June 20th, 5-9pm Uptown Eat.Shop.Rock
Eat.Shop.Rock will feature free entertainment in each of the four business districts all night, with headline acts during the designated times. Walk around, grab some food, head to your favorite shop – experience all that Uptown has to offer! At 8pm Blue Molly will be performing at Kava House (1445 Lake Dr).

June 21st, 1-4pm Eastown Business District Clean Up Sponsored by Harmony
Help clean up the Eastown Business District the day before Bizarre Bazaar, one of our biggest events of the year! Harmony Brewing Company is sponsoring this event and will provide lunch for the volunteers.

June 22nd, 9am-5pm Biz Baz
Biz Baz features some of the best original artwork and specialty handmade arts and crafts in the area. We feature original, local acoustic music all day and you can taste the best that Eastown Restaurants have to offer.
2013 Biz Baz live music line-up:
11:00-11:45 ~ The Ancients
12:00-12:45 ~ J Ryan Berends
1:00-1:45 ~ Kyle McCann – Music
2:00-2:45 ~ Otis Blueswell Jr.
3:00-3:45 ~ The Koh Kohs
4:00-4:45 ~ Sam Kenny & Emma Loo

ECA Family Movie Night, May 10th, 6:30pm
Neighborhood residents and friends are invited to join ECA staff, Board of Directors, and committee members to enjoy a free movie while coming together to meet more of their Eastown neighbors. This is a fun and free event for the whole family.  We will be showing the movie Brave at the Point church (1514 Wealthy St SE #170).

Lead Safe Painting & Home Repair, May 11th, 10am
Planning on making repairs to your pre-1978 home? Healthy Homes will teach this FREE class for Eastown homeowners and renters on the basics of lead safe painting and home repair. Please RSVP to Lindsey@eastown.org

Society To Increase Neighbor’s Knowledge (STINK), May 16th, 7pm
Have you noticed or been affected by the growing skunk population in Eastown?  Interested neighbors will meet at the ECA office on Thursday, May 16^th. We need creative minds as to: 1) trapping; 2) transferring; 3) informing our neighbors; 4) request for help from the City, and/or the neighborhood alliance. Email SkunksGR@gmail.com with any questions.

Picnic in the Park, May 18th 9am-4pm
9am-11am- Eastown residents and volunteers will help with general clean up of Sigsbee and Wilcox parks, as well as help with existing gardens. Please meet at the ECA by 9am.
Noon-4pm we will have a community picnic at Sigsbee Park with food, kid’s activities, a bounce house, bands and more!
Performances by:
Youz Guyz
WaZobia (Interactive African Drumming Group)
Cricketz

Thank you to our business sponsors:
Eastown Financial Services
Smitty’s
Chad Sytsma
Martin Remodel
Yesterdog
Kava House
Striders
Wolfgang’s
Annabell Noel Designs
Eastown Vet

Beer and Wine Tasting, May 18th 2pm-6pmJY Distributor’s will be hosting a Michigan wine and local brewery tasting at Billy’s Lounge. $10 will get you 10 tasting tickets (1 ticket per taste), additional tickets will be available for $2/ticket. Proceeds will be donated to the ECA.

Calling all Artists!
We have been organizing community events for 40 years. Please help us commemorate with a 40th anniversary design. The winning design will be sold as event merch. The design will need to be eventually formatted into a PDF for printing. Email your finished design to info@eastown.org. Art deadline is 5/31/13.

April 6th, 10am-3pm Eastown Service Day Sponsored by Eastown Cafe
We will be cleaning up the ECA garden and building raised beds. Plots will be available to Eastown residents and business owners later this Spring. Eastown Cafe will provide refreshments.

April 16th, 12pm-12am Living in Harmony – Support Eastown!
Our friends at Harmony Brewing Company are hosting a fundraiser for the ECA. Please stop in any time on April 16th for food and drinks. We will receive 10% of all food sales and a portion of drinks sales for the day.

April 20th, 9am-11:30am Eastown Clean-up Sponsored by Connie’s Cakes
In honor of Earth Day on April 22nd, we will be cleaning up the Eastown business district and nearby streets. We will start off at the ECA with a story time for Eastown families and kids. Volunteers will will then clean up the Eastown business district and neighboring streets. We will finish up at Connie’s Cakes who will provide treats.

Thursday March 7th, 6:00pm at ICCF (920 Cherry St)
In partnership with Baxter Neighborhood Association, East Hills Council of Neighbors, and Heritage Hill Association, we have organized a Block Organizer Round table. Join other neighbors to update or learn basic block captain duties for today’s world.

15 Minute Round Tables will run concurrently:

Block Organizing 101 – Lindsey Ruffin, Eastown Community Association, Best “Just Do It” info pack ever.

Just Between You, Me, and the Cops - Sgt. John Witkowski, GRPD,

You, Me, Cops & Slumlords – Code Enforcement Officer Shelly Weiss, GRPD, When nothing else works we call the enforcer!

Neighborhood Watch: It’s back! – Claire Fisher, Easthills Council of Neighborhoods, (Singer, Activist, and more)

Fun Raising- Tony Martin, Eastown – Host of legendary Thomas Block Parties

Tricks, Tips & Stopping Home Invasion - Barb Lester, Heritage Hill, “I Can Break Into Your House!”

CEPT (Secret code for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design – don’t tell) -Marian Barrera, Baxter Neighborhood Association.

Tuesday March 19th, 7:00pm Harmony Brewing Company (1551 Lake Dr)
Join ECA staff, board, and committee members at Harmony Brewing Company for some food and drinks! This is a time for Eastown residents to learn more about our new programs and neighborhood events and to just hang out and get to know each other. Harmony will be featuring a special on the Eastown Folk Funk Pizza and drink specials. Thank you to our friends at Harmony for hosting this event!

Wednesday March 20th, 7:00pm at Wealthy Theatre (1130 Wealthy)
DTE Energy plans to replace 15,000 feet of service lines in Eastown. A neighborhood meeting is scheduled for residents and business owners to ask questions and receive more information. See map below for the streets that are scheduled to be affected.

The ECA’s Executive Director, Lindsey Ruffin, and volunteer, Ryan Waldron, attended this morning’s community meeting to discuss the crime wave in Grand Rapids. The discussion was mainly focused on local organizations and residents creating a unified front to develop a culture of peace. Conversations about ways to stop violence in the city will take place throughout the community in the next couple months. Here are the ways you can get involved:

• Life Quest (6:30-8:00pm January 23 at 1050 Fisk)- youth program leaders will lead a conversation with young people.
• Urban League (745 Eastern Avenue, (616) 245-2207)- will be working on system-level changes having to do with families with Reverend Joe Jones. No date set for this meeting yet.
• Coffee with Captain Payne (5:30pm February 5 at 636 Bates St)
• LINC (5:30-8:00pm February 7 at Gerald R. Ford Middle School (851 Madison, (616) 308-6315))- community conversation with Dr. Willy Patterson

*Save the Date – Feb 9th 8am-11am
This year we are changing it up and having a pancake breakfast for our annual meeting. The breakfast will be at Calvin Christian Reformed Church (700 Ethel). This is a great time to meet more of your neighbors, learn more about the work the ECA is doing, and how YOU can be more involved. Suggested donation of $2 per adult, $1 per child, or $5 per family.  Voting for new board members will also take place at the breakfast. If you are interested in joining the ECA’s Board of Directors, click here for more information.

December 6, 5-9pm, December 7, 4-8pm & December 8, 9-4pm: Join Eastown residents in the 10th Annual Holiday Open House featuring recycled journals, candles, jewelry, felted handbags and hats, soap, cards, pottery, and more.
Location: 69 Carlton Ave SE.

December 15th, 10:00-11:30am: WMEAC and BetterBuildings are having an open house for all Eastown residents at Eastown Ministries, 610 Benjamin SE. This is an informational meeting for residents to learn more about GR1K and how to obtain a low-cost home energy report.  Coffee, cider, & donuts will be served
Call 616-451-3051 x40 with any questions.