Enlarge Matthews Alive! (Photo by Erin Smith, The Charlotte Observer)

Posted: September 8th, 2010 Greg Lacour

Some stories worth sharing this week:

• A pair of features in the Sunday paper about two people with commitments to fresh thinking about Charlotte’s future--Candice Langston gets set to host a convention of creative thinkers September 24 at TEDxCharlotte, the Queen City version of a Silicon Valley thinkfest; and local sustainability advocate Shannon Binns continues to develop ways to improve the city’s long-term quality of life through the nonprofit Sustain Charlotte.


• Mayor Anthony Foxx, the freshly named chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Small Business Task Force, is trying to come up with ways to help small businesses grow in the recession.


• The Charlotte Chapter of The Links Inc. will sponsor a two-mile walk starting in Marshall Park on September 18 to raise awareness about childhood obesity, a problem that’s worst among Latino boys and African-American girls.


• And the magnificent pre-autumn weather over the weekend meant a monster turnout for a festival that’s raised more than $750,000 for area nonprofits and volunteer efforts--Matthews Alive! Were you there?

Posted: September 1st, 2010 Greg Lacour

A group of 13 philanthropists, businesspeople, government officials and citizens are joining up under the banner of Foundation For The Carolinas to try to relieve one of Charlotte’s knottiest problems-–how to close the achievement gap and curb dropout rates in public schools.

It’s an increasingly difficult task, especially with the economy taking a toll on tax revenue and public funding for school systems like Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s. So like some other school systems throughout the country, CMS is turning to the business and philanthropic communities for help.

The new CMS Investment Study Group’s 13 members will meet with administrative and staffing help from FFTC beginning September 8. The group will examine other communities’ experiences with philanthropic involvement in public education. By the end of 2010, they hope to produce a set of recommendations on how best to apply philanthropic gifts to help lessen the performance gap between affluent and poor, and minority and non-minority, CMS students.

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Posted: August 21st, 2010 Greg Lacour

At 83, after decades of community involvement and activism, Thereasea Clark Elder can’t put as much energy into her work as she used to.

Luckily, other folks have stepped in – like Clair Lane, whose organization, Our Foundation For Children, has taken over an event in the Rockwell Park/Hemphill Heights neighborhood in north Charlotte that Elder used to spearhead.

It's a back-to-school celebration and fair, held at the neighborhood’s main park – which is, not coincidentally, named after Elder. When Elder and other community activists created the event in the early '90s, they envisioned it as a fun way to get people in the neighborhood and their kids to know each other, as well as a chance to collect school supplies for needy families. It was a small gathering, with about 50 families coming out every year.

Then, about five years ago, “Clair came in with OFC, and we just went in with them,” Elder said. “We’re getting old,” she laughed, “and we didn’t have anyone to take over. They’re much more equipped to do it than we were.”

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Posted: August 17th, 2010 Greg Lacour

Some stories worth sharing this week:

1. Two tales of young--very young--ladies lending their good hearts and skills to a pair of worthy causes: Five-year-old Izzi Gorden selling lemonade and kids’ outfits to raise money for CMC-Pineville’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; and Carson LaBelle of Troutman organizing a walk and bicycle rides to benefit the Charlotte chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
2. Coverage of a small but hardy group of citizens trying to make a difference for African-Americans in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
3. Serendipity through local TV news: WBTV’s “Pass 3 On” segment stumbles on someone trying to help minority communities in Charlotte.
4. The story of an organization called Classroom Central that’s trying to help teachers who have to reach into their own pockets to buy school supplies for their students.
5. Finally, a post by our own Rhiannon Bowman about a thrilling evening at the Levine Museum of the New South--five women sharing poems in multiple languages as part of the museum’s Verano Multicultural series, in the process trying to build more bridges among cultures and nationalities.