Shawnee County Democrats, Chords and Oil Team Up to Serve Their Community
On Saturday, September 26, the Shawnee County Democrats teamed up with Chords and Oil and the Chesney Park Neighborhood Improvement Association for a day of community service.
Chords and Oil and the Chesney Park NIA have been working together the past several months to establish a community garden, from which the produce goes to neighborhood residents. The goals of this garden project are to foster a greater sense of community while promoting healthy eating. Topeka can be a much better place to live when all of its residents come together for the betterment of the community.
Chords and Oil (C &O) has been active in Topeka, KS since its formation less than a year ago working to improve our community using artistic creativity as a common, underlying thread to achieve progressive goals. These young professionals strive to: improve Topeka’s image, educate the public on art and community-building topics, work with schools to educate students, provide a greater number of quality options for connecting people socially and revitalize the downtown area. The community garden represents only one public service initiative that Chords and Oil has taken on during the short time the collective has existed.
Here are some other examples of C & O’s dedication to community:-Members collaborated to beautify and re-vitalize neighborhoods by painting murals on the outer walls of old buildings.
-In collaboration with ARTSConnect, oh!mr., Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority (TMTA), Heartland Visioning, and the Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods group, Chords and Oil brought about the Metropolitan Murals project. This was kicked off at the TMTA’s downtown station where artists painted panels to replace some of the square glass panels that comprised the central bus loading zone. Metropolitan Murals will provide the opportunity for artists with volunteer groups to replace panels with art on bus waiting stations all around town.
-Members have guided and educated many students in camps and schools, sponsoring artistic initiatives for them while promoting diversity and unity.
-Organized and promoted many art shows highlighting the music, film, painting, drawing, poetry, photography, body art, and other media of local artists while promoting local businesses and aiming to re-vitalize downtown Topeka.
While working in the Chesney Park garden on Saturday, many neighbors stopped by excited about the improvements taking place in their neighborhood, and some even pitched in. Chords and Oil is helping to get the project started, and when the neighbors take it over for themselves a new garden will be started in another neighborhood. It was a very productive morning and afternoon. We cleared huge amounts of brush, trimmed back overgrown trees, mowed the lots, edged the sidewalks, established a compost pile, maintained the existing garden, expanded the hand-tilled area of the garden, planted day lilies, irises, grasses, and other perennials, and created a circular, hand-tilled plot bordered by large limestone pieces donated by a neighbor. ”This is what community looks like,” said Chad Manspeaker while clearing brush.
Our project on Saturday coincided with many community service events in Kansas and across the nation. Democrats Work has served to bring Democrats and community members together on a vast number of occasions all across the country to put their “values into action.” When everybody in a community chips in to make improvements, the entire community benefits across the board and not just the Chamber of Commerce. As Forward Kansas previously reported, the Topeka service project was just one of many in our area.
The primary organizer of the Topeka event bringing together C & O and the Shawnee County Democrats was Chad Manspeaker, who is also one of the founding Chords and Oil members. Chords and Oil leaders Karl Fundenberger, Ashley Laird and Justin Marable were part of this extraordinary effort, as were Kansas Democratic Party Executive Director Kenny Johnston and Kansas Young Democrats President Colin Curtis.
Republished from ForwardKansas.
Tags: Chesney Park, Chords & Oil, community garden, gourds & soil, Kansas Young Democrats, Shawnee County Democrats