The Simpson Stump - November 2019

Simpson Stump:

Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays to you all!

Just two quick topics I’d like to get into with this newsletter:

The Season of Giving and Charity

Despite getting turned into an advertising slogan, the holidays and ‘The Season of Giving’ are upon us once again. This time of year offers us a chance to share our good fortune with our family, friends, and those in less fortunate circumstances. It is to the last of those I would like to briefly cover today. There has been an increase nationwide in attention that is being given to donating time, goods, food, and money to the homeless in our community. States, counties, and cities have sought ways to make these efforts go as far as possible, and trying to minimize any other unintended issues that might arise.

As is often the case in Phoenix, as well as Arizona, this effort is being headed up by a collection of private, public, charitable, and religious organizations. Many organizations who have a hand in collecting and distributing donated goods and supporting the disadvantaged, have banded together to create the Healthy Giving Council.

I’d encourage anyone who is considering giving to charitable organizations this holiday season to visit their website: www.givesmartaz.org and read a bit more about what healthy giving is, and how you can best help. There are links to organizations that support the efforts into serving both the homeless as well as the communities that make up their members. These links offer opportunities for donations of goods and money, as well as a link to opportunities where you can volunteer your time as well.

Some of these organizations are located in and adjacent to Simpson, and we have worked with (indirectly so far). Native American Connections operates housing all around Phoenix, including their new apartments near Camelback and 15th Ave. Homeward Bound is an organization that helps homeless families, and is actually based in Simpson Neighborhood (at 23rd Ave and Colter). I’d also encourage donating time, money, or food to St. Mary’s Food Bank who are based on the other side of the I-17 and need donations as well as volunteers to sort those donations year round.

Upcoming changes to the Simpson Newsletter

And for the second topic, a preview of some changes coming to this very Simpson Newsletter next year. These will likely change around a bit as we move forward, but some of the general points:

1. We’re going to be reworking the advertising on the back of the Newsletter. While we want to provide a directory of local and locally owned businesses, we’d like to use the Newsletter to support the businesses who directly support Simpson Neighborhood. Starting in January, we will be including those businesses who have donated goods or money in support of our GAIN event or the upcoming Luminarias. We’re currently working with the goal of keeping the newsletter to a single page front and back.

2. We will be working to confirm the list of businesses and contact information we currently have and creating a new link on the Simpson website (www.simpsonneighborhood.org). That page will be referred to in the advertising section header from this point on, and we will be working on getting more of the surrounding businesses onto the list.

3. The above changes are tied to a new section that we will have in the Simpson Newsletter that offers an opportunity for any of our residents to provide a guest column in this location. So far they’ve all been written by Randi and myself (Steven), but keeping that to just us isn’t the intent. We’ll be calling this The Simpson Stump, and if you’re interested in sharing something with the community, just let us know (azstills@gmail.com). We’ve had a volunteer or two so far, and aside from being related to Simpson and keeping a neighborly tone, we don’t have any other framework in mind. So if you’d like to share happenings in the neighborhood, a bit of history from some of our longtime residents, we’d be happy to work with you.

4. If you have any other changes to the newsletter you’d like to see, please let the committee know. We’ve gotten some feedback and critiques so far, and will work to incorporate what we can. And as always, if you’re willing to help handout newsletters to your neighbors, please let us know. Some of the delivery routes have gotten larger than can be covered by a single person. Getting more volunteers to hand out newsletters is the only guarantee you’ll continue receiving these paper versions on your door!

That’s it for this month. Hope to see you all at the Hot Chocolate Social on 12/8!

Thanks for your time!

Steven and Randi (Simpson Co-Chairs)