In the past weeks, Morningside Village has become a reality. And, we continue to attract a number of partners, like Law & Order SVU, which sent us a monetary gift after filming on our blocks; the Bank Street College (610 W. 112th Street), which is providing space for our large Village meeting on September 16th (6pm), and the West Side Market, offering special services to seniors, like in-store escorts and free delivery with purchases of $25 or more. Banco Popular is providing other services as is the Village Copier. Our list is growing.
In addition, we have begun to help people with needs, like the neighbor who needs help with her disabled husband and another who is having difficulty scaling the steps in front of her apartment building. Two people have asked us to expand our borders from W. 114th Street to W. 116th Street. So there are lots of opportunities for creative problem-solving as we move along.
In addition, we have found that many of the residents at a local nursing home where we volunteer say they are grateful for our visits. Serendipitously, we find that volunteers can also be grateful.
For example, just today, with a headache from paint fumes in my apartment, I couldn’t think of doing my regular 3-mile “power walk”, so I hitched up the dog and walked over to the nursing home and called for an elderly resident I knew. We’ll call him Mr. K (not his real name). We took a leisurely 1-hour walk around the Columbia campus where I learned, among other things, that he was born on a rural farm down south and didn’t know there was such a thing as an in-home bathroom until he was 7. As the son of a white father and a black mother, Mr. K. told about what it was like growing up in the south back in the days. We talked of food, politics, our children, and, before I left him back at the nursing home, my lungs were full of oxygen, my ideas expanded, and my headache just about gone.
This week, we’re working on a neighborhood newsletter, the Morningside Villager, to be published and distributed in time to let people know about our 6pm mass meeting on September 16th at the Bank Street College. Hope to see you there.
Irene Zola
