Stories of Community Support

More Stories of Community Support

The Northern Arizona Ethnic Arts Network

The mission of The Northern Arizona Ethnic Arts Network — an organization run by Craig Meriwether —­ is to support and promote world music, ethnic dance, martial arts, meditation and yoga in Flagstaff and the surrounding communities. For the past three years, they have held an event at the Orpheum called The Flagstaff World Music and Dance Concert, featuring local musicians and dance ensembles. This concert is held to raise awareness of the local talent in the community and as a fundraising event for the organization.

Due to a lack of funds, they were going to cancel this year’s scheduled concert. When Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff stepped in and donated $450 towards the production, they were able to hold the concert, which was a great success. See www.nazethnicarts.org

Cleanup at the Hardrock Dump

In 2003, the Natoni family staged an old-fashioned Navajo horse race in Rocky Ridge, Arizona. The event was an instant success, with multi-generational families from miles around participating in activities from bareback racing to children’s fruit scrambles to a contest for the best-dressed elder. Mostly poor and quite isolated, the residents of Rocky Ridge began to develop a sense of community pride, while earning some extra money by selling refreshments and crafts to hundreds of visitors.

Unfortunately, this otherwise idyllic scene was marred by debris from an open landfill that was blowing across the racetrack, as well as the eyesore of the landfill itself. With a grant of $300 for transportation, fees, and supplies from Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, local resident Velia Yazzie organized a cleanup so that the community could properly welcome visitors. In February 2007, the Fifth Annual Natoni Horse Race was deservedly featured in Arizona Highways Magazine.

Hopi Migration Project

The foundation of Hopi culture includes an ancient migration story that is meant to be recited to future generations over countless winter nights. However, with young people’s attention being pulled in so many directions these days, the lessons embedded in Hopi spoken history are in peril. While attempts to write it down have been made, elders agree that writing arrests the story in time, thus limiting its potential for interpretation by future generations. Eric Polingyouma — the last member of the Bluebird clan that is responsible for keeping Hopi history alive — conceived a series of journeys to key points in the migration chronicle. He hoped to collect “bread crumbs” in the form of photographs and other clues so that seekers could reconstruct the story when it is needed in the future.

Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff provided a digital camera and also administered a $15,000 grant from the Christensen Fund, enabling several Hopi elders to purchase needed equipment and travel thousands of miles to research and document their origins.

Northern Arizona Ethnic Arts Network

Craig Meriweather and Bryan Cooperrider understand the physical and emotional health benefits of music and drumming. With a $2,000 grant from Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, they were able to obtain dozens of drums and percussion instruments for use in several exciting programs and retreats.

First, the Musical Playground program brings drumming and ethnic music workshops to local schoolchildren. Studies have shown that channeling of youthful energy in this way is effective in diminishing the incidence of bullying and isolation. Second, the Health Rhythms program provides emotional relief and stress reduction to both child and adult cancer patients in the regional hospital as well as at “cancer camp.” And last but not least, Bryan has held several well-received drumming retreats for combat veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rocky Ridge Ride-to-School Program

Willy Begay could see many advantages in rural Navajo children riding their horses to school, including increased self-confidence, physical exercise, and the development of valuable skills. What he noticed to be lacking was a location where the children could safely leave their horses during their classes.

With a grant of $500 from Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, Willy established a secure corrale next to the local elementary school, provisioning it with water and with feed that would be periodically replenished through small fundraisers. An additional bonus has been the sense of fun, camaraderie, and belonging that the children experience as members of the Rocky Ridge Saddle Club.

Free Lameness Prevention Clinics

While horses are a vital aspect of traditional life on the Navajo Nation, they often become disabled due to botched hoof trimming or improper shoeing. Farrier Ed Whitethorne recognized the need to educate residents on the principles of hoof care and on ways to prevent lameness in horses. With a grant of $300 for transportation and publicity from Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, Ed was able to conduct a series of free workshops in several reservation towns toward this goal.

Rez Vet

Many Hopi and Navajo people depend on their livestock — including cows, sheep, goats and horses — not only for meat but also for wool, hides, and the income they earn from participating in rodeos. Their animals enable them to remain self-sufficient and connected to the land, to one another, and to their traditions. Dr. Adrienne Ruby is a mobile veterinarian who has served the Hopi and western Navajo nations for fifteen years. She is a welcome sight in lightly settled reaches of the reservations, and a popular mentor to young people with interest in veterinary science as a career.

Providing animal care on a sliding-fee scale (and often at no charge), she lives on the edge of poverty in a remote, one-room cottage without plumbing or electricity. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff supports Dr. Ruby by providing a base in town for R&R and, as a non-profit organization, by receiving in-kind donations on her behalf (such as a specialized veterinarian’s box with compartments for instruments and medicines that fits in the bed of her pickup truck). BFJ has also purchased equipment (such as equine dental tools) and provided help with initial publicity for now-established events, including no-cost community clinics where rural families learn up-to-date care and treatment of their animals.

Good Night Pediatrics

Staffed by board-certified pediatricians from 5pm until 5am, 365 nights a year, Good Night Pediatrics is founded on the principle that no child belongs in the emergency room unless it’s for a true emergency. They also consider pediatric specialists to be advocates of whole-child development, so their waiting room features a well-stocked shelf of diverse age-appropriate children's books. At the conclusion of every visit at Good Night Pediatrics, each child is encouraged to choose one book to take home and keep. A small gesture perhaps, but the delight on the kids’ faces leads us to believe it's an important one.

Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff was happy to give them a $720 grant to purchase additional books for their program.

Flagstaff Youth Gardens and Greenhouse

With the help of Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, an historic farm on the grounds of the Museum of Northern Arizona has become an outdoor classroom for a diverse group of local teenagers. The farm had become derelict and overgrown, an uninspiring patch of weeds. The museum's Discovery Program worked with Flagstaff Youth Gardens (FYG) to create an eight-week summer internship to restore the farm. FYG offered wages, job skill training, and leadership development to local high school youth. From an office in an old chicken coop nearby, Johanna Devine and Kate Watters supervised students as they researched what to grow (mostly heirloom vegetables), restored an old greenhouse on the site, started seedlings, and weeded and dug and planted and watered and finally, harvested their produce! Some of the produce went to local food banks, while the students sold some of it at the Farmers Market to raise future operating funds. FYG interns learned principles of biology, nutrition, meteorology, and horticulture as well as business skills and teamwork.

Southside Community Association

(Becky Daggett, Executive Director of Friends of Flagstaff's Future, gives the 2004 Livable Community Award to SSCA Coordinator David Bonnell)

Southside is the oldest neighborhood in Flagstaff, Arizona. Many residents are descendants of the Basque sheepherders or Hispanic and African-American sawmill workers who built its charming cottages and planted its trees. Because it lies in the floodplain of the Rio de Flag, residents have long been barred from improving their property and Southside has been left behind as other parts of town have prospered. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now plans to realign the Rio and redevelopment of Southside is imminent. In 2003, community leaders founded the Southside Community Association (SSCA) to ensure a voice for the neighborhood- in the Rio project, in the city's redevelopment plan, and in how government dollars are spent here. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff contributed funds to get the SSCA coordinator's office and computer up and running. SSCA has already made strides in beautifying Southside, in restoring and preserving several historic properties, and in establishing a youth garden.

Coconino County Jail Community Quilters

After retiring as a sergeant from the county jail, Theresa Arias couldn't forget the women who remained behind bars. With help from Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff as well as donations of fabric remnants and thread from friends and family, she has taught over seventy women how to sew. The inmates make quilts, pillows, dolls, and aprons out of scraps that would otherwise have been discarded. Just before Christmas, Theresa invited representatives of several agencies and charities to the jail, where the seamstresses gave their quilts to firemen and police officers to comfort the victims of accidents, disasters, and crime. Social service agencies received quilts, too, as well as dolls, pillows, and cheerful aprons to brighten the lives of troubled or low-income families. Theresa has taught these incarcerated women more than the useful skill of sewing. Says one inmate named Maria: "It's a great feeling to give out something you did with your own hands to people who really need it. And there are people out there who really do." Another inmate, Patricia, says: "It makes me feel that instead of doing harm to the community, I'm doing something positive. To be able to do that, to give back, it gives me a very good feeling about myself."

Marlyn Manning MS Project

Marlyn Manning knows first-hand the discouragement that comes along with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). After living with MS for decades, she is also living proof of how a positive attitude and personal determination can alter the prognosis for many who have the condition. Marlyn wrote a motivational book to encourage others in her predicament but after moving her computer, she was unable to retrieve the manuscript from its depths so that she could give it to her editor. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff paid for a computer whiz to sort out the problem. Marlyn's inspiring manuscript has begun its way through the publishing process!

Digital Camera for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul

In response to the hypothermia deaths of three homeless men on the streets of Flagstaff during a recent severe winter, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul has instituted a seasonal coat giveaway in addition to vouchers for food, lodging and transportation. Over three hundred families received food boxes at Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as clothing from the Thrift Shop and the Youth Clothes Closet. Yet the need for help increases daily as the economy worsens. The Society’s volunteers had despaired of increasing their means to help until they discovered a website for nonprofits that advertises valuable items to an international marketplace. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff purchased a digital camera and software for $300, enabling the local Society of Saint Vincent de Paul to receive full value for heirlooms left to them for the purpose of helping the needy.

Northern Arizona Peace Center

After a recent peace demonstration attracted hundreds of participants from the university, scientific, religious, neighborhood and tribal communities in and around Flagstaff, documentary filmmaker Kell Kearns approached Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff with a vision to establish the Northern Arizona Peace Center. The Center will house classrooms for courses in peace studies, current domestic and international crises, civil liberties, and threats to peace. Faith-based peacemakers may explore and deepen their understanding of the teachings that are the foundations of their commitment here. In addition, peace and justice groups will be welcome to hold planning and action meetings.

Kell Kearns has been writing, producing and hosting PBS documentaries on the theme of peace since 1983, including "In Remembrance of Martin," about Martin Luther King, Jr.; "The Arms Race Within," on the mass satyagraha (passive resistance) of a Gandhian community to stop nuclear "white trains" carrying arms to Trident submarine bases, and; "The Healing of Brian Willson," about a protestor run over by a train that was carrying weapons bound for El Salvador. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff gave Kell $525 to cover the Peace Center's rent and phone for 2 months, but more importantly, the vote of confidence gave him a boost when he wasn't sure anyone was interested.

Weir Horse Lovers

Special education teacher Jerrith Weir is passionate about horses. She has seen firsthand the kind of inspiration they can provide to disabled as well as to alienated children. She takes in abandoned horses and matches them with children of differing abilities. As they ride together in the woods along the Verde River, the children grow in self-esteem, awareness of the natural world, and contentment. Once, Jerrith made a deal with her young friend Andrew who, at the age of ten, still couldn’t read. "When you’ve done your homework," she said, "we’ll go for a ride." Andrew not only taught himself how to read, he still rides with Jerrith three years later. But horses are expensive to keep, and can pose potential hazards to riders. As more and more parents begged Jerrith for the chance for their children to ride, she realized that she had to treat her passion like a business. With the help of a volunteer paralegal, she learned what she would need to incorporate and approached Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff for a grant, which was provided in the amount of $1,250. She writes us: "Thank you so very much for your gift to Weir Horse Lovers; it has started my business! I will use your money wisely ... thank you again." Her motto? "Child takes care of Horse, Horse takes care of Child!"

Sunnyside Scorpions

The Sunnyside Scorpions are a U14 baseball team in a neighborhood where few families have the resources for their children to "pay to play." Team members, several of whom are from single-parent families, must maintain a C average to participate. Players walk or ride their bicycles to practice, where Coach Eddie Kirkland drills them in discipline, strategy, skills, sportsmanship and team unity. The Scorpions have held car washes and sold t-shirts to raise money, but since the costs of equipment and tournament entry fees are surprisingly steep, they were losing heart. With the incentive of matching funds from Bread for the Journey, their tireless coach and fundraiser has been able to collect donations from all over the neighborhood.

Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff donated $350 to the Sunnyside Scorpions. This funding helped them achieve the financial security they needed to register for tournaments in 2002 and to maintain an ongoing presence in Sunnyside for years to come.

Strong in Mind and Spirit

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among the indigenous people of our country. Velia Yazzie is a circuit-riding healthcare worker in a remote area of the Navajo Nation. She saw a need for native-language reference materials that she could leave with her diabetic patients, but was unable to find money in her program to pay for it. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff donated $120 for supplies to assemble twenty 3-ring, updateable notebooks called "Strong in Mind and Spirit." These notebooks contain medical advice and self-care instructions for rural diabetics to monitor and maintain their own health.

Willow Bend Environmental Education Center Flagstaff, Arizona, is a small city surrounded by vast public lands encompassing habitats from riparian to desert to forest to tundra. The nonprofit Resource Center for Environmental Education recently finished a small building overlooking the Rio de Flag, where they will promote understanding and responsible stewardship of the region's ecosystems through guided nature walks, family science nights, after school and summer activities, and hands-on exhibits. The new Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, with passive solar trombe walls donated by Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, will provide the community with a place to learn about and work together to protect our shared natural and cultural resources.

The Playhouse Gallery

Since 1972, the nonprofit Theatrikos Theatre Company of Flagstaff has produced high quality theatre by tapping the impressive array of talent to be found in the vicinity. Theatrikos offers outreach programs, too, such as Of Color, Community, and Culture, an annual series that explores and celebrates cultural and social diversity through theatre. With supplies donated by Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, volunteers have now renovated the lobby of the playhouse into exhibit space for local visual artists. Each presentation is matched in theme with the current theatre production and is displayed for about a month. The Playhouse Gallery offers emerging artists a chance to show their work and has become a source of pride to the community.

Community Notary Public

Although most of us require a notary only a few times in our lives, we consider it a nuisance to track one down. Imagine being sick or old, with English as your second language, and the nearest notary public is two hours away! Bread for the Journey paid for the certification of Velia Yazzie as a notary public. As her sponsor put it, Velia "is the perfect person because she travels all around the community helping people with health and wellness, so everyone knows her, her vehicle, and how to get in touch with her."

Launching K'é Bi Roots

After more than a year of preliminary meetings and visioning exercises (and to be honest, a few gripe sessions), K'é Bi Roots was ready to launch a set of initiatives to build community strength as an alternative to staying trapped in the frustrations of the past. As their Philosophy and Vision Statement declares, K'e Bi Roots is "a grassroots community organization in the service of social justice, by creating opportunities for and facilitating the processes of promoting traditional Diné cultural philosophy and lifeways, healing and strengthening our community and encouraging sustainable economic enterprises; we believe that the inherent strength of Diné people will support efforts toward self-empowerment, self-determination, and self-sufficiency . . . [and] a social order based on k'é, with mutual concerns for wellness as individuals, families, clans, and as a Diné community living in a respectful and balanced way with our environment." Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff sponsored a public gathering to publicize and generate support for the initiatives proposed by K'é Bi Roots, with food, speakers, and door prizes of locally-produced crafts and herbal remedies.

Ram Exchange

Raising sheep is a traditional means of self-sufficiency and cultural preservation for rural Navajo families, but their sheep have become inbred.  Reproductive rates are half what they are elsewhere, wool quality is poor, and the land suffers as more sheep are introduced to compensate for these problems.  In response, the cooperative Dineh Bi (Navajo) Ranchers’ Roundtable organized a ‘Ram Exchange.’  Participants receive a high quality ram to improve their flock and after one year, the ram goes to another family.  Together, they learn up-to-date methods of grazing sheep that improve the land rather than degrade it, basics of sheep husbandry, nutrition, and preventive health care, and how to develop a cooperative marketing program.  The groundwork was put in place but the program needed a jump-start to inspire confidence and to encourage people made wary by programs imposed by outsiders who set rules and expectations but gave nothing in return.  Bread for the Journey purchased the program’s first ram for a family in the New Lands relocation area.  During our visit, several other herders dropped by to see for themselves as their idea for a Ram Exchange became a reality.

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Walking in Harmony with Wildlife It is obvious that the growth of towns in the intermountain West is putting pressure on wildlife.  This was vividly illustrated early in 2000 when a colony of hibernating prairie dogs was bulldozed, horrifying neighboring families who had watched the animals for years.  Together with a university biologist—an expert in the behavior and language of prairie dogs—the neighbors formed Habitat Harmony, a group that relocates animals out of the path of development while educating school children and homeowners in creating backyard habitats for wildlife.  Bread for the Journey provided Habitat Harmony with thirty live traps for the capture and relocation of animals in conjunction with their educational programs.  The board of Habitat Harmony responded: “Thank you so much for honoring our work in this way  . . . .   we will always remember your willingness to take a step in faith with us.”

© Raechel Running

Community Dance Troupe In 1996, a small group of mothers founded a dance troupe open to everyone in Flagstaff. Determined to build confidence and self-esteem in their daughters and sons, they and their children have devoted countless hours to practice sessions, dressmaking, and performances. Grupo Folklorico Mestizo grew from six members to twenty-five in just four years. However, organizers of some community events were still hiring dancers from across the state because they weren’t aware of the group’s existence. The mothers came up with a plan for better publicity using posters, mailings, and a web site, but their only photographs had been taken in bad light at events cluttered with equipment. Using $300 from Bread for the Journey to cover film and supplies, an accomplished professional—who once dreamed of dancing folklorico herself—spent a full day photographing the troupe and followed up with an article profiling them in the local newspaper.

BASH

After three Flagstaff teenagers took their own lives in October, 2000, the town was in shock, completely at a loss how to respond.  One young woman—with help from the American Legion and community theater—organized B.A.S.H.: the Benefit to Aid a Safe House.  Students donated artwork for posters announcing the event and Bread for the Journey printed them.  In mid-December, a low point of the year for many people, hundreds of teenagers attended the B.A.S.H., where twenty-six local musicians and poets offered sympathetic messages and encouraging songs.  Proceeds benefit a program to counsel young people with depression but equally important, B.A.S.H. was an expression of hope at a difficult time.

Art as a Means to Explore the World

To several older children of Flagstaff’s Sunnyside district, the summer ahead was shaping up to be long, lonely, and boring. Their homes were crowded and noisy with toddlers and television, but their parents would not allow them to walk several blocks to city activities managed by strangers. With $175 from Bread for the Journey, a young art student volunteered her time to teach these children how to use clay, papier mache, poster paint, and colored pencils to create everything from self-portraits to greeting cards to toys for their younger siblings. Two afternoons a week, they gathered in the multi-purpose room of a trusted neighborhood church to discover art as a means to explore and enrich the world around them.

Book Exchange in the Navajo Nation

The community of Hardrock on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona has been hard hit with some violent tragedies and is struggling with resultant despair. A science teacher at the Hardrock School wanted to start a book exchange for the students. A local store allocated space and a display rack for the project. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff, AZ, donated 140 books for children and young adults. They include fun books about science and nature as well as fiction on the themes of coping with adolescence, racism, disabilities, alcoholism, poverty, etc.

Friends of Flagstaff’s Future

Like other towns in the intermountain West, Flagstaff, Arizona is experiencing rapid growth together with economic and social dislocation. Friends of Flagstaff’s Future advocates "policies supporting a livable community," ranging from promoting a sustainable economy while protecting natural resources, creating a user-friendly transportation system, and cosponsoring a community visioning process that resulted in the ‘Flagstaff 2020’ plan that was endorsed and adopted by all city, county, state, and federal government entities in the area. Bread for the Journey of Flagstaff contributed toward the organization’s brochure in order to increase the visibility of Friends of Flagstaff’s Future.

Dan Dagget

Beyond the Rangeland Conflict

The often-bitter controversy over grazing livestock in the American West becomes even more emotional when the ranchers are native Americans endeavoring to make a living on their traditional lands. Efforts to introduce progressive methods of managing rangelands are often met with a skepticism born of past experience with ill-advised government programs. In June 1999 Bread for the Journey-Flagstaff sponsored a conference on the Hopi Nation led by Dan Dagget, author of Beyond the Rangeland Conflict. Initiated by a local veterinarian, the conference emphasized mutual respect and collaboration in tackling problems related to grazing on arid lands. It was "standing room only" with about fifty Hopi ranchers attending the meeting. Excitement grew at the prospect of restoring not only the health of native grasses, but also springs, which have dried up over the past few decades. During the same weekend, a similar meeting took place on the Navajo Nation. Based on the success of these two events, plans are underway for a meeting with both Hopi and Navajo ranchers in attendance, to discuss livestock management in the disputed lands around Big Mountain.

Copyright © 1999 - 2008 by Wayne Muller. All rights reserved.
This page updated by Brandy Sacks. For more information, please email bjourney@pacbell.net