The Heights Helps-- HHWC Supporting Kids in Need with Uniforms

Amazingly, summer is nearing its end for one of the largest school districts in the country. HISD heads back to class August 24. While the Heights is more affluent than it has been for many years, our neighborhood schools still serve a large population of kids in need. For back to school, the Houston Heights Womens Club is focused on their mission of community service work by helping students in need on the Heights. The members are trying to collect 1000 New or lightly used uniform pieces for students in need around our community. 

The goal of the drive is to distribute uniforms, via their schools, to students who have only 1-2 uniform sets and who can't make it through the week on uniforms. Many of these students also have limited access to laundry facilities, which makes the simple act of getting dressed for school a stressful and sometimes humiliating experience. Throw in the challenges of the school day (art projects, lunch, playground tumbles, bathroom accidents) for the younger students, and it adds up to an acute need. The HHWC asked some of the principals to estimate how many students they could help; the administrators were almost confused by the question. One principal said "all of them." Another one said that the need is "bottomless." Many of the participating schools have student populations of over 90% free or reduced lunch.

Participating schools are: Browning, Crockett, Field, Love, Harvard, and Helms Elementary; Hogg and Hamilton Middle, and Reagan High (they have actually hit the Reagan goal with 200 pieces collected, but are short for the other schools). 

Schools are especially in need of khaki shorts in elementary sizes for girls and boys (sizes 4T-12), and navy blue, goldenrod, or Hunter green polo shirts for girls and boys (sizes XS-XL). They definitely take gently used pieces, so this is a great reason to clean out your kids' closets!

Here's a link with info on dress code and sizes, and it also includes a way to donate directly by credit card if you'd like the HHWC to shop for you:

http://www.houstonheightswomansclub.com/Uniform-Drive

Sara's Bed and Breakfast, 941 Heights Blvd, has generously offered to be a collection point for clothing drop offs. Could it be any easier? 

You can find the items students need at local shops like our neighborhood thrift stores and Label Warehouse on 19th Street (they have polos starting at $3.99). Also, national retailers like Target and The Children's Place on Shearn, and Walmart on Yale, have uniforms at good prices.

Thanks for making the back to school transition just a little easier for kids who are already struggling with the material needs of their education. Your help makes a difference and will all year long!

All Signs Point "True North"

My interaction with True North started with this email from Heights Kids Group early Saturday morning:

Bungalow Rooftop in the median on Heights Blvd 

Does anyone know anything about this? Someone put a rooftop (and part of a house/garage?) in the median on Heights between 4th and 5th. Looked like workmen were arriving with tools to remove just now. (hope not) Looked like a statement to the death of the bungalow. Spot on IMO. Go see quickly if you are interested.

A quick update shortly after noted that they were not removing it, but had actually added a steeple to it. Someone wondered if it had to do with the fire at Heights Presbyterian... Then someone announced: it is an art installation. The rooftop at 4th St has had everyone talking, with multiple pictures posted to The Heights Life Facebook page and in my Twitter and Instagram feeds.

So, what's the real deal on the project? It's called “True North” and has been a long time dream of Gus Kopriva, owner of Redbud Gallery on 11^th and an icon in the local art scene; a name recognized both nationally and internationally.  Kopriva has long dreamed of producing large scale public art exhibitions in Houston. He hatched a plan "to expand the placement of public art pieces to numerous locations throughout the city and particularly along the esplanade of Heights Boulevard." The esplanade, which is a Scenic Right of Way from White Oak Bayou to 20^th Street, has long enjoyed the tender, loving care of the Heights Association with native trees, flower gardens, irrigation systems, drinking fountains, the much-loved jogging trail, plus memorials, benches, gazebos, and public "Thank Yous" to the likes of long time residents, business owners, and volunteers like Carl and Melvalene Cohen. With much effort and cooperation, this project got approval from the City’s Parks Department and Public Works as a major location for a public art exhibit. And now we all get to benefit.

What is True North about? The idea is for a sculpture project that "is a representation of local works of contemporary art along the esplanade for the enjoyment of our community and visitors.  Exhibits—produced by highly recognized Texas artists—will foster the understanding and advancement of art." Sounds good.

The first True North sculpture installation will be in place for roughly nine months.  There will be ten total sculptures from eight artists, including a 2-piece project from Lee Littlefield, who passed away last year and to whom the show is dedicated. 

Here is the line up, in no particular order:

Carter Ernst- The only piece by a woman artist, "Pointing North" is actually not installed yet.  Weather caused some delays, but sometime on the weekend of April 4 you can expect to see a large fiberglass dog on 600 block of Heights. Her piece is inspired by Ernst's own dog and, as Gus Kopriva noted in our chat, is perfect for the Heights, a very dog-centric neighborhood.

Dan Havel- Pictured above, the church that launched so much speculation is "Wildlife Sanctuary." Back in the 1990s, an old church was torn down/converted in to a funeral home on 18th at Columbia. Havel is re-introducing a piece of Heights history back to the neighborhood, but he is also making this architectural remnant functional with a purpose. If you get close, you'll see small doors that hold bird seed for the many feathered friends that live in and travel through the Heights. Another elemtnet of note: the steeple was once hit by lighting, which twisted it.

Paul Kittelson- Lawn Chairs (my apology to the artist. I failed to get the official name of this really awesome piece). Kittleson is known for large scale, whimsical art like giant popcorn pieces and lighting strike. He also does a lot of public works. A sculpture prof at UofH, his piece is simply "about furniture that is utilized a lot in the Heights." A piece of wall art with the fabric used for the chairs will be available at the Heights Association auction next weekend.

Lee Littlefield- His "Cypress Flowers" should look familiar to anyone in Houston. He took cypress and pine wood and used those materials to create brightly colored trees which are installed all over town.

Patrick Medrano- "From the Hood to The Heights" --- Medrano has taken the common architectural element of the shotgun house, suited it for dogs, and gave the dogs' house oars for a canine escape from some kind of imminent flood or hurricane. Once again, we love our dogs in the Heights.

Steve Murphy- "Things You CAn't Get From Books" Kopriva isn't sure what that means! LOL! In any case, this abstract sculpture is found in a small stand of trees, giving it more of a presence.

Dean Ruck-  "Hourglass"- This sculpture on 18th, is 14' tall with 150 5" mirrors. Dean is well known for his previous works with Dan Havel, most notably the Inversion house in Montrose. 

Ed Wilson- "Folded Plane" Wilson created a giant stainless steel paper airplane.

A year of planning and a Mayor’s Initiative Grant through Houston Arts Alliance, along with private donations, has made this project possible. There has been effort from many notable locals working with Kopriva. A Heights icon herself, artist Chris Silkwood is a long time community activist and was also leadership for this bunch of loveliness. 

It's only been three days and I already love everything about this art installation. I asked Kopriva if there would more sculptures or other projects after these are gone in November? He can't say right now but I think he hopes so. He sees Houston really bursting in to the national art spotlight right now and believes that there ample room for projects like this around our lovely city. We "have a lot of Boulevards," he noted. He wants to see the neighborhood's reaction and take community in to consideration. I think this is a thoughtful way of operating. I feel pretty sure, based on the excitement I've seen so far, that our community will welcome projects like this many times over. 

Like all art, our interpretations will be subjective. I imagine the piece open to most interpretations will probably be "Wildlife Sanctuary." Kopriva shared a story with me about being stopped by a pastor during the installation of the piece. "Is this a church?" he asked. He was concerned about a sinking church and what that might be symbolic of. "Oh no," Kopriva told him. "It is arising. It's being re-born." The pastor was lucky to have someone to work on his perspective with him that day, allowing him to leave in a more positive place than he arrived. Not everyone will be able to interact with the curator of this project or the artists who created it, but certainly many discussions will be had about all of it and what it might mean.

Some might muse about the meaning of True North and how it applies to each sculpture. The name  is the most literal part of the project: it is a reference to Heights Boulevard, which does, indeed, run true north.

Doing It For Ourselves--- and our Library!

I'm a child of the 80's. I can't help it if I draw inspiration from that decade, even if it's just for post titles. Plus who doesn't love an Annie Lenox/Aretha Franklin duet? .... but that's not what this is about.

So... some of you may remember a little contest put on by Lego a few months ago called Read.Build.Play. Our own Heights library branch was in 2nd place behind a little town in North Carolina called Mt Airy. The neighborhood rallied and tried to get us past Mt Airy to bring the $5k prize to the Heights. Local Chron.com writer Martin Hajovsky put out a plea for more votes in his Home In The Heights column. The column included some (I thought obvious) tongue-in-cheek comments about the little town that inspired Mayberry. Not everyone thought it was amusing, leading a reporter in Mt Airy to take a cheap shot at our community, Martin, and our library, all well claiming "I’m not going to sit here and slam the competition."  

The Mt Airy News's piece was frustrating to many of us because we knew that the Heights branch is one of many libraries in the Houston system and that, with each community trying to support their own, we couldn't count on our whole metro area to vote for the Heights. We were not going to have the population of 2million backing us as Mt Airy suggested. (NOTE: I did have many wonderful friends who live outside the Heights and helped by casting votes on a daily basis. Thanks to all of them). Still, we are a community of over 45,000 neighbors, so we thought we stood a chance.

Mt Airy's gorgeous new library, designed by the Mazria  architecture firm. 

Photo: www.mazria.com

The Heights voted. We were in first place. Then it was neck and neck. Then, Mt Airy started passing us at an incredible rate. At first some people thought news coverage had garnered them support from outside their community, but this pattern of 5-10 votes every time folks refreshed their screen continued for days. Heights folks got frustrated as their votes were outpaced sometimes 10 to 1 by Mt Airy. In the end, Mt Airy won with over 100k votes to the Heights' roughly 47,000.

But this is the Heights. Residents here don't give up on their community. Local parent and supporter of the library, Stephanie Riceman, quickly started to navigate the bureaucracy of the HPL system. She started at the Heights branch, working with Ms Sara, the children's librarian, and Pat Jones, the head librarian. At the same time Carrie Noxon, another local mom, was in touch with Maya Houston, the Executive Director of the Houston Library Foundation. Through separate channels, the two women were able to get a special donation account set up for the Heights library branch. 

The Heights Library

Photo: www.houstonpubliclibrary.com

To date, a few local families have been able to contribute a total of $750 to the Heights branch, which will be used primarily for the children's area to purchase books, toys or whatever else Ms Sara needs. She is known by many community members to be highly resourceful so good things are expected to happen with whatever is contributed. Still, $750 is a far cry from $5000 that we could have gotten from Lego.

Please consider making a donation to the Heights library today. This opportunity to give directly to our own branch hasn't always existed but is the result of many hours and many emails on the part of community members and library personnel. Every dollar counts and, while the library has been incredibly grateful for the money received so far, we all know we can do better! Even if every member of this community only donated $1, we could pass the Lego prize seven times over. Wouldn't that be amazing to see?

To make a donation, PRINT THIS DONATION FORM and mail it with a check to:

Houston Public Library Foundation

500 McKinney

Houston, Texas 77002

Make your checks out to: Houston Public Library Foundation

Specify: This donation is intended for the Heights Neighborhood Library - Juvenile Services

NOTE: You can donate to the HPL system on line but that donation will NOT be earmarked for the Heights branch.

The Houston Public Library Foundation has cleared the way to donate online on their page, and still channel your donation, if specified, to the Heights Neighborhood Library.

1. Start here and choose your amount:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=48644

2. On the Make Your Payment page, in the "Other" field, enter "Heights - Kids Group".

Or make a check out to: Houston Public Library Foundation
Specify: This donation is intended for the Heights Neighborhood Library - Juvenile Services. 
Mail: 
Houston Public Library Foundation
500 McKinney
Houston, TX 77002

This is such an amazing opportunity! Please do what you can to support our beautiful library and all that is does for the children in our neighborhood!