Citi Boi Corporation - Rob Mathis Takes Action With Friends and Family

 

We founded the Positively Muskegon blog way back when in 2015 when we found the need to highlight the people in and around Muskegon who have decided that it was time for them to contribute, be it large of small, to help better their community, and in turn, make life for all of us better.  To this day, the key element of all we do is to continue to find those who are willing to help even just one other person and give them a chance to spread the word.  This is how the long term healing of Muskegon happens. 

Rob Mathis is a Muskegon Veteran of the US Army and at the beginning of the pandemic a couple of years ago now, he saw an immediate need to give some relief to his neighbors that were close to him.  Sharing the neighborhood with families and kids, when the schools shut down no plan was immediately formulated as to how to take care of the kids who were dependent on the school breakfast and lunch programs, so, it was time to roll up the sleeves and get to work.  Making sure that there was food was first and then when the programs did come into place through the state and schools, making sure the food actually got to the kids was a second priority.  It was found that some of the kids meal drop off's were being swiped by area homeless and while we know hunger is everywhere, stealing from kids is taboo past most anyone's moral compass.  So a secondary layer was added to make sure that food deliveries got into the hands they were intended to. 

With the beginnings of the work, opportunity presented itself again.  Engagement often breeds awareness and the initial effort of some meals for kids turned into a little bigger push and the formation of Citi Boi Corporation.  Founded in 2021 and still waiting on final approval of their 501c3 status, from their website, Citi Boi describes themselves like this - "We can ensure the community that we are versatile in our approach and can acclimate to situations considering necessities. To guarantee this our organization is becoming Knowledgeable of the needs within the communities."  Street level, grass roots and absolutely from the heart.  This is the beginning of a miracle in action, and it's happening again, right here in Muskegon Michigan by people who never anticipated that they may be the ones called on to make that difference.  

Rob Mathis agreed to join for a talk today.  We are able to learn more about the very humble beginnings of Citi Boi as well as what they hope to see in the future.  A side bar conversation about relations pops up today.  It's an open discussion about what was, what is and if things are moving in the right way.  Rob also talks about where to find Citi Boi and even a meet and greet event coming up Monday which you can learn more about.  Take a listen. 

It's as simple as seeing a kid who needs a lunch. It's as simple as taking a moment outside yourself to see that helping isn't a global effort involving layers and layers or paperwork and accounting.  It's that one moment where we can all stand up and say "I can" and let that lead us to make a difference and a change, and then to see that ripple effect of change hopefully last for generations to come.  If you'd like to learn more about Citi Boi and follow their work, you can click on the link below to visit their website.  You'll find all the links to their social media there as well to follow the growth and progress of Muskegon people doing what we do best and that is taking care of each other, no matter how big or small the effort. 

Kids Belong - A Story About One Family's Work to Help Foster Children

 

Most would be surprised to know that over 600 kids in Muskegon and Ottawa counties are waiting in the foster system for a family to call their own.  Fostering a child is a huge commitment and with the hopes of finding an adoptive family eventually in the process of fostering, it's a world of dedication, emotion, support and finding a way to provide stability when a child might see nothing but turmoil no matter where they look.  

The idea that the need is so great in our area might be an eye opener to some but Jeff Steele and family are all too familiar with it.  They have a family of 13 kids between their own, those they have adopted and fostered and they have recently moved from the Grand Haven Area to Muskegon by Muskegon Community College where their new house is getting the finishing touches completed on it and it's also got room for expansion as their kids continue to grow and they continue to stick to their mission of Kids Belong.  Kids Belong is actually short for Kids Belong in families, which anyone can agree with.  However, there are times that families don't quite make it, kids need a stable environment and as those kids grow, they need the skill set to transition from childhood into early adulthood and know how things work like budgets, taking care of a home and how to navigate an ever more complicated world of "adulting".

Jeff works with local churches, support groups, recruiters to find families who might be interested in fostering or adopting and then to help with the next steps past the process.  Jeff is a Pastor himself and through he and his wife's adoption journey, they have learned that the next most important step for them is to find a way to help the kids who "age out" of the foster/adoption system and help them establish a path that will hopefully break the cycle.  Kids Belong is beginning to set the stage for that with the new house and the space to grow around it so they can build transition housing for the older kids and help them along.  They are 10% of the goal already!  Not a bad starting block for such an ambitious project. 

Like most anything, there are a lot of questions and a lot of nuts and bolts to the idea of adopting and fostering.  Jeff and I sat down to talk about everything from why he and the Mrs. began, how it's impacting the family, the project they are operating with Kids Belong and more.  Plus, hey, a quick tour of a house built for 13!  Who can pass that up?  Take a listen and learn why Kids Belong and how very important it is that some of the very most vulnerable in our community are cared for by such remarkable and giving people. 

It's a major commitment to be willing to jump in to a situation that requires foster care, this we know.  It's also probably one of the most selfless and rewarding things that can happen if the chance is taken and the patience and love required is given.  Does everyone run the numbers up to a family of 13?  Probably not, but the honest truth is this.  It doesn't take 13.  It takes one!  One act of kindness can change the world, and if not the world, one act of kindness can certainly change the life of one person and from there, the hope is that the cycle continues for the good.  Our thanks to Jeff for opening his home to us, if you'd like to learn more about Kids Belong or maybe help with the efforts you'll find them linked by clicking on the photo below.  They are a 501c3 entity so if you do help, you are making a tax deductible contribution to a pretty bright future to the next generation.

Blood Drive December 30th at St. Paul's in Downtown Muskegon

 

We're always up for helping out at a blood drive!  It's been a while since we just got back to the very basics of who we are and what we work toward with all of our publishing's.  If you remember back a few years, back to about 2015 when this blog started all that we do now, we sought out those who find a way to make a difference in some way or another with what they have to give, no matter how big or small and how their work helps build our community.

It still reigns true.  Sure, we have grown into a lot more than that initial spark, and ya....we sure have had a lot more to cover than who did something selfless to make a difference, but at the end of the day, ALL of our work is centered on those who help build, grow and make Muskegon home.  We are proud to stick to those values.

Very early on Carla Neading was one of the folks who was bold enough to face the GoPro and talk about her blood drive that's held right around the holidays.  She's a healthcare worker and for years, she's been organizing a blood drive at the time of the year when it's needed most, the holiday's.  It's a critical time for the blood supply every year.  Over the last couple years it's really been a push with all of the pandemic stuff going on and the supply has reached dangerously low levels.  With the shutdowns, the surges and the never ending unknown, even today, blood drives are getting the plug pulled for a multitude of reasons.  If you can find one, and you are a regular blood donor, please, pitch in and do your part.  Not sure of where one is?  Well, good news!

December 30th at St. Paul's Church on 3rd Street in Downtown Muskegon, Carla has organized a blood drive from 12p-5:45.  All of the safety precautions are in place for an event like this.  Distancing, masks, disinfectants etc are plentiful and of course, if you're not feeling well, you are asked to refrain from coming.  If you are feeling good though, get down there and roll up your sleeve.  Carla does this annual drive for a family member who's needed the gift of life through a transfusion and her drive to make sure that only last year was missed.  We pulled Carla away from the family cookie baking to learn a little more.  Take a listen. 

It's a necessity that takes all of us to make happen.  The gift giving season is upon us.  Imagine the gift of life to someone who needs nothing more than what you can help them with for free?  Be it a patient in need of surgery, an auto accident or whatever the reason, we are unique to all species on the planet in our ability to help heal our own with our donation of blood, or an organ or all of our organs upon our passing.  It takes about a half an hour and you can find all the info needed pictured below to schedule a time if need be. 

Remarkably thankful to Carla for her efforts and giving us a chance to celebrate her commitment to all of us by organizing such an event in such a busy time of the year.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all from us here at Positively Muskegon. 

Salvation Army Muskegon Holiday Season 2021

 

The chill in the air is the first sign.  Summer has come to a close and with Fall in the mid to 3/4th mark, we're all starting to think a little more about the holidays that are rapidly approaching and how we can get it all done and in and what we don't stop and think about all that often is just how fast it's going to be here and gone!  This is why The Salvation Army of Muskegon wants to have a word with you now and they have an amazing theme this year, Hope Marches On!  Which it always does.

It's been a roller coaster for The Salvation Army like any other human need organization.  The need for food, clothing, financial assistance and more came in like a flood and while The Salvation Army has a large and recognizable name, the staff is smaller but mighty and they rely on a lot of volunteers.  Well, if all of the volunteers are at home quarantined, things get backed up kinda quick.  We're very fortunate to live in an area however that's used to knuckling down and getting things done.  The Salvation Army got by in a time of the "most need". 

Salvation Army Muskegon Online

As the 2021 holiday season approaches, the request is out for those who can pitch in to help.  Can you or your organization step up and be bell ringers?  Can you and the family help pack meals to be delivered for Thanksgiving or Christmas?  Do you have a little extra jingle in your pocket to spare to help fund all that The Salvation Army of Muskegon does?  Can you help shop for toys to be given to kids on Christmas?  It's a list as long as my arm for you to pick from be it a volunteer opportunity or another way to contribute.  The need is real and the time for you to get involved is NOW!

There are other programs to help as well.  You'll find The Salvation Army Angel Tree about the area in Wal Mart Stores and other locations.  Wal Mart has a special site you can shop from for specific needs and they will go directly to The Salvation Army toy drive!  How's that for some cool use of technology?  You'll find the links to donate to below.

Lorri Dean invited us in to The Salvation Army on Shonat Street in Muskegon to kind of get the ball rolling on what's needed both by way of service and financially.  Take a listen to our talk and see where and what fits with your schedule to help make the holiday season a reality for someone who may otherwise go without.  

A little bit from a lot of us will be all it takes to turn it in the right direction.  We've seen so much incredible good come over the last nearly 2 years and let's be honest...every little good thing you did, it made you feel better for it didn't it?  This is the kind of work as well as the rewards that the Salvation Army sees every day.  If you can do just a little more, dig a little deeper and show just a touch more love, we'll head into a holiday season knowing that the pandemic was a great test for us all, but over all, Muskegon is a giving and good community.  We all have that going for us.

The United Way is helping The Salvation Army coordinate volunteer efforts.  CLICK HERE to visit that site.  

Would you like to participate in the Angel Tree?  CLICK HERE 

Want to shop the Wal Mart Registry for Good?  CLICK HERE. 

The Our Parks Initiative in Muskegon

 

Going back to our very beginnings of this blog which has grown to become so much to so many is always the most satisfying experience.  If you remember, we began with only a GoPro camera and and this free Blogger program from Google because it was all we could afford.  We really didn't even have a proper direction at first until we realized through Andrea Rosema and her gang of merry makers that we could build and grow people by simply giving them a platform.  It seems to have worked.

It's still an honor beyond imagination when we find groups that are taking the bull by the horns to meet challenges that their neighborhoods are faced with.  We have found challenges in every corner of the county.  While they might be unique to a neighborhood depending on the location, they are common in the fact that we all share issues and concerns and it's in the knowledge of what's happening here or there that we can build and grow as a community.  So where you might not think that what's happening in Norton Shores has no effect on what's going on in Egelston, it's simply the furthest thing from the truth.  We are all unique to our neighborhoods, but we are one when it comes to Muskegon.  We have a lot to be proud of as one.  So, with that reflection let's move on to todays' story.  

Join Our Parks on Facebook

The Our Parks Initiative in Muskegon is a group coming together to improve the grounds and the experiences of our kids in what's offered in the parks with both equipment and programming.  It's a project that's been in the works for a couple years on the East side of town and of course, like everything everywhere when the pandemic hit, it got slowed way down but never went away because of the beliefs of the people organizing it and the purpose in which they are working to improve the quality of life for younger people and families who want to utilize the parks.  It's not only their purpose to beautify and improve the parks, but to help bring back some of the togetherness that they remember as a kid when everything seemed to circle around the park, the ball game and the friends and neighbors all keeping up with one another. As we've grown into an age where anyone can be face to face digitally, it's truly needed for people to come together and talk minus the ability to communicate through a keyboard and harkening back to a simpler time once in a while...well, there's an awful lot of good that can come of that for kids along with all the modern conveniences.

There's been some fundraising going on.  Real boots on the ground stuff.  Can drives, some business have contributed to the beginnings of things.  A group of volunteers are handling the work as it comes and trying to recruit others.  One area where the modern things meet the traditional sense of neighborhood togetherness is working in tandem well is the use of social media.  The Our Parks Initiative has been very good at recruiting through Facebook and as awareness grows, so too will the efforts.  While focused on the East side of things in town now, they hope one day too to be able to extend that into other areas that need help and where they find people who don't mind getting a little dirty in the renovation of a park that adds so much to their neighborhood.

I met up with the group organizer Pete Mosher and one of his committee members Darcie Pace at the Dog House Saloon on their patio to learn a little more about the work and purpose, take a listen.   

This is how we grow as a community and how we work together to find a solution.  All it takes is the spark of an idea to get the ball rolling and a little elbow grease to find others who are looking for a chance to get in on it.  In the process, a lot of things happen.  We find new community organizers.  Those who pitch in find a purpose.  Those who benefit might not notice right off the bat at how something has changed for the better, but in time, they will see by example what a group like the Our Parks Initiative has begun and maybe they too will find a mission and repeat the steps taken here.  The is the fabric of Muskegon and this is why we love highlighting the amazing work of others!

Meet James Coffee - A Man With a Strong Message From Within

 

Life for any of us brings change.  For some of us change happens when least expected and for others, change comes with age, experience and some trial and error.  It's the one constant for everyone this thing called change....and there's no avoiding it.  It's how we make use of that change and where we take it when it happens that matters and in the case of James Coffee of Muskegon, that change is being spoken loudly to hopefully help others on their path.

James is a Muskegon guy, born and bred, his life has taken him all over though.  Places like Flint, Detroit. Cleveland and more.  He's gone to his fair share of "tough city's" and he's gone through some "dark times" like most any of us.  While elusive on the "dark times" to a degree, which is perfectly ok, the message today is pretty clear that no matter the circumstance that got James where he is today, a remarkable transformation has taken place within him and he's taken to a unique way of sharing what's happened by using his internal thoughts as a message to other young men and hopefully, his message of being broken and retuning to hope resonates. 

Mirror Talk Vission on Facebook

Mirror Talk Vission is what James shares with the world.  He finds places that others "don't dare to go" and he speaks to himself on camera about the real world situations that are being faced.  Guns, drugs, gangs, killings....they are very real not only here in Muskegon but anywhere.  Through James discussions with himself as if he's looking in a mirror, he's discussing consequences, reality and the overly frightening thought of the loss of young people who have really not even been given a chance to let life begin yet.  It's done in the hopes that if just one young person hears the message and walks away from the choices they face when it comes to their involvement with gangs and greed....it's a life saved and that's a step in the right direction.  James' talks on social media are very candid, they are very honest and to the point and they are a resonating cry to youth to stop the senselessness of violence that plagues parts of any community.

We met up in Rowan Park in Muskegon Heights to hear a little more about James story and why he's out there crusading to help others and dig themselves out of a situation before they can no longer.  Take a listen to this passionate young man and his desire to being change.  

We all come to crossroads in life.  We all take dramatic turns and we too all can pick and choose what to do with those changes as they come.  With James, it's a quest to share his life experiences to younger people and help them avoid some mistakes that can be made along the way, and there's not only his past experience that leads into this, he's got others very close being effected directly.  Change is seemingly difficult.  Change for some is impossible and to others it's an insurmountable task...such a hill to climb, most don't even try.  James, is trying.  It's the efforts on one that can lead to change and if that work leads to the safe harbor for one other individual, it's a mission that was on task.  I invite you to follow James and learn more about his message.  Click on James photo above to follow him on Facebook. 

Muskegon Area Nurse Honor Guard - A New Way to Remember Those Who Have Served

 

We've been through a lot and we've seen things that we'd never imagined both in real life and on the news.  What were here talking about today transcends any of the current struggles we have seen and is coming to Muskegon County through a group of volunteers who saw the need individually and then as they made inquires, found out they were not alone in what they were trying to get started.  A way to remember those who took the nursing oath, that lasts a lifetime.  

It stems back to the Nightingale Pledge that nurses take and it reads like this - " I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug."  This is a lifetime commitment and coming from a household where my mom and aunt were nurses as were most of their friends, they don't take this lightly.  Dr's take the Hippocratic Oath, this is the nurses equivalent.  It's a life dedicated to hard work, in difficult circumstances and quite often working with people at their most vulnerable moment.  We've all seen the optics over the last year one way or another, and if you've never had the good fortune of being in the care of a nurse, 1) count your blessings and 2) trust me when I tell you, it's no job for the faint hearted.

Well, from that lifelong commitment, when a nurse comes to the end of their life, there's an Honor Guard who attend the services to remember and revere them for their work and care given to others.  There are groups all over the country and the Grand Rapids chapter tried to get to Muskegon when called upon in the past, but as it's working out, those few who had it in the back of their mind here in town have come together to form their own Muskegon chapter and we're all about that.  It's proof once again that in Muskegon, we ALWAYS find a way.  This group is not affiliated with any one health system or Dr's practice, this is all on their own time much like an Honor Guard for Military or Police and their time and dedication is given out of love and respect to their fallen brothers and sisters at the end of their watch. 

Kimberlee Mason is a nurse here in the area.  She's also a teacher at MCC for their nursing program and she brought this new group to my attention so we could help spread the word for her on both their seeking new nurse members as well as maybe some that could help cover some of the minimal costs for the items of honor and remembrance that are given to the family of the nurse they are there to honor.  I am going to tell you up front, that I got a pretty substantial lump in my throat while we talked, and you might too.  Take a listen. 

It's a life not cut out for most and those who do go into nursing, there is so much needed by way of giving them thanks for all they do under the pressure and conditions they work in.  The day to day of life comes and goes for most of us, and that's the way it's sposed to be, but think of the immediate action, compassion and care you find the minute you need a nurse in their full capacity.  They really are front line protectors and we are incredibly lucky to have them there for our care when we need them.  To learn more about the Muskegon Area Nurse Honor Guard please click on the image below to visit their Facebook page to join them or help if you can.