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1a) Through November 30th, Let’s Flood Our Local Healthcare Workers with ‘Waves of Thanks’ for their 21 months of being on the frontlines! Free postcards (provided by KFNA), written by you (the community!) and delivered by KFNA to local hospitals!
‘Waves of Thankfulness' is a FREE postcard campaign brought back this Thanksgiving to flood the local hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics with THANKS...simply to thank each and every worker for their part in keeping our community healthy this year. You can send your own postcard to any clinic or healthcare worker you know, or pick up one of ours from a local coffee shop, attach a message of hope and care, and leave it in the drop box, and we will deliver them to local sites for you! If sending your own cards please include the words: “‘Waves of Thankfulness’, a project of the Kingfield Neighborhood Association. www.kingfield.org”
Cards are available at three local sites:
Butter Bakery Café (37th & Nicollet)
ColorWheel Gallery (46th & Nicollet)
Royal Grounds (42nd & Grand)
Write & return cards to any location by November 30th! All 8 artist-designed cards will be available. Take a few of your favorite designs and write a personal note, thanking the nurses, lab techs, ER staff, home healthcare workers, hospital custodians, and all their colleagues for the long hours and hard work they have put in this past 22 months to help keep us all safe and healthy.
1b) Light It Up, Kingfield!
Monday Evenings in December (Dec. 6th, 13th, 20th, & 27th), 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
This December, Kingfield neighbors are once again invited to illuminate the neighborhood and get outside to enjoy winter, fight the darkness, and increase community safety by building community!
Be part of the fun! Light up your front yard on Mondays in December from 5-7 PM and encourage your neighbors to do the same! Create a walk of wonder through our Kingfield Streets. Light a luminary, drag the fire pit to the front yard, string the holiday lights…the dark is here and together we will keep it at bay!
Build community! Consider making luminaries for your neighbors (or with your neighbors!) at one of our Luminary Workshops hosted at Butter Bakery. Then simply bundle up and invite your neighbors for a walk through the streets to enjoy the glow or invite them over for a bonfire, hot cider, and marshmallow roasting in your front yard!
Gathering outside in front yards, connecting with neighbors, and enjoying the lights of the season are the perfect antidote to concerns many neighbors have right now about personal safety, the long winter, and the continuing pandemic. Let’s get through this together by being present in our community, showing our support for one another, and lifting each other’s spirits!
Need some help? We have workshops!
Luminary supplies, templates, and friendly assistants will be at Butter’s Community Table, 3700 Nicollet on Thursday December 2nd, 9th, and 16th from 3:30-5:30 PM. Come meet KFNA and craft with your community. We will also be working to fill Butter Bakery’s big storefront windows with hand-cut snowflakes, sent off into the world with your own special message of hope for the future!
Email kfna@kingfield.org if you are planning something special in your yard or on your block and would like KFNA to help spread the word for other neighbors to come wander through your wonderland of lights! Last year Kingfield neighbors showed their creativity by hosting front yard taco and bonfire parties, delivering ice luminaries to everyone on the block, and caroling at neighbor’s homes that didn’t want to come out and brave the cold. Let’s continue the fun and community building in 2021!
Brought to you by the Kingfield Block Contacts, working to build community and connect neighbors. To join the Block Contact Group just sign up here! Or contact info@kingfield.org.
1c) Personal and Community Safety Tips
Personal Safety is on peoples’ minds right now as there have been a number of attempted car-jackings in Kingfield, along with other criminal activity. KFNA is encouraging community members to review common safety strategies such as these below. These are ways a few of the ways we all can reduce opportunities for crime and protect ourselves, our neighbors, and our belongings.
Remember the best way to protect yourself, and others, is to always be aware of your surroundings and to listen to your gut when something feels “off”. Also as a reminder that although many of us are on edge and frightened, sometimes in our efforts to protect ourselves and those we know and love we also end up causing harm to others. More often than not, that harm falls on people of color, many of whom are our neighbors. One of the best ways to protect ourselves, and our entire community, is to get to know one another by name, knowing each other’s comings and goings, kids, roommates, and cars. This way we can watch out for each other, as opposed to watching in fear to protect ourselves. Please take this as a reminder that as our nerves are jangled, we need to be even more careful about checking the implicit biases we all carry and be bold about being active in our community and claiming it as a safe and welcoming space.
If you block is interested in gathering to discuss recent concerns, safety tips, or just want to get to know each other, please know that KFNA Staff is willing to attend your Block Club Meeting just contact info@kingfield.org.
PERSONAL SAFETY TIPS:
- Keep the doors to your car locked when you’re inside to prevent someone from opening your door.
- Be aware of your surroundings, look at who and what is around you and take note of anyone approaching you or your car. A person “heads down” looking at their phone is much easier to take by surprise.
- Separate your car keys from your other keys and don’t leave your insurance or registration paperwork in your car.
- Be aware of what’s happening to others around you and call 911 if you see signs that someone is being threatened or assaulted. Try to pass along any license plate information as well as vehicle and suspect descriptions.
- Never leave your car running while unattended and never leave a key inside a parked vehicle.
- Keep some distance between yourself and a stranger who approaches you, ideally an arm’s length or more.
- Be alert if someone approaches you to ask a question like what time it is or if you have a light (cigarette).
- Don’t carry your cell phone in your hand. Keep it out of sight in an inside pocket or zipped in a bag.
- Don’t give your cell phone to anyone who approaches asking if they can use it to make a call.
- If you carry a purse, consider a cross body bag, fanny pack or travel-style money belt. Don’t hang a purse on the back of a chair in restaurants, bars or coffee shops but keep it in your lap or between your feet beneath the table – out of reach of passers-by.
- Don’t carry more documents, credit cards or valuables with you than what you need. The loss of a social security card, birth certificate or passport can create more identity theft complications later.
- Take a self-defense class. That can increase your confidence and decrease fear.
- Consider the usefulness of self-defense tools carefully before purchasing. In order to be effective, the tool must be at hand at the moment needed (not in a bag, under the car seat or in the glove compartment) and you have to know how to use it properly. Seek reputable advice and be prepared to practice.
1d) Kingfield Cookie Exchange!
Saturday, December 11th, 10:00 AM -11:30 AM
At the South Nicollet Action Center, 3537 Nicollet Avenue South
You may still be full from Thanksgiving but we are now entering holiday cookie season!
- Do you have a favorite recipe that you want to share with your neighbors?
- Do you want to exchange cookies and gather with neighbors?
On Saturday December 11th from 10-11:30am, KFNA is hosting a cookie exchange at the South Nicollet Action Center (3537 Nicollet Ave). Participating neighbors will bring two dozen cookies packaged on plates or in baggies or boxes of 6 cookies each to exchange with neighbors.
Have a neighbor that needs some extra love this year? You can also register a neighbor to receive a delivery of cookies! Sign up to participate here: https://forms.gle/7HAcgdHucAw5N3TB9.
All extra cookies will be donated to the Aliveness Project to stuff their client’s Holiday Stockings!
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