Community for Understanding and Hope

CFUH Community Ice Cream Social at the Magic House

A great time was had by all on June 23, 2009.

Thanks to the The Magic House – St. Louis Children’s Museum
The Scott Laytham and Karl “Trickee” Holmes Duo
Cold Stone Creamery and The Custard Station

This year we had 505 people, an increase of about 8% over last year in spite of the repressive heat. We also had a number of our elected officials in attendance. We appreciate their support for our programs.

Missouri State Senator:	Eric Schmitt
Missouri State Rep:	Rick Stream
Kirkwood Mayor:	Art McDonnell
Council Member:	Iggy Yuan
Council Member:	Gerry Biedenstein
School Board Member:	Kathy Harris

Click here to see photos from this event.

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Our Future

On Saturday March 7, 2009 the CFUH Steering Committee held a retreat to discuss the future direction of our group The strongest commitment that came out of the retreat is the Steering Committee’s wishes to continue its work PROMOTING A RESPECTFUL PREJUDICE-FREE community. Another decision was to change of our name to Community for Understanding and Hope. We continue to believe that broadening the level of understanding in our community is of paramount importance. Now we want to focus our organization on building a greater future for all of our citizens. For the time being, we will retain the mission statement we have although we may want to make some modification to that as we adjust our direction in this, our second year.

The Steering Committee has decided on three areas of focus and is establishing committees to work on each of these areas.

Cross Racial Interaction will seek to provide:

• Social interaction among races,
• A safe place for people to tell their stories,
• Involvement of our city's youth in exploring racial interaction,
• Increased awareness of how we view and treat others,
• Development of smaller, less formal racially-mixed groups such as Bridges, and
• Events such as speaker series or forums.

Meacham Park Neighborhood Concerns will seek to provide:

• A united voice for Meacham Park residents,
• Increased efforts to help Meacham Park residents feel more included, and
• Clearer, more concise, and prioritized understanding of the needs of Meacham Park.

Education will seek to provide:

• Reduced achievement gap between races in the R-7 Schools,
• More black teachers and administrators in the R-7 schools,
• Discussions with R-7 Board and Administrators regarding race relations and issues,
• Working relationship with the new Superintendent of Schools in Kirkwood,
• More blacks involved in school committees, and
• Events such as speaker series or forums.

Other possible areas of focus were considered. Some of these are being considered by other groups.

Our intent with this summary is to honor our commitment to you to keep you up to date with our activities and our future direction. All of you remain very much a part of CFUH. We thoroughly appreciate your input and your concern for our future. We cannot do this work without your participation and your well wishes for this group’s success. We honestly believe that if CFUH can succeed, ALL of Kirkwood succeeds on so many levels. Thank you for your continued interest and we will make every effort to keep you up to date on our progress. If you are interested in participating on one of our committees, please send an email to

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Book Club

Co-sponsored by CFUH and the Kirkwood Public Library.
The next meeting of the CFUH Book Club will be on Thursday evening, July 28, 2009 at 7 PM. Our book to be discussed that night will be The Color of Water by James McBride. The meeting will be at Kaldi's in Kirkwood on the Plaza. Outside if the weather is mild, inside if not. Please consider buying coffee or tea, etc. during our conversation. Click here for a list of all book club selections. Books are available at the Library.

Our book selection meeting for next year's books will be a potluck Thurs, Sept 24, place to be announced. Each of us will bring 2 or 3 titles to recommend. Variety is welcomed: political and historical treatments, award winning fiction and essays, light fiction and murder mysteries, memoir, local history or magazine article as they relate to themes of race and race relations. Be thinking of a good read and a special dish to share. Our goal is to build friendships, increase our awareness and enjoy each other.

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February 7, 2009 Session

The program, held at Kirkwood Baptist Church, was based on a presentation of the winning essays from the CFUH Essay Contest. The winners read their essays to the group where the ideas from the essays were discussed. A specially commissioned piece of music, "Canticle of Peace" was sung in it's debut performance.

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Bridges

Many thanks to all who have expressed interest in Bridges groups. At least four groups have been organized. More will be formed when a few more Blacks volunteer to be co-leaders in their groups. Read more about the Bridges program below.

Community Gospel Choir

The Community Gospel Choir is a group of people from many different churches and many different parts of the St. Louis area. Through their spirited interpretation of the rich tradition of African-American gospel music, the choir is working to break down racial, cultural and economic barriers in our community. For more information, check out the website at www.communitygospelchoir.org.