Last year The Uptown Initiative along with The ARC of Rensselaer County, Missing Link Street Ministry, TRIP, Ross Valve & SEFCU sponsored the first Troy Community Harvest Festival. It was a ton of work and took many volunteers to make it the extraordinary success that it was. So when I heard that The ARC would not be spearheading an effort to hold the event again, I decided to see if I could get some funding through Pepsi's Refresh Everything program. Here we go again!
Millions of dollars of funding has been provided to thousands of worthy projects in the last 18 months that the program has been running including grants to CAC Woodside, Cohoes Music Hall & Hannah's Hope. Troy BID made an excellent run at funding too in January 2011, falling just short. Well, I'm happy to report that the UptownTroyFestival is within range of getting that funding. It's early and August is a long month. As Ken Zalewski, D-District 5 said Thursday night at the City Council meeting, it will take a small city worth of daily votes to get this project funded. I believe that Troy NY is just that small city.
There are some changes to the program this year, mainly those little yellow caps containing Power Vote Codes. It is those Power Vote codes that have gotten many a small project funded this year. To help in collecting those codes, Cap Collection Centers have been set up throughout our fair city. You can drop off your caps at Smoker's Choice in the Troy Plaza, High Maintenance, Low Budget in North Lansingburgh, any The ARC of Rensselaer County office, Missing Link Street Ministry on 101st & Sixth Avenue or Conway Court off of Hoosick. I'll be adding more CCC's as the month progresses, so keep a watchful eye out for the new additions. If you'd like to set up a CCC at your location, let me know.
I've also been fortunate enough to partner with two incredible projects: Nicholson Heritage Association is seeking to preserve their 1849 Railroad Station and Angels4Epilepsy who provides care packages to children afflicted with Epilepsy from low-income families. Please support these groups with your daily votes too.
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