Angel Food Introduces a New Program to Help Hungry Children

Every day, children in our community go hungry. School meal programs do a lot, but cannot address a child’s need outside school hours or during breaks.

Angel Food Ministries has introduced the ‘Just For Me – No Child Goes Without’ box, a shelf stable package of food designed for the tastes and nutritional needs of hungry children.

At $24 each, these boxes are intended to fill in the gaps, helping to make sure that there is always something on the shelf at home for a hungry child.

West Shore Church will be working with local schools and social service agencies to help identify children who are not getting enough to eat. These schools and agencies will assist in connecting the hurting family with the food that they need.

In addition, we will be looking for organizations and individuals who will contribute or raise money to purchase boxes of food for these at risk children.

Nothing touches the hearts of a community like a hungry, suffering child. By making this food box available to families in our area, we are offering a meaningful and cost effective way to make make a difference.

For more information regarding this program, contact us at afm@westgshorechurch.info

The Lakewood Block Club Association

The Lakewood Block Club Association will hold a meeting on Tuesday April 26, 2011 for Block Captains and any residents interested in learning how a Block Club can benefit your street.  A representative from the Cleveland Restoration Society, Lakewood Alive, the Lakewood Police Department and a member of the Lakewood City Council will be on the Agenda.  For more information contact Mike Tuttle at michael.tuttle@lakewoodoh.net

Beck Center for the Arts: April Events

Super Saturdays @ Beck Center

Saturday, April 9

9:00-11:30 am

Main Building

Free hands-on arts activity for children 10 and under.

 

Hear & Touch the Music

Ages 12 months to 6 years

Thursday, April 14 – Clarinet

9:30-10:00 am or 10:15-10:45 am

Music-Armory Building

Cost: $9/child

To register call Brittany Lesch at 216-521-2540 x36.

A vibrant experience in music making for the youngest musical masters. Each program will feature a music instrument or theme, meeting and hearing a professional musician, and hands-on experience with a special topic spotlight.

 

Early Childhood ABC

Ages 12 months to 6 years

Thursday, April 28

10:00-11:30 am

(Check-in at Customer Service at 9:45 am)

Main Building

Cost: $11/child (no charge for parent/caregiver, but must register)

To register call Brittany Lesch at 216-521-2540 x36.

Join us for an arts adventure in music/movement, theater, and visual arts. This class is ideal for PTA groups, preschool field trips, play dates, or special family time. Parent/adult participation is required.

 

Sing to Your Baby

Grammy Award winners, Cathy and Marcy present Sing To Your Baby™: A Workshop for New Parents on Tuesday, April 5 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.

Sing To Your Baby™ is the perfectly easy and musical way for soothing, bonding, rocking, holding, strolling, playing with, and loving your baby. To help you get started, Cathy and Marcy offer an experiential workshop that will take you through the steps of singing to your baby with easy songs, building confidence in your ability to sing to your baby on your own.

Cost is $35 for one registrant and baby and a $50 family rate for two relatives and baby. Fees include one copy of the  STYB™ Playbook/CD. To register call 202-667-1076 or email to office@singtoyourbaby.net.

Come as a family, come as a single parent, or come as a caregiver with the child you are caring for. Bring your baby, bring your friends. An in-person workshop with Cathy and Marcy will seal the deal ‐ that you CAN Sing To Your Baby™!  To learn more about this program, visit us on the web at www.singtoyourbaby.net.

Located at 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, the Beck Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that offers professional theater productions, arts education programming in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, and creative arts therapies for special needs students, and gallery exhibits featuring regional artists.

 

 

Interfaith Hospitality Network

Interfaith Hospitality Network is a homeless shelter program for families. We bring the faith and civic
communities together to help families regain their housing, their independence, and their dignity. IHN quickly
stabilizes guest families in our family-friendly shelter network, works to rapidly re-house the family, and
provides intensive case management and supportive services during and after the guest family’s stay to
address the causes of their homelessness and empower the family for long-term success.

IHN also offers an opportunity for volunteers to reduce homelessness and transform lives. IHN’s evening and
overnight shelter network is 80+ congregations strong! Churches, synagogues, and community organizations
open their doors to up to four families at a time, for a week at a time. Most host IHN families 2-4 weeks
each year. Classrooms or fellowship halls are transformed into private sleeping quarters and families have
meals, evening activities, and receive companionship and support from trained volunteers. IHN provides all
transportation to and from the host sites.

The network enables IHN to provide family-friendly shelter in a caring, dignified environment where homeless
families are welcomed as guests. The IHN shelter model is economical, as well, and relies on the in-kind time
and donations of volunteers. It also provides Cleveland’s caring community with a way to help homeless
families in a direct and meaningful way.

IHN currently has weeks available in our 2011 hosting calendar for a few new congregations to join
our Network. If you know of a congregation who might be interested in becoming a host or support
congregation call Sarah Cruise, Executive Director at 216-325-1385 and see our website for more information:
http://www.ihncleveland.org. Look under “Get Involved”.

MyMedia Project

MyMedia Project Seeks Youth Reporters

The MyCom youth network (www.mycom.net) is launching an exciting new project called MyMedia. 20 young people will be selected to receive training on how to tell stories and report neighborhood news that matters to youth, through media outlets like blogs, podcasts, video broadcasts, writing, and presentations.

The youth reporters will commit to a 10-week training program that will expose them to new information, ideas, and local experts in the world of media.

This opportunity ibetss open to young people who are:

– between the ages of 12 to 16;
– residents of Cuyahoga County;
– able to commit between 5-10 hours a week for 10 weeks for training;
– ready to stay involved in efforts for youth, and become a voice for their community!

Visit mycom.net for the application kit. Complete and return it by February 25, 2011.

Beck Center for the Arts: Super Saturdays & New Classes

Super Saturdays @ Beck Center is a free hands-on arts experience for children ages 10 and under. The next event, in collaboration with the Cleveland Botanical Garden, will take place February 19, 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the Beck Center lobby.

Upcoming Saturdays in 2011:

• March 19 – Westfield Great Northern Mall
• April 9 – Beck Center Visual Arts
• May 7 – Usbourne Books

Super Saturdays @ Beck Center is sponsored by The Lakewood Arts Festival Association.

 

It’s a new year. What are your resolutions? To expand your mind? To introduce your family to a creative activity? To try something you’ve never done before? If you said “yes” to any of these, then the Beck Center is where you want to be in 2011.

With more than 140 artistic opportunities each week, you will find something just right for you and your family—dance, music, theater, and visual arts, including drawing, painting, pottery, and more—at the Beck Center for the Arts. The Beck Center has the most comprehensive early childhood arts education programming in the region.

For a Winter/Spring 2011 class catalog, visit www.beckcenter.org or the Beck Center at 17801 Detroit Avenue.

The Lakewood Observer: A Helpful Tool for Your Organization

If you spend much time in the Lakewood community you’re most likely familiar with, or regularly read, The Lakewood Observer. Now in its sixth year, this every-other-week Lakewood-focused newspaper is read by over 10,000 people whom live, work or shop in Lakewood. No subscription necessary. It is provided to readers free. The printed newspaper is conveniently available in 130 storefronts and lobbies around Lakewood or can be read right from its website.

 

The mission of The Lakewood Observer is to attract, articulate, and amplify civic intelligence and community good will in the city of Lakewood and beyond. The content and contributors of the Lakewood Observer are as diverse as our city. The opportunity for Lakewood nonprofits and human services has been a tremendous success. If you had access to over 10,000 readers what would you like them to know? How would it help your organization or human services efforts better reach and serve the Lakewood community?

 

Anyone wanting to gain or share more information about Lakewood will want to become familiar with The Lakewood Observer website. At www.lakewoodobserver.com you will find the current 30 to 35 stories found in the printed paper. But there is so much more.  At January’s Lakewood Family Collaborative General Meeting, longtime Observer volunteer and contributor Melissa (Mel) Page and Lakewood Observer staff will show you how to utilize the many media features that the website and newspaper provides.

 

On the website you are able to view and submit events to the most complete Lakewood community calendar and the online classifieds section. You can also view the photo galleries and see what’s being discussed on the online discussion forum called the Observation Deck. Again, all of these are Lakewood focused and contributed by members of the community representing every neighborhood and interest. At January’s meeting, you will also be shown how to register to and navigate through the Observation Deck and Member Center. The Member Center is where all the stories for publication get submitted from.

 

How can a newspaper offer this? With an unbelievably user-friendly website and a community full of people wanting to share local information and stories to better the Lakewood community, costs are kept minimal. The advertising, primarily Lakewood businesses and services, support the costs of running the newspaper.  The Lakewood Observer serves our community well. An important part of that is helping you reach the people you work so hard to assist and connect you with the resources that can help you provide that service. Join us for the January meeting to learn more and visit www.lakewoodobserver.com to get your news and info out there.

 

New Year’s Resolutions:Coniser De-Cluttering Your Space for Success

Do you plan on making a New Year resolution for 2011?  Do resolutions work for you? Are you able to stay motivated or do you fall off the resolution wagon by February?  According to Dorothy.com, each year about 1 in 4 adults make New Year resolutions and out of those only about 6% keep them. It really isn’t too surprising since so many who resolve to make a change; quit smoking, lose weight, work out more, be happier, haven’t prepared themselves to break these deeply instilled habits. Going turkey rarely, if ever, works.

 

If you want to be successful in keeping life-changing resolutions you might want to consider making changes in the way you live in your space.  Your home should reflect who you are, or who you want to become, and should support you in everyway to help you live the quality of life you want to lead.  Unfortunately, if you are experiencing clutter problems in your life, physical or mental, it can get in the way of you keeping those resolutions.

 

Clutter issues vary greatly. Some people may just have a room that bugs them and then there are others who are actually unable to move through their homes due to the stuff piled floor to ceiling.  Another form of clutter is mental clutter.  Mental clutter can be those fears, doubts, past events and so on that we carry around with us that effect our decisions or prevents us from moving forward in our lives. Clearing clutter is a very powerful approach to helping you clear the way for new opportunities.  You are making room in your life to be creative and to think effectively so you can focus on your goals.  It may be a subtle shift, but when you begin to deal with your clutter you will become less focused on those habits you are trying to break.

 

For example, a very common New Year resolution is weight loss.  Peter Walsh, a well-known clutter coach, explains in Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?, that when he wrote his first clutter book he received letters from people who were unintentionally losing weight as they were dealing with their clutter.  Walsh, had not set out to help people lose weight, but quickly connected the power of clearing clutter to helping his clients achieve more than just a clean house.  By clearing and releasing the extra stuff in your house, or in your head, you are able to release the extra weight you have also accumulated. Plus, if you are focused on clearing clutter you are less focused on food.  This is why most diets don’t work—you are constantly food-focused.

 

It is never too late to make a New Year resolution and so instead of starting on January 1^st, why not take some time to clear the way for success.  Resolutions can be broken up into smaller manageable goals.  If losing weight is what you want to conquer than try de-cluttering and organizing your kitchen.  Pitch the junk.  Clean out your fridge and put in food that is fresh and supports your goal to lose weight.  Organize cupboards, utensil drawers, and don’t allow any junk drawers.  You will want to create a clean clutter-free kitchen that will motivate you to eat better and feel good about preparing healthy meals.  You might even want to consider painting or hanging a picture that reminds you to stay positive.

 

If you are feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of de-cluttering or can’t figure out where to begin then make it a goal to remove 9 items from your house (they really must leave—give them away with love) per day for the next 27 days.  By the end of 27 days, you will be more clear-minded and able to decide how to move life forward. Clearing the physical and mental clutter will help give you the energy and willpower you need to follow through on your resolutions.

Lakewood Recreation

Get fit in the New Year with Lakewood Recreation!  We have water aerobics classes, Yoga, Zumba, and more!  Register now!

 

Learn-To-Swim sessions begin in January.  We have daytime or evening sessions available.  Register now!

 

LHS Pool Location and Parking Information

Health Talks at Lakewood Hospital

Retirement Readiness

Is it difficult to imagine what your life will be like after retirement? You may be better prepared than you think.

Linda Beebe, elder law attorney, will review what you need know now to be better prepared for the future.

A light dinner will be served

 

Tuesday, January 25

5:30 -7:00 PM

Normandy Apartments

22701 Lake Rd

Rocky River

Call: 1-877-234-FITT (3488) for reservations

 

Causes, Risk Factors and Prevention of Colon Cancer

Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of death in our country, but is quite preventable.

Ryan Williams, MD, Cleveland Clinic colorectal surgeon, will discuss what you can do today to help prevent colon cancer.

Lunch will be served

 

Tuesday, January 11

12:00 – 1:00 PM

Westlake Library

27333 Center Ridge Rd

Westlake

Call: 1-877-234-FITT (3488)