Last Ice Cream Social, First Neighborhood Clean-Up

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Bailey Ice Cream Social, we had a great turn-out!  Check it out:

Residents had the chance to meet their neighbors and the CRC interns and chat with city officials such as Interim City Manager George Lahanas, Police Chief Juli Liebler, East Lansing City Councilmember Roger Peters, and Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris- all while enjoying MSU Dairy Store ice cream.  Participants even got to sample seasonally appropriate Pumpkin Spice flavor- yum!

Next on the CRC calendar- this year's first Neigbhorhood Clean-up!  We'll be meeting in the parking lot of the 54B District Court at 10:30 am this Sunday, September 25 and then hitting the streets in an effort to beautify our community.  The CRC is registered with Service-Learning, so if you need Service Learning hours for a class or group you're involved them, this is a GREAT way to get them.  Refreshments will be provided!

Free Ice Cream and Neighborly Bonding

If you Missed out on the Red Cedar Neighborhood’s ice cream social due to rainy weather, here is another opportunity to enjoy free Dairy Store Ice Cream on behalf of the CRC. We will be hosting a third ice cream social in the Bailey Neighborhood on September 21st. It will be held at 361 Bailey from 6:00 to 7:00pm. This is a great way to meet neighbors and interns. There may even be a few city officials that attend!


The CRC would also like to invite all members of the East Lansing Community to join us on our first Neighborhood Cleanup of the Year! It will take place at 10:30 on Sunday September 25th. We will be meeting in the parking lot of 54b District Court. This is a great opportunity to make new friends and give back to the communities we all know and love.

We all scream for ice cream!

The CRC’s first neighborhood ice cream social of the year took place this past Thursday in the Oakwood Neighborhood, and was a great success despite the dreary weather!  Residents chatted it up with Mayor Vic Loomis, Deputy City Manager George Lahanas, Officer Rodriguez from the ELPD, and CRC interns over MSU Dairy Store Hoosier Strawberry and Buckeye Blitz ice cream.  Check it out:

Residents of the Red Cedar Neighborhood won’t want to miss out on their own ice cream social, which will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 14.  The CRC will be providing more FREE Dairy Store ice cream goodness  from 6:00-7:00pm at 1054 Marigold, the home of Red Cedar Community Association chairperson Marcia Van Ness.  It’ll be a great chance for residents to come out and meet the neighbors, city officials, and the new CRC interns!

Training Week

As one of the new interns for the CRC, I am excited to say that we have successfully completed our training week and our first week of outreach! During our training week, we were able to get to know each other and become familiar with the task at hand as CRC interns.  It was exciting to view the East Lansing community in a very unique light. We were given the opportunity to meet City Council members, and visit the Police Department, Fire Department, City hall, and of course the Department of Public Works. We were also able to get to know our fellow interns on a whole different level during our day at the Adventure Center at Pretty Lake. During our visit we did a lot of team building exercises and finished the day with a high ropes course. We would like to thank all of the speakers and everyone that made our training possible, and we are all eager for the start of a great year! 

We'll be back in the fall!

The CRC internship runs during the academic year, so the blog will be back in the fall with a new team of interns! The interns for 2011-2012 have been hired and will begin training on August 22nd. They are a great group and it should be a wonderful year!

-Olivia (CRC Intern Coordinator)

End of the Year

First off, we want to thank everyone for all the support that made the CRC so successful! We wouldn't have been able to all that we can if it weren't for our community.

Year in Review:

I remember it like yesterday. It was training week and the interns had just met each other, as well as our supervisor. Little did we know what would happen from that point in time.  It started with training week where we were still learning about one another, and trying to discover what each person can contribute.  It quickly progressed into the late summer where we held Ice Cream Socials in each of the neighborhoods. Before we knew it, it was the fall and we were out on the streets of East Lansing picking up litter, trying to make this a better place to live.  One of our favorite events took place soon after, the Bring Your Own Pumpkin event, where we came together to carve pumpkins and bond as neighbors. Winter rolled around, and the CRC was at its annual post at the Winter Bowl and Chili Cook Off.  Another favorite event was the Free Holiday Photo event, where we had a professional photographer come in and take free pictures for the holidays, and if you wanted, Sparty was there to help beautify your picture!  Spring was upon us and a Free Ice Skating event was held, so we all could come out and enjoy some exercise with neighbors.  Next came the International Coffee Hour, which the CRC helped sponsor. With the year quickly wrapping up, the CRC made its last appearance at a The Marble Elementary School Carnival.

Again, we cannot thank the community enough for all the support we have received.  We are going to take a quick break over the summer, but will be back and ready to go in the fall!

Thanks!

The CRC has won the Crystal Award!

The CRC is very grateful for the Crystal Award!  It is a big honor and we all had a great time at the ceremony meeting people.  Thank you to everyone who has helped make this organization a success! Below is a photo and the text from the announcement of the award at the Crystal Award Reception:

The Community Relations Coalition (CRC) was created during a time of unrest in the East Lansing community in an effort to strengthen town-gown relationships. Since 2000, Michigan State University students have been hired each academic school year to serve as CRC interns (or neighborhood resource coordinators) in East Lansing's off-campus neighborhoods. These interns have successfully helped foster positive communication and interaction among residents and students through participation in and facilitation of a number of community events and programs. Whether hosting a neighborhood block party, facilitating a community coat drive, participating in neighborhood cleanups, attending neighborhood association meetings or providing educational outreach to neighbors, the CRC interns are always busy at work with an ultimate goal of bridging the gap between residents and students. The CRC Board also hosts events that enhance communication and encourages conversations among East Lansing residents, the city, the university and students. While each event the CRC hosts may seem small when standing along, together these events create positive face-to-face interactions that otherwise probably wouldn't happen. These invaluable interacions help neighbors to meet, know and respect each other; while also helping them to broaden their perspectives and see the community from more than one viewpoint. The CRC is a non-profit organization made up of a core leadership team, a board of directors and the CRC student interns hired each year to carry ou the organization's mission. Through its hard work and successes, the CRC has become a model organization for other college communities looking to improve their town-gown relationships.