And we’re back from our trip to Atlanta! Everyone had a great time. Our youth go to visit Spelman & Morehouse college campuses as well as take in some historic landmarks honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. For some of our youth, it was their first venture away from Chicago, and we’re sure it’ll be a trip they’ll remember forever!
We recently rounded up a bus load of our youth for a trip to the Sugar Grove Fun Center. The kids got to do some go kart racing, mini golf, bumper boats, and water baloon fight. Everyone had lots of fun on this trip!
Our Youth Fundraiser this past weekend was a huge success! Thanks to everyone that came out, and a special thanks to all the AKAM staff for promoting the event, and selling tickets! The trip will be from April 4th-6th, and with all the funds that were raised were sure the trip will be well worth it. Check out some of the photos from the event.
Please come out and support! A Knock At Midnight is hosting this event in order to raise funds to send some of our youth to Atlanta to visit the famous King Center Memorial. It will be a great learning experience for them, and will give them a chance to learn more about the man that fought so hard for them to have a lot of the opportunities African Americans have today. The youth will also be taken on a college tour of the campuses in the surrounding Atlanta area. Please join us for a night filled with good music, food, and dancing for a good cause. We’d be honored to see you there!
Tickets may be purchased here:
http://akamworks.ticketleap.com/youth-enrichment-fundraiser/
Every week, we’ll be featuring a different African American leader to celebrate black history month. To kick off this series, we’ll be featuring George Washington Carver.
The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born into slavery in Missouri in January 1864.[1]
Carver’s reputation is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts.[3] He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.
source: wikipedia
Here’s a cool breakdown of the inspiration behind our logo:
The fist simultaneously represents the struggle of the African American community, and the action associated with metaphorically ”knocking” at midnight. The name A Knock At Midnight comes from a sermon preached by Martin Luther King Jr. Both, Minister Banks and Ida M. Brown, founders of the organization, believe a lot of the same principles shared by King, with Hope, Love, & Faith being the corner stone of those beliefs.
A Knock At Midnight would like to send a BIG THANKS to Australian Design Agency, Canvas Group for donating their time in helping us create our new website. We can’t say how much we appreciate them. They really helped us kick 2012 off in a positive way!
Make sure you check them out, and see what else they’re working on.
http://canvasgroup.com.au
Last week in observation of Dr. King’s birthday, some of our youth had the day free from school. We decided to take advantage of this opportunity, and took them over to a local church where they volunteered their time helping to clean the facilities in preparation for feeding the homeless. It was a fun way to spend some time together, while also helping the community.
Once again, its that time of the year! A Knock At Midnight is gearing up to give out gifts to some of the children that participate in some of our programs. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
In the final installment of our 3 part series, Minister Banks touches on drugs in the community, and how we seek to remove pain as well as how we can rebuild the community and avoid chaos.
