Friday 27 September 2013

A Minga Progress Report - It's been a busy week!

 
This week at The Minga has been pretty exciting and there's a lot of new things taking place, so we thought we'd share some good news with you.
 
Monday started by welcoming our new Dunnville Secondary School Co-Op student, her name is Kathleen, and she's going to help out for the semester, pretty cool eh?
 
 
We started out day off with a tour of The Minga which is still being renovated and prepared to open but we saw all sorts of progress, including our beautiful green wall facing the Grand River and our newly installed patio railing.
 
 
Our kitchen equipment arrived on Monday, and is ready to be installed and they are working on the café lighting too!  
 
 
They even hooked up our water, our sinks flows, and our toilets run - HOORAY!
 
So we weren't in the way of the hard working gentlemen in the building we set up a temporary office at Flyers Café - the perfect spot to sit and think - unless you're hungry, than it's rather difficult to concentrate.
 
We began organizing and building a schedule in order to keep track of staff, volunteers, and events taking place in the community centre and meeting room. Kathleen and I were both very surprised as the schedule grew bigger and bigger - and got a lot more complicated than we expected. However, Kathleen reminded me just how much was really going to take place in The Minga - so a big schedule only makes sense. 
 
 
So, because there's going to be so much going on, we thought why not start spreading the word? So we spent an afternoon creating signage and posting them on the front windows and back door of the building in hopes that people will stop and read.
 
Part of our busy schedule includes DREAM meetings and events, and Wednesday night was the beginning of the DREAM journey for this year's Grade 9 students at Dunnville Secondary School. In order to prepare the space for their orientation meeting we had to clean our dirty but very beautiful hardwood floors, and set out seating for 60 people.
 

The meeting was a huge success with a room full of eager parents and their students ready to meet their mentors. While the meeting was taking place, we were bringing in some old but new goods! 


 
Our friends Dick and Lisa, who used to operate Bohemian Friday offered to donate all their tables, and chairs that used to be in the café. They are a little dusty, but with a little paint, some fancy new table tops being constructed by community volunteers, and some fresh new upholstery you won't even recognize them once we open our doors.
 
The rest of the week gave us the opportunity to do more management paperwork, like plan our Fall Menu for opening, create checklists to help guide staff and volunteers and begin some community outreach.
 
 
We are happy to announce that we will be the for the drop-off location for ALL artwork for the River Arts Festival Visual Art Gallery, Youth Art Showcase and Children's Art Showcase between Oct. 21-26 and will all youth and children's art being displayed in our building!
 
The opening day of the River Arts Festival will take place on Nov. 2, bring the whole family out Saturday afternoon for a FREE puppet and musical instrument workshop using recycled plastic containers brought from home, then take a tour of the Visual Art Gallery and Walking Tour in order to complete RAF's Art Scavenger Hunt and win a prize!
 
We will also play host to a Youth Open Mic Night on Nov. 7 with DSS student Jason Jacobs Emceeing the event! If you are interested in performing please email askus@riverartsfestival.ca
 
Plus, we're going to host  River Arts Festival's Culinary Night on Nov. 5, but tickets don't go on sale until Oct. 14 - but they'll sell out fast so buy yours at Haldimand Art Works, at The Minga or online!
 
 
Aside from the River Arts Festival, we are already starting to receive requests for rental of our meeting space for trainings and workshops by local businesses and organizations.
If you would be interested in renting space by donation, don't hesitate to ask!
 

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