Communities First

When I bought my Philadelphia home four years ago and signed up for all the utilities, I was intrigued by the option to purchase electricity generated from windmills.  I like the environment and saving it seems just fine to me, but that’s not what intrigued me. What intrigued me was the technology. Nothing is being burned, there is no byproduct, and the wind supply is limitless. It makes perfect sense to build a machine that will collect the wind’s energy and focus it to accomplish a task. Of course, Dutch people have know this for hundreds of years!

In my Philadelphia neighborhood of Hunting Park , we are building a “windmill” to collect the energy of our neighborhood and focus it on making community improvements.

A small grant from Northeast Community Transformation has helped Ayuda Community Center launch the Hunting Park Civic Association, a collection of thirty or so neighbors united in caring for the well-being of our community. We are currently launching a neighborhood newspaper, working with elected officials and city agencies to pressure a rogue junkyard into cleaning up its act, and crafting a set of long term goals for our troubled community.

On May 13, NECT Executive Director, Al Santino, came down to Philadelphia with his tool belt and put in some work on our windmill. He led members of the Hunting Park Civic Association in developing a mission statement, nominating Steering Team members, and creating Action Teams to focus on specific community concerns. Al’s contribution to this meeting was invaluable. His experience and objectivity allowed him to quickly guide our group through the foundational construction of our windmill that will allow us to focus the energy of our neighborhood’s most valuable resource – our people.

If your church is looking for new ways to reach out in the name of Jesus, give Al a call. If not, give NECT a donation!

Ryan Kellermeyer (seated at table) capturing the wind in Hunting Park.