This is a notice to let you know that Muddy Waters Community House is
going to be shut down at the end of the week unless 10,000 dollars is
raised to pay the bills BY THIS SUNDAY! We are a pro-community
organization that has been caught in the wrath of the recession. Our
focus has always been toward creating stronger, healthier people
through an atmosphere of creativity, compassion, and contagious better
good. We are an employee owned orginization which is transcending its
former role in the business sector in order to actively serve and
build our nieghborhood and community of southeast Portland, Oregon.We
have had 2 Thanksgiving events feeding accumulatively 250+ people, we
have had 2 fund raisers for a local homeless service obtaining $800
towards health provisions for the less fortunate of the city. The four
owners have forfeited wages in order to insure our endeavors. We
transformed the business from a coffee shop to a community. We have
hosted a screening for Invisible Children, in order to bring awareness
to Americans of what we can do about the children in Uganda. Every
week we provide 30 gallons of coffee to the wonderful people that live
outside in our city. Daily, there are 30+ people that call our shop
their home. We support their art, feed their bodies, provide a stage
for their music, listen to their stories, validate their purpose, and
give them friendship.
A lot of people will be on the streets provided this does NOT happen,
for they have put their livelihood on the line for this place, and as
some may know, an extremely beautiful venue has just been finished in
the back of the cafe to provide an extremely warm and aesthetic
atmosphere for events, shows, and community gatherings like writing
workshops, music lessons, activities for children. ANY help would be appreciated. Also, I understand this is a very short notice but if you could do ANYTHING to help us
with getting the word out, announcing, blogging, whatever, would be so
much appreciated. Ideally, monetary help is essential. 10,000 is a lot in one week, yes, but our community believes so much in this place and is going to do everything in its power to save it.
And ANY kind of help will be so much appreciated! We are going to make this happen! And you can be a part of it! Help us save this unique place!
Every night until Sunday starting tomorrow we are going to be holding
events to help raise funds to save the venue from shutdown, and we will be open 24 hours each and every day until Sunday! This will include art shows, music and
spoken word performances, and potlucks put on by the owners and
supporters in the community.
Thank you for you time and possible future support.
Communities helping communities. Anything helps.
The Muddy Waters Community
503-396-8028
I was just in Muddy Waters... the barista said they'd raised almost $6300, if I'm remembering right. WTG!! I wanted a mocha, but there's no chocolate, so she made me a white chocolate mocha with some other stuff too. It was quite delish. Thanks coffee lady!!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to all of you. Your hearts are in the right place and I respect your hard work.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the clientele you have attracted by your new look and feel has been alienating to the neighborhood. Muddy Waters has gone from a friendly neighborhood coffee shop to a magnet for the homeless, semi-homeless, and methadone patients from the clinic down the street.
The world takes all kinds and I think you're finding that the kind who can actually come and spend money in your cafe don't like what Muddy Waters has become. Skull and crossed bones on the door of a "Neighborhood Space"? Come on!
I hope you all learned from this experience and I wish you success in the future.
-Neighbor
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ReplyDeleteLindsey's response to the above comment was very diplomatic and forgiving. Let me be the "bad guy." Do we not have enough "friendly coffee shops" for the middle class in Portland, especially in the southeast? Where do you expect the "homeless and semi-homeless" to go in Portland? Do you not realize how difficult their lives are and how much they need a community? Muddy Waters should be *applauded* for giving such people a safe place to hang out with their friends. There are some middle class people who enjoy being around them; appreciating diversity and wanting to understand what their lives are like. Your attitude, "neighbor" is extremely right-wing under the existing economic situation. So you really don't belong in a coffee house like Muddy Waters anyway. There is a good community there, and Muddy Waters wants to support them.
ReplyDeletei would like to make a small correction...every human being really does belong in muddy waters...that is the point....
ReplyDeleteand, neighbor, we are diligently working towards the face and feel inside the shop...the be all inclusive and let diversity thrive...and now we have a lot of heads together to figure it out. we do not wish to exclude anyone based on preconcieved notions of their economic status...
and as far as the skull and crossbones..(actually skull, microphone and paintbrush)..it was a free handed....impressive eh?
ReplyDelete