email to TheFarm@CobblestoneProject.org. You can also follow along with our story via Facebook.com/CSProjectFarm or Twitter.com/CSProjectFarm.
Walmart “12 Days of Giving” Selects 3 Bags in 2 Days
We are so thankful to share that 3 Bags in 2 Days has been selected as a part of Walmart’s “12 Days of Giving” campaign. We are overjoyed and blown away to have been nominated and selected; however, we know it is only because of every single person who has come alongside these efforts in Northwest Arkansas.
This is a reflection of your work, your dedication, and your compassion! And now we have the opportunity to empower these efforts of making small bags of compassion tools to the restoration of dignity, hope, and love.
Thank you Northwest Arkansas! We are humbled and honored to receive this investment into the efforts of 3 Bags in 2 Days (more info to come).
Here is a copy & link to Walmart’s announcement…
Walmart Gives $200,000 to 10 Nonprofits on the 12th Day of Holiday Facebook Campaign
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Dec. 23, 2011 – On the 12th and last day of its “12 Days of Giving” Facebook campaign, Walmart is awarding $200,000 to 10 nonprofits that are true heroes for their communities and have made selfless acts to help those in need. Over the last twelve consecutive days, Walmart awarded a total of $1.5 million to 145 organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Organizations being honored on the company’s Facebook page today are serving communities in: Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas.
“Every community needs a hero—someone who is willing to take extraordinary and selfless action to help those in need,” said Julie Gehrki, senior director at the Walmart Foundation. “We are honored to give these inspirational community heroes the recognition they deserve and do a small part to help them achieve their mission.”
Walmart’s call for nominations for its “12 Days of Giving” Facebook campaign resulted in more than 5,400 nominations from Facebook users who shared photos and short descriptions of a nonprofit’s impact in its local community. A panel from the Walmart Foundation reviewed submissions and selected nonprofits with a focus on organizations that are providing basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing and baby supplies.
The 12th day of giving highlights organizations started by extraordinary heroes, young and old, who unselfishly opened their homes and dedicated great amounts of time to provide food, clothing, shelter and a supportive environment for those in their community who needed help. The organizations being spotlighted today include:
Reflections of 2 years with 3 Bags in 2 Days
After finishing out 2 years only a few weeks ago, Brittany and Chloe have compiled some thoughts on the crazy and wonderful journey that has been, and will continue to be, 3 Bags in 2 Days. Brittany::
“We are now at our year two marker and about 4,400 bags later, it still hasn’t hit us that this is our life. When we started this, little did we know how much it would grow and how much it would affect others and us. This year has been such a great year for us with meeting new faces and developing really strong friendships with the people who volunteer with us and also the people we have the privilege of serving. It has been on our hearts to do more and what that looks like we are slowly figuring out. The Lord is just providing opportunity after opportunity of showing how little ol’ us is capable of making an impact. We have been able to partner with so many organizations like:: RE Baker Elementary School, Oakdale Middle School, CASA of NWA, Help Portrait of NWA, NWA Hope Center, First United Methodist Church, Central United Methodist Church, New Heights Student Ministries, Bentonville Ozone, and countless others. It’s just so neat to get the privilege of playing a part in what the Lord is doing. We don’t take it for granted and we appreciate our community for stepping up and joining alongside of us in our mission. We are so looking forward to how this ministry will grow over the next year and cannot wait for you all to be a part of it, so stay tuned.” -BritChloe::
“Holy. Cow. Words cannot even explain the thoughts and words that are running though my mind. All this started with a cookie on November 14th, 2009?! We are almost 4,500 bags in just because of a simply interaction and dessert? It is crazy to me that people caught the vision, and continue to catch it. There is nothing more humbling than someone partnering with us because they see the value of distributing deodorant, just like we do. The bag isn’t even the main point, it is the relationship. Distributing these items allows a door for a relationship to be slowly opened. It establishes a sense of trust, dignity and respect. What a humbling thing to be able to love someone through something as simple as basic necessities. So many new relationships (both volunteer, organization, and client-wise) have been fostered over the past 2 years, I couldn’t even count them if I tried. I am more passionately in love with people now more than ever. It is such an encouragement to not be on this journey alone. It brings so much joy to me to see NWA changing, to see the love and the power of the Lord flowing through people and flowing through 3B2D. Saying “thank you” doesn’t even really begin to communicate my thankfulness for the community that I live in and those that so selflessly dedicate time, energy, and resources to continue on with the efforts of 3B2D. “ -Chloe
The Cafe…A New Story Emerges
As so many of you know, The Cafe holds a special place in the heart of our community & those at Cobblestone Project. It is the story of how a vision for caring for our community can emerge from just about anywhere and bring many together with a single goal of caring for those without. Without the story of The Cafe, Cobblestone Project truly would not be what we all are today.
Before it was The Cafe…
Believe it or not, all of this began in the corner of a small soup and salad shop known as World Garden with a case of bananas and a simple question.
“How can we use these to benefit our community?”
Rick and Cindy Boosey, and the team at World Garden, turned that case of frozen bananas into banana bread and through it brought together a community. It was a community asking the bigger question of how can we care for the hungry in our community.
Cobblestone Project first aligned to Rick and Cindy’s efforts when Mark Horvath, founder of InvisiblePeople.tv, came to Fayetteville in the first 1,287 Stand Up & Be Counted Homeless Awareness Rally. Over the course of the next year and half, countless members of our community came to help cook on Sundays & deliver to many local nonprofit organizations. It was through these efforts and with the desire to find a more permanent source of food, The Farm began.
Moving to Samaritan Community Center
When World Garden sadly closed, we did not want this local hunger relief movement to end. We approached the Samaritan Community Center to ask if we could open up the center on Saturday’s empowered by all the efforts at World Garden. This met two needs of wanting to expand the ability of Samaritan Community Center to serve their existing clients and engage a community in serving those without. It was during this move that The Garden officially became known as The Cafe.
Over the last year and a half, The Cafe at the Samaritan Community Center has served approximately 125 people per week with a warm meal & a kind heart.
A Hero Behind it All…
There have been so many that have served to bring the vision of The Cafe alive, but there is one person who from the very beginning has committed himself in a way that is even hard to comprehend. Brad Melton has been a foundation that has been constant through the entire life of this initiative.
Brad has not only served the meals, but he has built the infrastructure to support just about every aspect of this initiative. From volunteer coordination, to scheduling cooks, finding the food, and to ensuring the stories of those beings served have been told, Brad has given and given. I believe it is safe to say that through Brad’s efforts, our community has seen a true example of what sacrificial giving truly means.
However, for Brad it isn’t just about giving, it has been about the relationship with those who humbly come every week. He has helped find them jobs, used his connections to serve Tornado victims in Joplin, found diapers for the children, and just about everything in between. Brad has “loved his neighbor” in a way that truly reflects a dedication of faith fully alive in the world today. A reflection that brings hope. Thank you will never be enough to express our gratitude to Brad. We are thankful to call him a friend, and follow his lead toward a new beginning for The Cafe.
A New Story Emerges…
Beginning January 1, 2012, the operations of The Cafe will be fully transferred over to the Samaritan Community Center. This being done in order to continue to best serve the 125+ people who are served every Saturday. The Cafe is truly core to the mission of the Samaritan Community Center, and they will now be able to fully integrate the Saturday Cafe within their framework of their weekly operations. This move will also allow Cobblestone Project to focus more fully on food production operations at The Farm (food that in part goes to The Cafe). Brad will continue within the operational leadership of The Cafe as his heart is fully with those that he has been serving and living life with over the past year and a half.
Cobblestone Project continues to partner and support the efforts of the Samaritan Community Center in many ways to include partnership within the Our Step program, food production for The Cafe, Shear Kindness and 3 Bags in 2 Days for Back to School Backpack drives, etc. This change is exciting because it allows continue role clarity and further time investment into producing food.
The Samaritan Community Center is doing amazing things and we would encourage all to take this opportunity to serve them as The Cafe moves forward.
Thank You!!!
We wanted to close with this final memory from Thanksgiving of 2009.
It’s because of the vision that original began with Rick and Cindy Boosey, that we can safely say…”we can do this everyday.”
We’d love for you to leave your comments below on what The Garden/Cafe has meant to you over the past 3 years.
Looking forward to Spring (part 1)
Even though food production has ceased for the season at The Farm, we have a project list that is a mile long of things we have to accomplish before spring. Things are going really well and we are thankful for the year we have behind us. It should allow us to be ready come last frost to move very quickly.
We are truly thankful for everyone that came out this past Saturday to help on the many projects we have. It turned out to be an absolutely perfect day, and we loved the opportunity to meet some new faces.
We will have additional periodic Spring Prep days during the winter, and we’d love to have you join us (weather permitting).
The Farm Update & Welcome to Newest Farm Team Member
We want to extend a special welcome to Hannah who is joining The Farm team through the EnergyCorps Program. She is already hard and work and will be with us for the entire 2012 season. We are thankful to have her on board and we look forward to everyone having a chance to meet her.
Another huge thank you to William’s Tractor for making this season actually possible. We could not have done it without their support.
Pole Barn is FINISHED!!!
We were able to finish the pole barn that will serve as our base of operations for all produce processing and storage next season. Next season’s production plans are built around tripling the amount of food we grow, so this resource will be critical in making post harvest processing and storage more efficient. In keeping with our desire to reduce our impact on the environment, we were able to reuse an existing pole barn from a poultry farm in the area.
We are thankful for all of those who made it possible to include Andy Pruitt of Garver Engineering, Barry Bryant, and the many volunteers from Fellowship Bible Church.
What’s Ahead?
We have a lot to do this winter to ensure we hit the ground running in Spring. We will be building out a new poultry enclosure to expand the flock, fill out the pole barn area by installing wash stations & cold storage, applying lime & manure to the fields, installing high tunnels to extend the growing season, rebuilding fence lines to remove the barb wire & make it safer for the children that come out, and putting up some deer fencing (they fed too well last season).
Check The Farm calendar for our next Spring Prep Volunteer Days.
2012 Harvest Share Subscriptions
Harvest Share Subscriptions for 2012 are not available for purchase. There is a limited amount, so get yours while they are still available. For more information, please visit the Harvest Share webpage.
For more information on The Farm, please visit The Farm’s website or send an email to TheFarm@CobblestoneProject.org.
3 Bags in 2 Days Packing Event
Thursday February 23, 2012 – Thursday February 23, 2012
2860 North College Avenue
Description:
Please join us to help pack bags for distribution. A typical packing event will last a couple hours and we will be processing through all donations), and placing them into bags for distribution
For more info, please contact 3b2d@3bagsin2days.org
about 3 Bags in 2 Days…
Our mission is to provide bags of basic necessities to those living in poverty. Our vision is to provide a sense of dignity and respect to those who receive a bag.
The key is to be able to build lasting relationships and provide bags that aid in the restoration of hope in Northwest Arkansas and around the world. Our motto is, “the bag is just a tool.”
The bag is just a tool to take that first step in building a continuous friendship. It establishes a sense of dignity and respect. It puts a name with a face. It is a tool to know the story, the journey, the pain, the suffering, the joy, the motivations and so much more of a person. The bag is truly just a tool to reach the unknown and the overlooked.