Emma and Crishell

The Peace, Healing, and Unity Now Festival (PHUN Fest) is an opportunity to stand together in strength and solidarity to break the tragic patterns of violence in New Orleans. In the spirit of the jazz funeral, we will both grieve our losses and celebrate life! We will sing together, laugh together, dance together, learn together, cry together, and, in unity, create a new vision for our beloved city.

The long-term vision is that through the connections and inspirations going into and at the Festival, coalitions of support can be initiated to strengthen and re-energize the ongoing work to create a safer, stronger New Orleans, where all lives are valued and everyone has the opportunity to fulfill their greatest potential.

The PHUN Fest is a one day healing event that can awaken us to the Oneness of Peace & Unity!

Now is the time, more than ever, to speak to what matters. And what matters is to end the violence, poverty and despair in our cities. So, let us gather in peace, unite in purpose, and bring a real healing to all of the neighborhoods and wards ofNew Orleans. This is a call for all churches, businesses, service organizations and non-profits to unite and create a stronger, safer community for our children and their children to come… Now is the time and we are the ones that can make it happen!

The PHUN Fest will feature:

Peace talks from internationally recognized peacemakers, including Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson,
Dr. Arun Gandhi

A Wiping Away of Tears Ceremony to honor community members lost to violence.

Music from noted artists, including the Charmaine Neville Band.

The Unity Choir – Choirs from several community churches joining together to sing out in One Voice, One Spirit!

Workshops designed to teach alternatives to violence.

A Non-Profit Resource Area featuring programs to empower and support the citizens of New Orleans.

Free Health Checkups with screenings for cholesterol levels, glucose levels, flexibility and bone strength, blood pressure and HIV.

Local Artist Area where artists and craft people can share their work and give opportunities for attendees to create art of their own.

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Planet Area where participants learn how to take good care of their own bodies and reduce stress, as well as how to live in better balance with the Earth. This will include a hands-on natural building demonstration.

Delicious food, activities for kids, and much more!

To support this incredible event, visit our Crowdrise page, and see how you can Be the Change in New Orleans.

Volunteer working on Owego Home

Rebuilding Owego One Home at a Time

Event details are as follows:

Date/Time:  Saturday, May 5th, at noon.  Everyone starts at noon and play should take about an hour, depending upon turn-out.

Location: T-Burg Family Entertainment Center’s Mini-Golf Course on Rt. 96

Age: 8 and up to participate in the tournament.  There will be activities for younger children, too.

Cost: $15 per person for early registration; $20 on the day of the event

Please mark your calendar and register today by one of the following methods:

• Visit our event page and click through the secure online checkout process
• Call Mike Cirri, of T-Burg Family Entertainment, at (607) 387-7888 and register over the phone
• Send a check for $15, made out to Love Knows No Bounds with “HOIFH” in the memo line, to: 230 Rachel Carson Way, Ithaca, NY 14850.  Please include the name, address, and phone number for the registrant(s).

In addition to giving you a chance to have fun while helping our neighbors in Owego get back into their homes, we have added some fantastic new prizes that participants can win, such as:

Please take a gander at the video to the right of your screen and take 5 minutes to enjoy what we are creating together with this mission.  If you like what you see, please share it with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Don’t settle for inspiration alone!  You can participate in getting Ruby and Velma back together, with ease, by clicking on our new-and-improved Donate button and making whatever contribution feels joyful and meaningful to you.  You can make a difference in Ruby’s life that lasts forever!

Thank you for being essential partners in our work!  Without you, we are just a bunch of do-gooders with dreams but no means to carry them out.  Our volunteers and donors are the lifeblood of our mission.  We LOVE you!!

Audrey’s Coming Home!!!  Love Knows No Bounds is heading down to NOLA on January 29th to finish Miss Audrey’s house, thanks to the amazing support of everyone who has contributed time, labor, funds, and love to the rebuilding of her home.

In the same week we said a fond farewell to LKNB founder Catherine Martinez, we
were granted our tax-exempt status, making us an official not-for-profit
organization! To bring greater awareness of and support for our mission, in
June we launched a vibrant new website, www.loveknowsnobounds.org,
which was soon followed by an improved presence on Facebook and Twitter.  Get updates, see photos, and more at: http://www.facebook.com/LoveKnowsNoBounds.

We are deeply grateful to all of our volunteers, donors, advisors, partners, and friends for the life-changing opportunities to serve amazing and resilient people!  This is what your support makes possible:

New Orleans

• To get beloved elder Miss Audrey back into her home, we collaborated with IthacaCollege group ReNew Orleans (formerly Audrey’s House), Cornell GEEKS, andLehman Alternative Community School (LACS). Because of our efforts, Miss Audrey will be back home by mid-January 2012!
• With many schools still closed and few positive outlets for youth, gang violence is on the rise in the 7^th Ward. To help combat this, we started a project to create a sustainably-built, solar-powered, community-empowerment center. The center will provide strategic programs for youth empowerment, such as academic support, GED preparation, mentorship for young entrepreneurs, employment preparation, and summer camp.
• To provide respite for community leaders, we collaborated with the PeaceWeavers of Bath, NY, to bring five Katrina survivors to their gorgeous retreat sanctuary for a week in August. During another respite trip to Ithaca in June, our New Orleans partners, Pastor Bruce and Deborah Davenport, marched in the Ithaca Festival Parade, officiated a wedding, were declared Honorary Ithacans by Mayor Carolyn Peterson, and feasted on love, laughter, and relaxation every step of the way.
• The PeaceWeavers and LKNB helped a family refinance their home at a favorable rate, and avoid losing it due to predatory lending that’s still prevalent in NOLA. This home is of special significance, since LKNB, LACS, and PeaceWeavers helped rebuild it.

Southern Tier, NY

• Following the devastating flood in early September, we helped families clean debris out of their homes in Owego and Johnson City, ripped up damaged flooring in Vestal, helped the Whole in the Wall restaurant in Binghamton re-open by providing skilled labor assistance, and distributed truckloads of home furnishings, clothes, and other essentials in Owego. During 2012, we will help rebuild homes, collect and donate more home furnishings, and create respite opportunities for our friends to the immediate south.

It is so easy to forget that recovery is a long and grueling process. People who are determined to keep their homes often deal with insurance loopholes, overwhelmed local agencies, trauma, extreme stress, brutal weather, and lack of funds. Long after the cameras stop rolling and the rest of the world has moved on, LKNB reminds survivors that they are not forgotten, helps them manage these challenges with strength, and return home. We think of ourselves as the “second wave,” but our friends in New Orleans call us, “The Cavalry.” We’ll take that, too!

We are so grateful to get to do service work that we love with people whose courage and tenacity so often move us to tears. Thank you for supporting our work and giving us the opportunity to help people rebuild their lives after catastrophe.

With deepest gratitude,

The LKNB Leadership Team

P.S.  We know money is a challenge for everyone.  That is especially true for
families recovering from catastrophe. Please consider giving what you can this
holiday season. A gift in any amount makes a world of difference. For example:

• $10 buys flowers or food plants for a garden.Gardens are especially healing on many levels for disaster survivors.
• $25 buys two sheets of sheetrock. These are theonly walls we like to build J
• $50 buys lumber for trim. Love may have nobounds, but rooms do.
• $100 buys an interior door. Help open new doorsof relief for disaster survivors!
• $200 rents a truck to distribute homefurnishings to disaster survivors
• $500 sponsors a week-long respite visit for acommunity leader

Contributions can be made on our secure website www.loveknowsnobounds.org,
or by sending a check made out to LKNB to:  Love Knows No Bounds, 230 Rachel Carson
Way, Ithaca, NY  14850

Article is here: http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20111123/NEWS01/111230345/Flood-giving-follows-flood-century-Tioga-residents?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CLocal+News&mid=5385.

With much gratitude,

Mike Ellis, Executive Director