A series of entries designed to capture the ongoing adventures of NINA! See how we came to be where we are today, and follow along as we enter the new century of social media!
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We closed on the sale of 86 Hawthorn Street today, and we're very glad that we had this closing scheduled for today rather than for yesterday! The buyers are a couple moving into Hartford from East Hartford, and we're looking forward to welcoming them to their new home and neighborhood.
We won't miss shoveling the snow here, that's for sure!
We closed on the sale of 115 Sigourney Street today! The buyer is a single mom who had been living in Asylum Hill already. She works for a non-profit in the neighborhood, and she's already involved with AHNA. How cool is that?
This is actually the second pick-up this week. The first one, only one teacher could make it up, and he couldn’t get all of the boxes into his car. So we arranged a second pick-up, and four teachers were able to make it for this one. We were able to make very quick work of the remaining boxes.
That has been one of the great things about this grant – even during the pandemic, we’ve all pulled together to get this done, using whatever means we can to get school supplies and books into the hands of the students. This year won’t go down as anyone’s favorite year – but if anyone goes looking for a bright spot in 2020, here it is!
We’re getting near the end of the teachers’ wish list. We’re probably 75% of the way through, maybe a little more.
I dropped by Key Books on Bartholomew Avenue this evening to pick up the latest arrivals for TeacherDollars. Key Books is a new, locally owned bookstore in Parkville, and they specialize in books that focus on Afrocentricity, spirituality, environmentalism, and entrepreneurship. Their motto is “divine liberation, one page at a time.”
This is the best way possible to give a sense of the volume of items we’ve been able to purchase for the students at West Middle. The TeacherDollars grant has made a substantial difference for the students at West Middle, as well as for the teachers and staff there.
If it looks a little brighter than usual, that’s because the loading dock door is open.
Boxes are still coming, but we’ve started to bump into holiday shoppers competing with us for items on the teachers’ wish list. Quite understandably, Amazon has limited the amount of certain popular items, but it has slowed orders down to a crawl.
Also, I’ve noticed that the quality of the corrugated cardboard boxes has declined of late. I’m starting to wonder if there’s a shortage!
We brought the latest shipment up to Veeder Place today. The benches in front of our pallets, and the wood furnishings in the background, are Fresh Start Pallet Products creations. They paint their pieces out on the loading dock in that tent there in the back. And I should add that the unpainted pallets belong to Fresh Start, too – they’ve very graciously let me borrow them while we continue to order more books for West Middle.
The blue pallet is ours – it came with that shipment we received directly on the loading dock.
The Hartford is currently at work upgrading its windows.
