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Southwest Neighborhood Assembly, Inc. Annual Report  2004 - 2005

SOUTHWEST NEIGHBORHOOD ASSEMBLY

Statement of Operations
January 1, 2004 - December 31, 2004

History Task Force Annual Report

On January 15th, the History Task Force was delighted to join the community at the Odyssey cruise ship for the opening of the new Southwest Heritage Trail, “From River Farms to Urban Towers”.  This trail was a five year project of the Task Force.

In 1999 the Task Force was organized to mount a photo display of Southwest history in Waterside Mall’s empty windows.  When we found out that the 2000 Smithsonian Folk Life Festival was to feature DC, we applied to have the opening of our photo display during Festival Week and some of our long-time residents appeared on an hour-long “Front Porch” to talk about Old Time Southwest.

We next heard that the DC Tourism Coalition was planning historic walks in different neighborhoods so we applied and were accepted.  We spent more than a year planning the route and finding the pictures and maps and developing the narrative to tell the story of Southwest.  Some of our intrepid residents hired a helicopter to go up and take aerial photos of today’s Southwest to add to our maps of earlier days.  The final writing and editing of the materials were completed by the Heritage Coalition and our Heritage Trail is the fourth in the City. 

We hope many Southwesters, including school children, and also visitors and residents of other parts of DC will come down to Southwest to learn about the interesting history of the oldest part of DC as well as one of its newest residential areas.

In the meantime, the photo display is still in the Mall.

Margaret Feldman, Chair.

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SWNA Scholarship Committee Annual Report

In school year 2004-2005, the all-volunteer Southwest Neighborhood Scholarship Task Force, charged with providing grants to Southwest youths for college, assisted eleven neighborhood youth achieve their educational goals by providing over $6,000 in grants.  Individual student awards ranged from $400 to $1,000.  This year, Friends of River Park gave a $1,000 scholarship and the Riverside Condominium donated $325 from the proceeds of a yard sale.  These contributions, along with generous individual contributions, show that the scholarship program is truly a community effort.  

Over the past twenty-nine years, the community-supported fund has helped more than 200 neighborhood youth achieve their educational goals by providing grants for college.  These grants of financial support may help to defray the costs of tuition, purchase text books, supplement work-study programs, pay for a trip home when a student is feeling homesick, provide for small necessities, or even supplement the student's diet with the occasional pizza. 

Any student who lives in “near Southwest” D.C. (zip code 20024) and has been accepted to an accredited college or post-secondary institution is eligible to be considered for a grant.  A personal interview, scholastic achievement, financial need and community service are considered when making the awards.  This year, former scholarship recipient Ateya Ball-Lacy was a member of the interview panel.

The Students –

Because of the varied housing and income levels of Southwest, our scholarship recipients come from public housing, subsidized housing (Section 8), and middle-income residences.  One of the thoughtful thank-you letters from a new recipient, Courtney Dobbins:

Thank you so very much for the generous scholarship.  As a college student at Hampton University, I have learned to budget my money and use it wisely.  With this scholarship, I plan to buy my last book for my physical science class.  This book rings up at one hundred and ten dollars ($110).  The rest of the money will be applied to my tuition.  Once again, thank you – it is much appreciated.

Scholarship recipients for year 2004:

Fatoumata Bah             New York University

Dontria M. Brawner                       Penn State University

Danielle M. Flythe               Syracuse University

Melony Hawkins                       University of Maryland

Allen C. Dobbins, Jr.                 Virginia Union University

Courtney E. Dobbins                       Hampton University

Joseph Johnson                        University of the District of Columbia

Wayne Mack                           McDaniel College

Eugenia S. Norde              North Carolina A & T

John Thompson                        Winthrop University   

Keith A. Thompson                    Virginia State University

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Annual Report for The Southwester

Eleven monthly issues – with a circulation of 10,000 a month – of The Southwester were published in 2004 by Southwest volunteers.

During the year, the paper identified stories and other participation by the following, in Jan.-Dec. order of first mention:

Carole Early, Susan Fischer, Maurice Boyd, Sarah Livingston, B.K. Lunde, Susan Carpenter, Herbert Holmes, Resial Shannon, Alvin Hudgens, Brian Hamilton, Mark Clark, Jean Macdonald, Linda Nisida, Saadia Athias, Mary Williams, Ruth Hamilton, Laura Zam, Thelma Jones, Dr. Beryl Carter Rice, Margaret Oliver, Joan D. Tierney, PhD; Naomi Monk, Ron McBee, Hugh Muir, Vernice Howard and Lida Churchville.  Many other stories originated from press releases from District agencies or organizations and from phone calls and e-mail messages.

Volunteers arranged for distribution, making sure that the neighborhood news got around.

Guidance from the Board of the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly, especially with finances, and the work of Treasurer Ellen Winship were important to a successful year.

The year began with a bank balance of $263.69 and ended with $1,057.74.  Advertisers provided nearly $2,000 a month and several donations by individuals were important.

Office space for The Southwester has been provided for several years in Waterside Mall by Bresler & Reiner and the successor owners of Waterfront.  The SWNA is looking for new office space because of the redevelopment planned for this building.

The Southwest Neighborhood Assembly (SWNA) has been publishing The Southwester since 1964.  Bound copies for many of those years have been supplied to The Washingtoniana Room of the District’s Main Library – The Martin Luther King Memorial Library – at 9th and G St. N.W, and some to the Southwest Branch Library at K St. and Wesley Place, S.W.

Carole Early and Dale MacIver, Joint Editors

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SWNA Southwest DC Web Project (www.swdc.org)

The Southwest D.C. Web-site (www.swdc.org) was designed to provide information for residents of Southwest, and to introduce people not living in Southwest to the many things our community has to offer.

The Web-site is organized into sections on: About SWDC, Residents, Businesses, Attractions and Community Leaders.  There are many useful links to our local government representatives, to theatres and other attractions, and to the many museums in the area.  You can also find past issues of The Southwester dating back to 1999.  It is easy to search the site or past Southwesters by name or topic.

Since the end of September 2003 when the Web-site was completely redesigned, the home page has received over 27,000 visits.  Thanks are due Eda Robinson of InterComp 2000 for her excellent pro bono work in redesigning the Web-site, and to Sherry Klein, Web-master for maintaining it.

Perry Klein

 Youth Activities Task Force Annual Report

This year YATF has seen a continuing cooperation with SW organizations engaged in SW youth programs.  We work closely with the four major youth programs in the neighborhood:  Arena Stage, Laura Zam, Director of Community Programs; Boys and Girls Club #4, Alvin Hudgens, Director; King Greenleaf Recreation Center, Marcus Ellis, Director; and Randall Recreation Center, Zakiya Brown, Director.

YATF helped sponsor Arena Stage’s Voices of Now and Voices of Then, two theater pieces created by community members, both youth and adults.  These productions took place in May and were a huge success.  YATF members Beryl Rice, Dale MacIver and Jean Macdonald worked with the young playwright/ actors and Beryl was a star of Voices of Then.

A summer nighttime basketball tournament was funded from a Portals grant and run by Alvin Hudgens, Club #4 Director.  For Club #4 YATF sponsored a football team and a basketball team, which provided uniforms and registration fees for the participants. 

The new King Greenleaf Recreation Center is almost completed and is eagerly awaited  YATF sponsors the Tae Kwon Do classes which have been held in the Center once a week throughout the year and twice a week during summer camp.  YATF provided sports equipment for the campers and uniforms for the girls’ pompom team, which won an intercity competition.  At Thanksgiving some members and friends of YATF prepared and served turkey and fixings for King Greenleaf youth.  A Christmas party for the Tae Kwon Do students was sponsored by Mr. Baroody, the Black Belt teacher, and many toys were distributed.  Meaghan Frederick continues to volunteer as an instructor to assist Mr. Baroody.  Cupcakes have been provided weekly by Katy Dietrich.

At Randall Rec we were able to provide needed sports and learning equipment as well as books for the summer program.  A Parents’ class aimed at prevention of teen pregnancies was led by Thelma Jones at Randall, and as it was a great success, she has been asked to hold more such sessions this year.

YATF sponsors a Safe Sitter program which has graduated several classes of certified baby sitters.  Friends of River Park have contributed funds to this program also.  The certified teachers are YATF’s Thelma Jones, and Anita Sands, a long time SW resident.

An informal summer program offering bowling and swimming was led by Dale MacIver and is continuing its bowling activities in the winter.  Bowling trophies were awarded in September in a brief ceremony attended by YATF members.

A Christmas party for all YATF members was hosted by Jean Macdonald.

YATF Members:  Jean Macdonald, Chair, Rick Bardach, Zakiya Brown, Marcus Ellis, Rhonda Hamilton, Herbert Holmes, Alvin Hudgens, Thelma Jones, Dale MacIver, Lenora Moragne, Sylvia Morris, Beryl Rice, Gina Santos, Delmar Weathers, Niles White, Eve Wilkins, Laura Zam.

This entire report in PDF format     2003-2004 Report