Donation of ad revenues to "SOB: Save Our Barn"

I have a long-standing practice of donating Google Ad revenue checks from this blog to worthwhile local non-profits who give so much back to the community. Past causes I've donated to include: Fisk University, Buena Vista Enhanced Option School, Cumberland River Compact, Second Harvest Food Bank, 88.1 WFSK FM, North Nashville Flood Relief Group, Nashville Jazz Workshop, Friends of Nashville Farmers' Market, the Nashville Symphony, and the Cheatham Place Kids Christmas Party.

Friends of Beaman Park has started a capital campaign to raise funds to stabilize and restore the 100-year-old barn on the Proctor Farm Trailhead on farm land donated in the park. This time around, I will donate $100 in ad revenue collected to the cause of "SOB: Save Our Barn," as run by Friends of Beaman Park.

This barn will serve as an attractive landmark at the lower trailhead of relatively high-elevation Beaman Park. The park is a unique and striking place in Davidson County, vital to our common good. Please join me in donating to preserve this historic landmark.


UPDATE: Just discovered that SOB has a new logo.

Making a year-end donation to the Nashville Symphony

I have a long-standing practice of donating any Google Ad revenue checks from this blog to worthwhile local non-profits who give so much back to the community. Past causes I've donated to include: Fisk University, Buena Vista Enhanced Option School, Cumberland River Compact, Second Harvest Food Bank, 88.1 WFSK FM, North Nashville Flood Relief Group, Nashville Jazz Workshop, Friends of Nashville Farmers' Market, and the Cheatham Place Kids Christmas Party.

The travails of a significant source of cultural exposure to music not called "country" prompted my latest donation. A letter I just put in the mail:

December 31, 2013

Nashville Symphony

One Symphony Place

Nashville, TN 37201-2031

Dear Symphony Staff:

Thanks to the patronage of advertisements by readers of my community blog, “Enclave:  Nashville North-by-Northwest,” I am happy to pass on $200 that I recently received from Google Ads to the Nashville Symphony as designated gifts. I have pledged to use advertising profits to support community organizations, particularly those in and near the urban core.

In donating I affirm the Nashville Symphony’s mission “to achieving the highest standard for excellence in musical performance and educational programs, while engaging the community, enriching audiences and shaping cultural life.” This gift is also intended as acknowledgement of the strides that your organization made in the face of daunting challenges in 2013.

In that spirit, I ask that you please divide this donation evenly:

·       $100 should go to the musicians' union, which last August ratified a 15% pay cut to help save the symphony's important role in the community

·       $100 should go to the symphony's education programs for youth, children and public school students because of the potential to enrich the cultural growth of future generations

I trust that this money will help in some small way fulfill your mission to make our community a better place to live, to work, and to visit by enhancing what you do.  And so, I am pleased to be able to give back to my local community.  I also hope that you will consider my donation as a vote of confidence in your worthwhile efforts along with an expression of best wishes for 2014.

Warm regards,

Michael Byrd

If any worthy organization deserves to have a new year better than 2013 it is the Nashville Symphony. Bank of America almost took them under but by summer they were saved from bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the jobs of food service workers who probably needed those paychecks were lost. Other staff had their salaries cut.

For their part the musicians voted against their own interest: they voluntarily took a cut in pay to help the symphony keep plugging. Often, and especially in conservative states like Tennessee, unions are smeared as selfish and destructive. Very rarely are they celebrated when they vote to reduce their own paychecks to help out their employers. Such sacrifice is a service to our local community, and it ought to humble the rest of us, since musicians have to pay their bills too. With this modest donation I celebrate the sacrifice of the musicians.

I also celebrate the important role that music plays the public education of Nashville's children. I am happy to support this project.

I hope you will join me in feeling encouraged to remember the Nashville Symphony when you decide to donate. And thank you for clicking on the ads in 2013. It made this donation possible.

Happy New Year!

Mind still not changed

Over the past few days I have met dozens of really nice people from the television soap-opera series "Nashville".

About a week ago we gave permission to "Music City Productions, Inc. 'Nashville - The First Season'" to occupy, stage, and film a short scene (maybe 30 seconds?) in an upcoming episode (16) at our home in Salemtown. I can confess that we were a bit nervous having people in and out and having one of our walls altered to fit the scene. However, I encountered people from most of the segments of the production -- location, construction, design, lighting, sound, make-up, director, producers, actors, etc -- and I found them to be gracious and easy to host.

As I told their location manager (who followed up after everyone was gone to make sure that we were completely satisfied), we were so pleased with how the experience turned out that we would welcome them back if they needed to re-shoot something anytime. And I would recommend them to any fellow Nashvillians who were considering sharing their homes as sets. The production company even responded favorably when I asked them to make a $500 donation to the Salemtown neighborhood association as an expression of good will for the disruption of closing the street to film.

Even for an introverted homebody like me there actually were fun experiences across the past few days. Listening to construction people talk about working on other film projects (like the upcoming bio on Jackie Robinson, "42"). Observing designers at their craft. Sitting next to Callie Khouri, wrapped in awe, while she studied the action on a video monitor. Listening to Michael Waxman describe how New York City is different than when he grew up there and how his daughter stops for kolaches on her way back to his Austin ranch from college. Hearing Chip Esten (a.k.a., "Deacon") laugh at our 8-year-old's notes tacked to a kitchen cabinet as he ate breakfast over our stove. Watching another actor, who plays Deacon's romantic-interest-of-the-moment, romping around our backyard with our dog between takes. It seemed all surreal, but entertaining without the show.

As fun as the ride was, it did not change my opinion that Metro government should not subsidize the network TV series. My opposition to giving the production company public money by no means indicates a lack of support for Nashville's film industry. I would like to see many more films and series made here, employing lots of people. However, Nashville the municipality still has budget obligations to the needs of its citizens first, and until the Mayor can fully fund those obligations, production companies should have to make it on their own (and they seem to me to have the resources to do so).

After our positive experience of the past week, I wish I could support subsidizing a TV series. I might have been so inclined if we had a Mayor who consistently put spending for the benefit of the masses ahead of special treatment for the few. I hardly believe that the dozens of hard-working, but considerate folks we met were undeserving of the support.

Latest Enclave donation supported the Cheatham Place Christmas Party for kids

I have a long-standing practice of donating any Google Ad revenue checks from this blog to worthwhile local non-profits who give so much back to the community. Past causes I've donated to include: Fisk University, Buena Vista Enhanced Option School, Cumberland River Compact, Second Harvest Food Bank, 88.1 WFSK FM, North Nashville Flood Relief Group, Nashville Jazz Workshop, Friends of Nashville Farmers' Market, and the Nashville Neighborhoods Resource Center.

My unpaid earnings with Google Adsense are getting to the level where I expect compensation soon, and I already turned that around and made a donation to a charitable cause down the street from where I live. Former Werthan Lofts resident, Kimble Bosworth, contacted a group of us and asked for donations to her chosen cause:

Y'all may know I have been making sure the children of Cheatham Place, across the street from Werthan, have gifts and food for their Christmas Party for the past 7 years. Every year, this act of giving fills me with that the holiday spirit. This year, even though I am no longer living in Werthan, I am just as committed as ever to make their holiday party a special event for these kids ....

In 2006, when Boz and I moved to Werthan Lofts, Germantown was new to us. I did not know anything about the public housing across the street - Cheatham Place. So, when I heard sirens there during our fist week in our new 'hood, I called MDHA to find out what happened.

Turns out, their housing office administration was just across the street. And a nice lady, Peaches Manning, offered to meet me and address my concerns in person.

She took me on a tour of Cheatham, introduced me to the on-site property manager and several members of the community association. She showed me the plaques announcing that Cheatham Place is on the National Historic Registry.

As we walked the grounds, I noticed that their landscaping was nicer than much of ours in the gated community across the road.

She waved at children as she explained there were currently 120 kids in residence. She also explained, "Honey, most of the sirens you hear around here will be ambulances. We don't tolerate misbehaving and we have a waiting list to replace anyone who does."

I learned a lot that day - about poverty, about judgment, about assumptions and prejudices. And I wanted to do something special for my new neighbors. So, when December came around and Peaches called to invite me to the Cheatham Christmas Party; I decided to bring gifts. Called all my Werthan neighbors and asked for donations. Gathered up about $1000 and headed out the day before the party to go shopping ....

I grabbed a cart and borrowed a few boys and girls and parents at Big Lots to help me pick things out. The manager even went to the back of the store and pulled 50 radios from inventory and sold them to me at a discount for the kids.

So there I was, standing in line with two carts full of toys, holding up everyone behind me at the checkout line. A lady behind me asked, "So who are you anyway? Why you got all those toys."

"I'm nobody." I answered.

The manager, who had been helping me and had heard the story of why I was doing this chimed in and told the curious shopper, "She's buying all these toys for some poor kids in her neighborhood who may not get anything this year."

"Well," the lady said, "They you ain't nobody. You're Santa Clause."

That's when I realized what Christmas spirit feels like. And I was hooked. The people who participate every year have learned, as I did, that the gift is really from Cheatham Place to us, not the other way around.

I was moved by Kimble's story, and so I sent $100 over to help her out with the costs of her project. She posted an update for her "Cheatham Place angels" last week on Facebook:

Your donations purchased food for the event which over 200 people attended. There were more than enough presents for all the kids and even some Kroger gift cards for the adults. Santa made an appearance with Mrs. Claus and got to catch up with the kids. They were so cute when he came in the room. They ran and hugged him. Some were afraid and stood at arms length. Others had their parents carry them over to him. But they all had a great time.

One heart-wrenching story came up this year. A mother of two boys was struck and killed by a car driving at night with no lights as she crossed the street a week before the party. Her boys, 9 and 4 years old, are left with no mother. They are now living with their grandmother, who recently lost her job as an in-home caregiver. They have so little. Well, now they have a little more. Thanks again to your generosity, they each have some warm winter clothes, shoes and a few other necessities. And more help is on the way. Tonight, after an impromptu invitation from Kia Jarmon to join her at an event; I met another angel - Yuri Cunza. He asked if anyone knew some deserving children to receive some of the collected donations of toys from the event. Yep. I do. And tomorrow, we will be bringing some new angels to meet these two boys. You cannot imagine how grateful I am to Yuri and the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for making this possible.

Thanks for clicking on the blog ads and making my modest donation possible. I hope that you will keep Kimble Bosworth's Cheatham Place party in mind as Christmas 2013 approaches. It is a worthy effort organized by an invested leader who expresses care for needy kids and families living in our diverse North End community.

Look what leaps out from Mayor Dean's mid-year finance report

Moving Nashville Forward, the astroturf organization promoted most vigorously by former CM Erik Cole as a grassroots, organic community effort to support Mayor Karl Dean's tax increase, received over $25,000 from the Dean campaign to advance his mission:

That's a slab of simoleons.

I wonder who sprung for pizzas at Mafiaoza's earlier this month? Machine politics is alive and well in Nashville.

HT: Mike Peden

Seven full years of blogging today and I'm still here

I launched Enclave on this day in 2005 with a focus on neighborhood issues, with the idea of contributing to the quality of life of my community. I did my best to follow stories of import to us that the news media ignored, and I tried to bring to light angles that would otherwise skulk behind the scenes. My work included joining the drumbeats of campaigns to raise money (for candidates and causes) and to preserve history. I supported other alternative information sources and other bloggers by sending my traffic their way with a profusion of links.

But I have also tried to give back more tangible benefits by giving away my Google ad revenues to worthy local non-profits like Fisk University, Buena Vista Enhanced Option School, Cumberland River Compact, Second Harvest Food Bank, 88.1 WFSK FM, North Nashville Flood Relief Group, Nashville Jazz Workshop, Friends of Nashville Farmers' Market, and the Nashville Neighborhoods Resource Center.

Thanks to all of you who have visited my little corner of the Nashville online community in the past seven years. Thanks to all of the folks who contacted me with leads and information that turned into stories here. Thanks to all of you who click on the ads and make the donations possible.

Blogging is not what it used to be. It is by no means dead, but it is not as viral other social media. And online pro journalism co-opts and shoves us out of the way by sheer force. If I had not been committed to writing, I probably would have kicked Enclave to the curb in much less than 7 years. I tried once to stop, but then received some remarkably persuasive requests not to. So, for better or worse, and after 6,800 posts and over 1,000,000 on the stat counter, I'm still here.

Enclave to donate blog ad revenues to Cumberland River Compact

I have a long-standing practice at Enclave of donating any Google Ad revenue checks I receive to worthwhile local non-profits, particularly those in North Nashville who give so much back to the community. You can click on the "Donations" tag below to cull posts on past donations. You make those donations possible by clicking on ads.

Having recently received a check from Google for my blog ads, I have decided to donate those funds, $100, to the Cumberland River Compact. The Cumberland River forms one of our community boundaries here in the North End. The stormwater that our yards don't retain runs directly into the Cumberland's watershed. The Compact is a non-profit that works with all interested organizations and individuals "to help ensure that our rivers and streams continue to provide us with clean water, bountiful crops, healthy fisheries and abundant recreational opportunities." Since our lives here are connected to the river, CRC expresses worthy goals that deserve our support.

Mud and gravel from construction run-off choking streets
about 7 blocks from the Cumberland River (Salemtown)

And they no doubt can give back to our community. The North End continues to experience a robust clip of construction projects. Some builders need to be reminded of CRC's point that the main pollutant of our Cumberland River is silt and dirt from our properties. We have responsible developers who effectively manage their stormwater run-off, but we have some who do not.

Having an organization so interested in our watershed that they can be partners with us in making sure that the water that flows out of our neighborhoods and into our river is as clean as it can possibly be is an underestimated benefit. Builders can help with inexpensive preventative measures ("smart growth") and neighbors can help by installing simple rain gardens that retain and filter water. The Cumberland River Compact facilitates both. Just last week I started installing a new rain garden in our backyard myself to manage our run-off.

So, I am pleased to supplement my yard work with this donation to this worthwhile non-profit. The check will go in the mail tomorrow. Thanks to Enclave readers who clicked on ads and made this donation possible. I hope that you will consider donating to CRC as you are able. Even if you are not able to donate, they are available to advise you on measures to conserve run-off and preserve our watershed.

Update: Fehr School preservation

The Salemtown Neighbors Vice President tells me that the association has raised around $670 to pay for Planning Department requirements for the rezoning process to protect the historic Fehr School building at 5th and Garfield. This is great news as CM Erica Gilmore is crafting rezoning legislation. Most of the money was raised from individual donations at SNNA's Oktoberfest booth a couple of weekends ago. But we also received a large matching donation from developer and long-time Fehr advocate Jim Creason along with a generous check from CM Emily Evans who is an enthusiastic supporter of preservation drives. I want to personally thank all who donated, because this cause has been near and dear to my heart since moving to Salemtown.

Last, but not least, SNNA has also collected over 75 signatures on its petition to save Fehr School (jump to the original). This is a large number, given the hyper-local focus and the nearly forgotten history (which we are trying to revive). It will be great to have this petition to show community support during public hearings.

How you can help raise money to preserve a civil rights movement landmark

Salemtown Neighbors needs to raise $500 to protect Fehr School

Salemtown's Fehr School, built in 1924, was one of the first schools desegregated and was a center of civil rights strife in 1957. Because of its place in Nashville history, Historic Nashville, Inc. has declared it one of the 2011 Nashville Nine most endangered local buildings.

Salemtown Neighbors has a petition and is working with Council Member Erica Gilmore and the Metro Historical Commission to pass historic overlay for Fehr School and to preserve the exterior from demolition or drastic alteration that would destroy its historic qualities.

Planning Commission consideration of an overlay requires the neighborhood association to raise funds to notify residents who live around the building of the request for rezoning. Those funds will pay for postage, signage, and notice in the Tennessean, costs totaling over $500 according to the Planning Department.

Please help raise these funds to preserve this landmark by donating what you can to Salemtown Neighbors, designated "re: Fehr School preservation".

If you would like to help immediately email me (by clicking on the "Contact Me" button in the right-hand column of this blog) for contact info or stop by the Salemtown Neighbors booth at the Germantown Street Festival next Saturday and drop off your donation there.

Thanks for your help! I'll provide updates here on the blog as donations come in.


Full disclosure: I am a member of the executive committee of Salemtown Neighbors; however opinions expressed on this blog are entirely mine and are not intended to reflect the views of SNNA members or officers, unless quoted. SNNA has not authorized Enclave to help them fund raise, but considering it worthy, I am lending what help I can to this good cause.

A nice thank-you note

From Buena Vista Enhanced Option elementary teacher, Ms. Norton:

Thank you so much for supporting Buena Vista! Your donation will go towards our 70th Anniversary celebration on October 28, 2011.

Enclave donation to Buena Vista Enhanced Option School

The check is in the mail along with a cover letter. Thank you, readers, for making these donations possible by clicking on ads.

How I got my motivation for my next Enclave donation

You may remember my post the day before yesterday on a Facebook group called "Nashville Urban School Coalition" and their flirtation with the idea of a charter school for North Nashville to compete for resources with existing schools. That post seems to have kicked up some dust and too much stabby speculation on the NUSC page:

Brian L. Heuser .... Some local bloggers care much more about how many hits they receive on their sites than they do about strategizing workable solutions to the challenges that active citizens/parents face. Instead of philosophizing about and judging the motives behind why residents of the urban core are seeking improvements, said local bloggers could serve a real function in disseminating understanding about the nature of the challenges and suggest potential policy solutions. These ridiculous blogs (and those who write them) are a pathetic excuse for civic engagement.

Well, let me say initially that if my main goal is hits on my website, I'm an abject failure. First of all, I chose a hyper-local venue, which guarantees I will receive fewer hits than other pages. Second, all you have to do is compare my stats to the those of websites that have also been live for 7 years and you'll likely find that their hits blow mine out of the water.

Likewise with ad revenues. I've earned practically nothing blogging and the revenue checks I have received from Google ads have been donated to non-profits in my community like The Nashville Jazz Workshop, Fisk University, Second Harvest, North Nashville Flood Relief Group, the Nashville Neighborhoods Resource Center, and Friends of Nashville Farmer's Market. In the grand scheme of things, that wasn't a huge net for those organizations, but I have given back benefits to the local community that came to me because I wrote about that community.

But my purpose in blogging has never been maximizing traffic or revenues. Since day 1 my mission has been to blog as an advocate and a watchdog for my community. So, I feel no sense of inadequacy on the question of whether I've served my community. If anyone wants a full story on me in North Nashville, a sizable summary of that story is contained here in 6,500-some-odd posts for those who choose to read it.

In keeping with that sense of service, I am motivated to donate my latest revenue check (around $100) to Buena Vista Enhanced Option Elementary School, which the gentrifying parents here derided (sometimes unfairly so) in the Tennessean story that first publicized them. The North Nashville magnets were secondarily criticized as being an inadequate solution in these parents' minds to Buena Vista. We've already made donations to our daughter's magnet, and she is there because we participated in civic efforts with the Jones community to save the school several years ago, back when Salemtown kids were bused to the zoned school in West Nashville and we were interested only in neighborhood schools.

However, I also recognize that as goes Buena Vista, so goes the quality of life in North Nashville. So, rather than cursing the darkness and supporting a new magnet or charter (as have been proposed), I'll light one candle for Buena Vista to express support for them. After the Tennessean story one of their teachers attended our last Salemtown meeting to address any concerns or misconceptions falling out from the journalism. I admired that and I told her that it was exactly how we got involved in the Jones Paideia community years ago. It will make a difference if community and school stay mutually involved. I have yet to see anything on Facebook that promotes that involvement.

I regret that some parents feel like they got screwed after moving into Germantown and Hope Gardens as a backdoor into West Nashville's Eakin and the Hillsboro cluster. We didn't move to Salemtown with the same intentions because we knew moving here wasn't a short cut to a high demand school. We were of the mind that when our infant grew to elementary age we would have to scratch and claw so that she could succeed. And we have committed ourselves to being involved parents in day-to-day education, which is exactly what makes for high performance in the elementary years.

If a new school is built it will be high-demand and/or grasping-at-straws and it will end up competing for limited resources with our established public schools. As a public school parent, I view a new charter as a threat to my child's education. The parental instinct kicks in. It's nothing personal.

Now I'm not asking people to like my civic engagement.  We all have our own way of doing it. But to say that my blog is not about civic engagement is wrong. This blog is not a bulletin board or a newsletter. It is a forum. I engage my community by blogging and with few exceptions I permit responses good, bad, or indifferent.

And it is not an either-or. I both blog and attend many community events and meetings, and I engage people face-to-face. But Rosa Parks Boulevard runs both ways, and I've not seen any of the more apoplectic members of this Facebook group present at meetings on this side of the North End. They insist they care about educating everyone, even those who live north of Monroe Street (the former boundary of the Eakin zone). So, why do I never see them out and about up here, civically engaging across our community?

You made this relief donation possible

I have a long-standing practice at Enclave of donating any Google Ad revenue checks I get in the mail to worthwhile local non-profits who give so much back to the community. This week I received the thank you letter below from NNFRG for an Enclave donation to assist with flood recovery in North Nashville.

I'm posting it to pass the thanks on to the readers of this blog who made the donation possible by clicking on the ads. Kudos and gratitude to you.

Enclave to donate Google ad revenues to North Nashville Flood Relief Group

I recently received revenues of around $150 from Google for the ads that Enclave readers click when they visit this blog. I have a long-standing tradition here of donating almost all of what I receive from Google to non-profits working to make the community in and around the North End a better place to live, to work, and to play.

This time I have chosen the North Nashville Flood Relief Group as the recipient of the revenue. NNFRG is a grassroots organization of residents, churches, and politicians dedicated to restoring our community in the wake of the May 2010 floods. They have dispatched over 2,500 volunteers and assisted over 400 flood victims.

Thanks to Enclave readers for making this donation possible by visiting the advertisers who display on my website. I hope this donation will also inspire others to give directly to the NNFRG in order to make North Nashville a better place to live, work, and play.

Enclave to donate Google ad revenues to Second Harvest Food Bank

When you click on the Google ads on Enclave a certain percentage of the revenue eventually comes back to me. Historically, I've turned those revenues into donations for local non-profits in and around Nashville's North End. I just received the latest check for my cut on the revenues and I've decided to donate the proceeds to the Second Harvest Food Bank, which supplies a food pantry through St. Paul's Lutheran Church on the corner of Rosa Parks and Garfield in Salemtown. I trust that the money will be used to help bring holiday cheer to some of the less fortunate in the North End.

Thanks for patronizing Enclave and visiting the advertisers by clicking on Google ads. Rest assured that my share of the revenues will continue to go to worthy community causes. I hope that you will consider making your own contributions to help St. Paul's continue its mission to help feed folk whom hard times visit.

Enclave to Donate Latest Ad Revenues to Fisk University's Smooth Jazz Radio

I have a long-standing tradition here of donating most of what I receive from the Google Ads that you click when you visit Enclave to non-profits working to make the community in and around the North End a better place to live, to work, and to play. Thanks to your support another $100+ Google check has arrived and I am going to turn that around into a donation to a very worthy community organization: 88.1FM WFSK at Fisk University.

88.1FM WFSK is an educational community-based radio station, owned and operated by Fisk University. Serving the public since 1973, 88.1FM is home to 21-different specialty programs and 30-volunteers. Fisk University is, of course, one of the more significant northwest Nashville institutions. You can listen to some sweet smooth jazz by jumping to their live streaming broadcast.

So, I am looking forward to sending in a $100 check soon and taking my place at the "Smooth Jazz Lover Level." I hope you will join me and donate whatever you can to this worthy organization.

I donated to the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Have you?

The Nashville Jazz Workshop at East Germantown's Neuhoff Complex is an important part of the local community. Please consider including them among your generous donations.

[2019: link to their blogspot removed. It has been taken down.]

Enclave to Donate $100 to Nashville Jazz Workshop

Thanks to Enclave readers for clicking on the ads posted on this blog. Sometime in the next few weeks I should be receiving a check for your patronage.

As has been the established tradition here, I will be contributing $100 from that check to a local non-profit. (My previous donation last winter went to Fisk University).

I have decided, as I did last spring, that I will be contributing the proceeds to East Germantown's Nashville Jazz Workshop, which has just kicked off their annual fundraising campaign. NJW, located in East Germantown's Neuhoff Complex, promotes jazz in Nashville through providing unique educational and community opportunities for jazz professionals, students, and enthusiasts. I believe that it represents an important cultural and artistic presence in the North End community, too.

Again, I thank readers for clicking on the ads, and I hope that you will also consider making a contribution to NJW's "Grow Jazz" campaign in order to help them raise $20,000 for equipment and upgrades to their facility.

Salemtown Neighbors Donates $267 to Fisk University Today

SNNA President Freddie O'Connell announced that he would be attending Council Member Erica Gilmore's "Fisk Day in District 19" fundraiser today with a good-sized donation (for a small neighborhood association in a modest neighborhood) in tow. We are proud to show our support of Fisk University as it attempts to raise money before the end of June for millions in matching Mellon Grant funds.

Enclave to Donate $190 to Fisk Challenge Grant

Metro Council Member Erica Gilmore has declared March 19 "Fisk Day," and she is encouraging everyone in District 19 to make a donation of some variation of "19" ($.19, $19, $190, $1,900, etc.) to Fisk University's Mellon Foundation Challenge Grant in order to raise matching funds for the struggling northwest Nashville institution. I have decided to contribute all of the proceeds from Enclave's ad sales since my last community donation to the Challenge Grant drive. Google Ads owes me about $140 (for Enclave ads clicked since their last check), and my family will contribute $50 more to get to $190 in celebration of Fisk Day.

Fisk University is a northwest Nashville jewel, and I fully support its mission to provide "ethical leadership and engagement in our local and global communities." Because it is smaller than the other private universities in Nashville, even modest donations can make a difference. I hope that Enclave readers will join me by making their own "19" donations to fund Fisk, so that we can all continue to benefit from her continuing legacy. How to do so after the jump.