RHI Needs Your Support!
July 18, 2008
Dear Friends of RHI,
Many of you received letters from us early this summer outlining our goal to raise $20,000 before July 31, 2008 to support our summer programs. As of today, July 18, 2008, we have raised just over $12,000. We're over halfway there!
Summer at RHI is a busy time. On any given day you can find:
Three tree interns caring for our street trees and mapping out the empty blocks of Red Hook in order to request more trees.
10 - 12 young people participating in our daily summer enrichment program that features math, reading, art, and nutrition workshops in the Red Hook parks.
36 Peer Health Educators (in four different levels of programming) who are in training from 10 - 20 hours per week, and will continue to be employed year round.
Three summer interns updating the Red Hook Directory -- a 100+ page guide to all social services in Red Hook.
A Teen Summer Program that offers 2 - 3 trips per week to places and events like a Barge Music concert, kayaking at Red Hook's Valentino Pier, the WNBA NY Liberty game, and Dance Brazil at Central park.
People of all ages participating in our Passport to Summer program by collecting "stamps" for nutrition and fitness activities like our CookShops, nutrition screenings, Tae Kwon Do classes, or various activities hosted at our local partner organizations.
College students finalizing plans for returning to or beginning school next month.
Community Change Workers organizing community meetings and educating their neighbors about the struggles in public housing nationwide.
Our youth radio interns who are finalizing the touches on their first radio shows (stay tuned for our first air date!).
And so much more!
If you have not yet donated to our summer program, there is still time to help us reach our goal. Any donation, no matter how small, goes directly back to the Red Hook community through programming or through staff salaries (95% of our staff are from the Red Hook Houses). All contributions are tax deductible.
We still need your support. To donate, log on to our website: www.RHIcenter.org or mail a donation to: Red Hook Initiative, 595 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231.
If you've already donated, please share our great work with a friend.
Have a safe, healthy and fun summer, and for those of you who are local, feel free to give us a call and schedule a time to come check out our programs. As our teens say, "There is always something happening here."
Warmly,
Jill Eisenhard
Founder & Director
Red Hook Initiative
