Creekside Cares is proud to partner again with Girl Scout Troop 1001 this year to light up our community. This is our fifth straight year of supporting local girl scouts. Sets of 6 luminaria are available for $6.00 per set. Each set includes 6 white paper bags, 6 votive candles, 6 candle cups and enough sand to fill the bottom of the bags. Residents will light and display the luminaria on December 24 beginning at 7 p.m. Residents may purchase more than one set. All proceeds benefit the troop and their plans for a special group activity. Residents are not required to participate.

This year due to the pandemic, members of the troop will be providing contact-free delivery to your porch. You may reserve your set(s) of luminaria by emailing: [email protected]. Please include your name, address, number of kits desired, and a contact phone. Please make checks payable to: Girl Scout Troop 1001. If you would like to pay via PayPal, please use the following link: paypal.me/troop1001gs in advance. Please remember to include your name, street address, number of kits desired and a phone number. 

While Creekside residents are not required to participate, we certainly hope you do. It will nice to shine a little festive light during these trying times and support the Girl Scouts and their wonderful mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

Holiday Zone collections continue through December 3, 2020. Collection boxes are located throughout the neighborhood, and at Hemingway Hall. Thank you to everyone who has already donated. 

What an awe inspiring sight! Seeing the gifts all together is truly magical. We made our first delivery yesterday to the Durham Children's Initiative on Angier Avenue. As always, Creekside residents are generous beyond imagination.

​It has been fun to watch the friendly neighborhood street challenges. The big winners will be the kids and families served by the Durham Children's Initiative. Keep the toys coming, we hope to surpass our real competition, Toys for Tots. Come on Creekside, we can do it. The holidays are a time for the miracles of giving.

We will collect until December 3 and make our final delivery on December 4. Collection boxes are located throughout the neighborhood and Hemingway Hall.  It feels really great to enter Thanksgiving week with gratitude in our hearts for the amazing community that is Creekside. 

Scarlett and Larry Wilson have been collecting for and serving the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle for years. They have a drop box on their front porch to help our community provide donations. Each week, they deliver collected monetary donations, nonperishable items, and masks. Through their efforts, they are showing the world that Creekside Cares.

Larry retired after 34 years in the military and federal civil service, with a little private sector work thrown in at the end.  Scarlett is a retired registered nurse (from the old school where nurses actually did patient care , not computers).  They have one son, Patrick, and a daughter-in-law, Jennifer, who are posted in Nairobi, Kenya, where Patrick is a foreign service officer for USAID.  You might surmise that they are a family of public service.  Larry says, "We try to live by Luke 12:48: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."  Adds Scarlett, "We are fortunate to live in a lovely community with all we need.  Though we have no family nearby, we have many friends in this area and two near-perfect dogs.  In addition to our outreach with Creekside Cares and the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, we also serve through our church, Church of the Nativity. We enjoy serving the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle by packing and delivering food to Windsor Springs, a senior housing facility." Scarlett and Larry just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Please consider donating to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle by leaving nonperishable items on their porch (1016 Cadence Lane) or by making a monetary gift (checks payable to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle).  There is currently a matching program for monetary donations through the remainder of 2020. Food insecurity is a serious concern during the pandemic. All donations are appreciated and needed.

Creekside is very lucky to have Scarlett and Larry in our neighborhood. They are serving our community with heart.

Creekside Cares has been partnering with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle since the Fall of 2018. They have provided our Creekside Cares Cupboard with Backpack Buddies bags for our students at W.G. Pearson Elementary. Our board Vice President, Paul Leifer helped us create an onsite partnership for Creekside Cares volunteers. Prior to the pandemic, we met at the Child Food Hub on Miami Boulevard each month to stuff Backpack Buddy Bags. We had to take a brief hiatus after the pandemic struck. Paul maintained communications on our behalf and we are now regularly stuffing and packing boxes as a team.

Paul's leadership and enthusiasm are a shining example of mission. Watch our SignUp Genius for opportunities with our group. Inter-Faith Food Shuttle also has lots of opportunities on their own site for individuals to become involved. 
Food insecurity has gotten worse for many since the pandemic began. Your help can make a difference!

Post from guest contributor: Fred Grossfeld, President of Creekside Motor Club

As John Maxwell said, "Teamwork is at the heart of all great achievement." Today, we received our official volunteer service awards from the Triangle Nonprofit and Leadership Center in a drive-through ceremony. Back in January of this year, we were nominated by Alan Slavin of W.G. Pearson Elementary, and were notified we received one of the Durham County Awards. Each of the 100 counties in North Carolina puts forward one nominee as a Medallion Nominee. This nomination process is done secretly and the County winners do not know who has been nominated for the Medallion Award. Governor Roy Cooper and his team review the nominations from each county and select 20 statewide Medallion winners from the 100 nominees submitted. Creekside Cares was selected as the winner in Durham County. This is a great honor and testimony to the teamwork and dedication of the entire Creekside Community.

Here is Mr. Slavin's nomination:
"Creekside Cares is a service club within Creekside at Bethpage, a 55+ residential community. Creekside Cares began serving W.G. Pearson Elementary School in Durham in 2018. Each week, dozens of Creekside volunteers visit the school to help with regular and special events. In 2018 and 2019, Creekside Cares organized a school supply drive through social media and an online signup. When Pearson's food pantry lacked funding, they created a partnership with the Interfaith Food Shuttle to deliver 35 bags of meals. In one school year, they delivered 9,030 meals to at risk students, and in the summer of 2019 hosted a nonperishable food drive, collecting over 1,500 cans of food. Creekside Cares worked with school officials to spearhead a cold-weather clothing drive. With more items received then were immediately needed, they obtained shelving supplies and installed a coat closet. Their volunteers supported our outdoor classroom and the Engineering & Gardening Club by building wheelbarrows, picnic tables and planting beds, and improving our chicken coop. They worked with the district office to install a router at the school to hook the system up to Weather Underground and delivered a lecture to teach students about the weather station and meteorology. For the last two years, they have given holiday gifts to more than 60 children from 29 families and last year volunteers provided a buffet breakfast for 90 members of staff at W.G. Pearson. One volunteer brings a service/therapy dog, Sally, and "Reading to Sally" has become very popular. Over the last year, they logged over 2,000 volunteer hours."

Ordinarily, the awards would have been presented at an award ceremony and luncheon with Governor Roy Cooper. The Covid-19 pandemic put those plans on hold and ultimately cancelled them completely. Once it is safe to do so, Creekside Cares will host our own celebration in honor of this achievement.

We will frame our certificate, and display it in Hemingway Hall in the near future.  Way to go Creekside Cares!