The Antioch Police Department is excited to announce the 58th installment of the Neighborhood Cleanup Program. This is a collaborative community effort which involves active participation from The Antioch Police Department Crime Prevention Commission; Neighborhood Watch Program; Volunteers in Police Service; community volunteers and the Public Works Department.

Collectively, “We”, everyone who works and lives in the City Antioch, can make a difference and improve the quality of life. It’s our community and it’s our chance to make a difference.

The City of Antioch Neighborhood Cleanup program is not just for residential neighborhoods. It is a program that will change venues on a monthly basis and it will include business and commercial areas as well. Neighborhoods that are free of trash and refuse are inviting, and a clean community instills a sense of community pride.

The 58th Neighborhood Cleanup event will occur on Saturday, January 3rd from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the newly incorporated Viera Avenue neighborhood. Volunteers should report to Wymore Way near East 18^th Street for parking.

Volunteers will receive instructions and the equipment necessary to accomplish the goal. The targeted area is within walking distance. Excluding inclement weather, future Neighborhood Cleanup events are scheduled for the first Saturday of every month and the locations will be announced in advance.

Remember, cleaning up your neighborhood can make life better for your family,

your neighbors and your community!

By Lt. Connie Hall, Corporate Officer, The Salvation Army of Antioch Corps

The Salvation Army needs your help. We are short on toys and may not reach our goal of providing Christmas to our neighbors in need. We have been able to fill nearly 270 request for help but are short on toys for nearly 100 families. We are in desperate need of brand new toys for girls age 6-12. Our shortfall comes due to a downturn in donations and our failure to receive our ‘Toys for Tot’ order. Please consider helping as every little bit can make a huge difference to a child in our community we are hoping that any agencies or community programs which have excess or have completed there distribution would be willing and able to share their resources.

Any thing at this point would help.

Please call (925) 778-0808 and drop off the toys at 620 E. Tregallas Road in Antioch, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information visit www.salvationsarmy.org.

By John Crowder

The Antioch Corps of the Salvation Army has an urgent need for volunteers to participate as Bell Ringers for their annual Red Kettle Campaign.

Lieutenant Connie Hall, Commander of the Antioch Corps, explained the need at the weekly meeting of the Kiwanis Club of the Delta-Antioch at their weekly, 7:00 a.m. meeting at Denny’s Restaurant on Tuesday, December 9. “People are very generous,” she said, “but we are experiencing an acute shortage of volunteer Bell Ringers.” With only two weeks to go for the campaign, she said, “without more volunteers to man the red kettles, we’ll be several thousand dollars behind on this important fund-raiser. That would mean having to cut programs, something I never want to say.”

Following the meeting, Hall provided Herald staff with a tour of the Salvation Army facility, located at 620 East Tregallas Road, and spoke about the Red Kettle Campaign and the work that the Salvation Army does for the local community.

Hall said that the vast majority of the Salvation Army’s support is derived from donor contributions received in the local community. They look to local volunteers, who work two-hour shifts manning the kettles in front of local stores that have allowed them to set up the donation kettles beside the store entrances. Hall said that, with a 100% volunteer campaign, the group could raise as much as $100,000 in contributions over a Christmas season, with $0.86 of every dollar going “directly to support the Salvation Army’s various community programs throughout the year.”

During the tour, Hall led us through the rooms where the myriad of community support programs are administered. They included a food storage area for their food bank, meeting areas for support groups, and a small classroom providing after-school care for local school children. She said they also funded summer camp opportunities for children, PG&E assistance for those encountering a financial emergency, and programs designed to help members of the community find employment. “We’re not just giving a handout, we’re giving a hand up,” she said.

John Sullivan, Immediate Past President of the Delta-Antioch Kiwanis, was one of several of the members of the local service organization who volunteered to help with the Salvation Army campaign. At 10:00 a.m. on the same day Hall spoke, he was out in front of Hobby Lobby, standing beside a red kettle and ringing the bell that so many recognize at this time of year. During his two hour shift, about half of those leaving the store made donations. Many young children placed donations in the kettle as their mothers’ looked on, approvingly. Each was greeted with a heartfelt, “Thank you, Merry Christmas,” by Sullivan, and most responded by thanking him for his work.

Asked about his volunteer effort, Sullivan said, “I’m retired, and my whole purpose now is to give back to the community. I think it’s kind of fun to ring the bell, and see people, and to see their generosity.”

People interested in volunteering should call Salvation Army Lieutenant Purnell Hall, Connie’s husband, at 925-778-0808, extension 12. Information about the Salvation Army can be found on the web at www.thesalvationarmy.org.

The Red Kettles and Bell Ringers began in the Bay Area almost 125 years ago

The red kettle has been an American icon for nearly 125 years. From Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, the ubiquitous buckets can be found outside thousands of storefronts in small towns and big cities across the country. They can even be found on your TV, appearing in dozens of movies.

Red kettles raise millions for Salvation Army programs that provide food, shelter, rehabilitation, disaster relief, and much more for people and families in crisis. Last Christmas season, nationwide, kettles raised almost $136 million.

Indeed, red kettles are a Christmas force. But have you ever wondered who started the red kettle tradition, where, and why?

Wonder no more. Below is a short history of the Salvation Army red kettle, one of the most timeless and successful Christmas fundraising tools of all time.

Origins

In December of 1891, Captain Joseph McFee of The Salvation Army in San Francisco, Calif., was stumped. He wanted to provide a Christmas dinner for 1,000 poor people, but had no way to pay for it.

Then, an idea. He thought back to when he was as a sailor in Liverpool, England, where on the docks of the city’s waterfront he remembered seeing a large pot into which charitable donations could be thrown.

The next day, McFee secured permission to place a brass urn at the Oakland ferry landing. Beside the pot, he placed a sign that read, “Keep the Pot Boiling.” Soon, he had all the money he needed to fund the Christmas dinner.

Two years later, McFee’s fundraising idea had expanded to 30 kettle locations on the West Coast. He’d grown the program with help from two young Salvation Army officers named William A. McIntyre and N.J. Lewis.

Soon after Christmas 1895, McIntyre and Lewis were transferred to the East Coast. They took with them the idea of a Christmas kettle.

Kettle explosion

McIntyre was stationed in Boston. During the 1897 Christmas season, he, his wife and sister set up three kettles in the heart of the city. Their effort, combined with others on the West Coast and elsewhere, resulted in 150,000 Christmas dinners for the poor, nationwide.

Red kettles spread to the Big Apple, where the New York World newspaper hailed them as “the newest and most novel device for collecting money.” The newspaper also observed, “There is a man in charge to see that contributions are not stolen.”

In 1901, kettle donations in New York City funded a massive sit-down Christmas dinner at Madison Square Garden. The meal became a tradition for many years.

The rest, as they say, is history. Captain McFee’s idea launched a tradition that has spread not only throughout the United States, but across the world. Although red kettles are not found in all of the 126 countries The Salvation Army serves in, they can still be found in such distant lands as Korea, Japan, Chile, and many European countries.

Join the movement

You can be part of the red kettle tradition by signing up to bell ring.

Thousands of hours of ringing are available at hundreds of kettle locations across the country. Bell ringers raise an average of $30 per hour. In just two hours of ringing, you’ll raise enough money to provide a week’s worth of groceries for a family of four.

 

The Antioch Police Department is excited to announce the 57th installment of the Neighborhood Cleanup Program. This is a collaborative community effort which involves active participation from The Antioch Police Department Crime Prevention Commission; Neighborhood Watch Program; Volunteers in Police Service; community volunteers and the Public Works Department.

Collectively, “We”, everyone who works and lives in the City Antioch, can make a difference and improve the quality of life. It’s our community and it’s our chance to make a difference.

The City of Antioch Neighborhood Cleanup program is not just for residential neighborhoods. It is a program that will change venues on a monthly basis and it will include business and commercial areas as well. Neighborhoods that are free of trash and refuse are inviting, and a clean community instills a sense of community pride.

The 57th Neighborhood Cleanup event will occur on Saturday, December 6th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the neighborhoods surrounding Eagleridge Park at Eagleridge and Greystone Drive. Volunteers should report to the parking lot of John Muir Elementary School at 615 Greystone Drive.

Volunteers will receive instructions and the equipment necessary to accomplish the goal. The targeted area is within walking distance. Excluding inclement weather, future Neighborhood Cleanup events are scheduled for the first Saturday of every month and the locations will be announced in advance.

Remember, cleaning up your neighborhood can make life better for your family, your neighbors and your community!

By Allen Payton

About 100 Antioch residents attended a meeting on Wednesday night, November 12, 2014 regarding the Downtown Specific Plan and City-wide General Plan Land Use and Zoning Ordinance Update. Some shared their concerns and offered ideas to the city’s staff and a consultant.

In a presentation by constultant Dick Loewke, he stated that “Home values in Antioch are only 60% of what they were before” the economic downturn. “But they are stabilizing and growing,” he added.

One area of housing that is currently not in the city’s housing mix is transit-oriented development, which includes densities of up to 30 to 40 units per acre. That is expected to occur around the new eBART Station at Hillcrest Avenue.

Also in his presentation, Loewke stated that high-density an medium-density housing won’t work in Antioch’s downtown, at least not in the next five years, because the cost of “construction is greater than the price structure.”

“What is feasible,” he stated, “is single-family, compact housing on small lots…with common walls…of 12 to 14 units per acre. That will work in today’s market.”

He mentioned potential job sectors, such as the service industry, such as boat and RV repair and maintenance as areas the city could expand its economy, as well as restaurants. Also, administrative and medical jobs are areas of potential expansion.

Following the presentation, residents had the opportunity to speak and provide their input to the plan updates, but only to Loewke, his son and Mindy Gentry, the city’s Senior Planner in the Community Development Department. None of the council members were in attendance, nor City Manager Steve Duran. However, Lori Ogorchock, who was elected to the council, last week, did attend the meeting.

Clay Baskin shared his concerns about crime, that it can’t be ignored as a factor, and how the city has been talking about revitalizing downtown for 20 years.

Others shared that the emphasis shouldn’t be on more housing.

“I would like the city to not plan for people who are not here,” one woman said. “Not just more housing.” She advocated for “waterfront recreation for all, not carpetbaggers.”

Another resident said the downtown businesses need to be open longer.

Jim Lanter, who owns an insurance agency located in downtown, said there needs to be more events, downtown to bring people to the area.

Former owner of Lamothe Cleaners, which had operated in Antioch since the 1950’s, Tom Lamothe, said he there needs to be more businesses before more housing in downtown.

Bruce Ohlson, an advocate for bicyclists said the city needs at least one street north-south and one street east-west with a continuous bike lane for travel.

The next update meeting will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall, next Wednesday night at 7 p.m. and will be a joint meeting of the Antioch Planning and Economic Development Commissions. For more information visit www.ci.antioch.ca.us or call the Community Development Department at (925) 779-7035.