Click here to view the flyer for the January 28th Benefit to save the Beach Flats Community Center .

Dear Friends - At the beginning of "Inauguration Weekend," a time when many Americans are being called to volunteer for a National Day of Service and to work together to help others, I would like you to be aware of a very specific need right here in Santa Cruz, and am asking for your immediate help with an important challenge, and offering a way in which you can make a difference.   Please read on...

 

We have been recently heard a lot about the severe financial crisis being faced by the City of Santa Cruz. In order to meet its budgetary demands, many resident services have been reduced or eliminated.

One of these is the February 1, 2009 closure of the Beach Flats Community Center. The Beach Flats Community Center (BFCC) is a community and family resource center in the heart of the Beach Flats at 133 Leibrandt Avenue.  This facility houses many necessary programs that serve some of the disadvantaged of our community. BFCC plays a critical role in building healthy families and community pride and provides flexible programming that is continuously responsive to neighborhood needs. One of its most important activities is the Beach Flats Family School Coop that is the only pre-Kindergarten educational program serving 120 families. In addition to its preschool, BFCC also sponsors an after-school homework program, a Kids' Club, and year-round community gardens.

Like many of our friends and neighbors, I had not heard about the Beach Flats Community Center until the issue came before the City Council in December. However, during the past month I have taken a role in the issues surrounding the closure of the Beach Flats Community Center, and have been actively working to help raise funds for the Center's long and short term needs.

I hope that you will join me today to help keep the Beach Flats Community Center running. Here is what you can do:

PLEASE HELP SAVE THE BEACH FLATS COMMUNITY CENTER!

*Join us for our Fundraiser on Wednesday, January 28th for a great fundraiser 
Cypress Lounge, 120 Union Street (7 pm- 10 pm)
http://www.beachflatscommunitycenter.org/bfcc/Cypress_Lounge.html

*Download the attached flyer, and help to distribute it, post it, send it to your friends

*Invite your friends to the Cypress Lounge fundraiser on January 28

*Send an email to all your friends asking them to visit our website www.beachflatscommunitycenter.org

*Join the facebook Group "SAVE the Beach Flats Community Center" and tell all your friends to join!!!

Hilary


From the Beach Flats Community Center website:

Beach Flats may be one of the poorest communities in Santa Cruz County, but that is only a small part of our story. It is a place where we all know our neighbors. We are a community of caring families who look out for one another. It is ok to be a little quirky if you live in the Beach Flats. You will see people sitting on their front porches, talking to their neighbors, gardening and playing with their children in the park.

The brightly painted houses are small and date back to a bygone era of tiny beach bungalows on a maze of narrow, but tidy one way streets. Residents petitioned the city to put in speed bumps to slow down traffic and keep children safe.

The neighborhood hasn't always felt so positive. It took years of dedication and organizing by the residents to transform the area.

The Beach Flats Community Center is the heart of this organizing effort. We believe that we can imagine the kind of world we want to live in...and then make it so.