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Rebuilding Together | New Playground | Tree Nursery

Rebuilding Together

The Northside Home Fund and Rebuilding TogetherTM Twin Cities (RTTC) joined together for a third year to help homeowners in North Minneapolis make basic repairs to their homes. Taking good care of homes and properties helps make Minneapolis neighborhoods healthy, safe, and livable places for residents and visitors.

The NHF partnered with RTTC for the first time in 2006 and again in 2007 and 2008. In total, more than 300 volunteers worked together to complete minor home repairs on 30 homes in and around the cluster areas free of charge. The partnership between the NHF and RTTC is an important part of the NHF’s efforts to support and maintain existing homeowners in the clusters and to stabilize the entire cluster area.

For more information about Rebuilding Together Twin Cities, call 651- 776-4273 or visit www.rebuildingtogether-twincities.org.

Below is a thank you letter from a homeowner who participated in the Rebuilding Together effort:

Dear Kathy, Keith, Leo, and Volunteers,
I just wanted to write a few lines to thank all of you for a job well done. I’m sure many of you were not aware of the monumental task that was ahead of you Saturday morning. I am still so overwhelmed every time I go outside. You all need to know that you did so much more than just transform my home that day. I am so moved to think that you all came together to help ME. Each and every one of you has a special place in my heart. I am diligently following my watering schedule and hoping for grass soon. I’m working on putting the second coat of paint on my deck, giving tours of my bathroom to show off my new toilet, and making plans on how to decorate my backyard. Once again thank you for all your HARD WORK.

Sincerely,
Pam

New Playground Equipment in Cottage Park
Cottage Park has a new playground! Last summer a group of volunteers from the neighborhood, The Ackerberg Group, The Pohlad Foundation, The Jordan Area Community Council, the City of Minneapolis, the Northside Home Fund, and members of the Garden of Gethsemane Church located in Cottage Park joined together to install brand new playground equipment in the cluster. The new equipment brings a blast of color and energy to the park, especially when it is overflowing with children! Our thanks go out to the Minneapolis Park Board, Minnesota/Wisconsin Playground, the Shelter Corporation, and all of the other supporters of the project.

The Department of Public Works also installed speed humps around the park to slow traffic and improve safety for children walking to the park. With the support of The Pohlad Family Foundation, the SPEAK Project worked with youth, primarily from Jordan, to create an amazing art bench to replace a park board bench that was stolen from near the playground.


EcoVillage Tree Nursery
EcoVillage partners changed a vacant lot from a symbol of the emptiness left in neighborhoods by the foreclosure crisis to a tree nursery and an example of the positive changes that are underway in this cluster.

Thirty trees were donated through the City of Minneapolis City Trees program and planted on the lot. The trees will be cared for and cultivated by neighborhood residents until they can be planted permanently throughout the EcoVillage and surrounding Hawthorne neighborhood. EcoVillage neighbors shoveled mulch with Mayor Rybak, Council Member Hofstede, and neighborhood leaders at a ceremonial tree planting in August.