I so apologize for being out of the loop on many things. I have taken a night time position at my workplace and it has cost me in terms of being able to show up, take photos and document what the Latino community is up to. I usually take about 6-8 weeks off at the end of the year for family and spend the early part of January planning out the year. As that timeframe approaches, I might have to stay in touch with a few things, as the Latino Advisory Committee is moving forward with a “Latino Family Night” series of 4 nights at 4 different Lansing School locations. The hope is that Cafecito can help revive the oldest Latino non-profit in the Greater Lansing Area.
Lansing’s Latino community once had a Community Center that we could proudly call our own. With the Cristo Rey Community Center now deciding to erase any history that Latinos had there, we now lack a Community Center as the ones in Flint, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids continue to thrive. We sometimes it appears, seem to have nothing. Casa de Rosado has been a jewel and several of the Latino non-profits continue to do their thing, but everything can be hard to find if your looking for resources. Those community centers mentioned are led by folks under the age of 35. Goes to show that the older generation is willing to allow a younger generation to lead. Over the years I had offered the baseball game, 5K Runs, Discount Card Fundraiser to other non-profits offering to do all the work and at the end of the day, we would hand them 100% in the form of a check. We were always turned down. So, we kept the ideas and put them into place. We finally have decided to share them again. I won’t claim to know it all, but its not 2002 or 1972 anymore. Times have changed and the way you reach and help people has too. If your still in love with ABC, NBC and CBS, well, you have no clue what I just wrote.
If you have read this far, thank you, as you have no idea what that means to me. I hope to see many of you at both of our 5K Runs, Latino Day with the Lugnuts, and supporting a couple other projects we will announce later this year. One theme coming in 2020 will be providing support for other Orgs such as a couple Michigan State University groups as well as a yet to be announced fundraiser in April 2020. We also have been wanting to go after a long ago idea that we brought up to several folks and Orgs in the hopes of finding a partner. This one will impact many and that might be an understatement. We may have found a partner for this Summer 2020 project.
Please take the time and check our website as I have updated a few things. Hope you enjoy the hundreds of photos from the community along with the Latino owned businesses in our business directory. Did you know we have over 160 Latino owned businesses in the area?
