Thursday, March 8, 2012

Kids' programs aim of new collaboration

 Westside Stories Used Books and the Grant Street Neighborhood Center are collaborating in hopes to create a future partnership to benefit neighborhood children.
  The book store and non-profit community center co-sponsored a children’s arts and crafts event for the first time, encouraging participation in Friendship Month.
  The event was free of charge and held at Westside Stories on Grant Street. The arts and crafts session was geared for children ranging in grade levels from kindergarten to junior high, said Joe Petri, who co-owns Westside Stories with his wife.
  Megan Little from the Grant Street Neighborhood Center supervised the activities.
  “It was good for the Grant Street Neighborhood Center to partner with Westside Stories because they are so close by and because they also provide a nice safe environment for people in the community to come into,” Little said.
  The Petris have a strong sense of pride about the West Side and hope to increase its value by continuing a partnership with the Grant Street Neighborhood Center, Petri said.
  “We do a lot of kid’s programs here and if it’s a particularly successful one, I think we’ll repeat it, but we’ll talk to the kids and to the staff over at the community center, see what kind of feedback we get and go from there,” Petri said. By Elaundress Ballard and Christie Jok