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Successful Event For The Homeless Inspired Church To Apply For MLK Service Award
What Role Will Jewish Center Play In West Tampa Redevelopment Plans?
FT. HOMER HESTERLY ARMORY
This is what the completed Jewish Community Center and Fed- eration building will look like.
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
Soon after the holiday sea- son, the celebrations for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holi- day are looming. Hillsborough Community College (HCC) through its partnership with several agencies, sponsors grants for not-for-profit or- ganizations to take advantage of.
Last week (in the Friday, December 25th issue), HCC announced the names of those who had been awarded funds to host service projects. With the theme, “MLK Day Of Service, A Day On Not A Day Off,” many organizations will be conducting a variety of services from January 9th through January 24, 2016.
Among those who received funding for the MLK Day of Service is Greater Bethel M. B. Church, Inc. Gwen Myers, MLK Day of Service Project Manager and Chairman of the Trustee Ministry at Greater Bethel, said her church hosted
GWEN MYERS
an event in October that was so successful that they decided to apply for the grant.
Greater Bethel, located at 1207 N. Jefferson, is very close to downtown Tampa, near I- 275, an area where the home- less population hangs out. When they opened their doors in October, the church was able to serve 150 homeless people. The church family brought in clothing, prepared a hot meal, many received haircuts, and agencies were represented that could pro-
vide information on services. Greater Bethel’s Day of Service is Saturday, January 9, 2016, starting at 9 a. m. The MacDill Honor Guard will be there and so will Tampa’s Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Dr. Samuel L. Wright, Sr., MLK Day of Service Consult-
ant.
“This is an excellent op-
portunity for our church to do a mission project through the Day of Service. This time our focus will be on the homeless veterans, veterans, military families and homeless individ- uals as well as any others,” she explained. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a. m.
“Our church is very excited about serving those who are less fortunate. We’ll be reach- ing out to our partners to as- sist in this project. We’ll have agencies who can talk with them about food stamps or Medicaid assistance.”
For more information about the MLK Day of Service at Greater Bethel M. B. Church, call (813) 247-2410.
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
If you’re at least in your mid 50s, you remember the con- certs and wrestling matches that were held at Ft. Homer Hesterly Armory.
Those days are just fond memories now, and the corpo- ration now occupying the his- toric building has promised to capture that history through photographs that will align a wall near the entrance.
The Jewish Community Cen- ter and Federation (JCCF) has been renovating the building for the past year, and President Jack Ross said they are still in the fundraising stages of their projects. The entire project will cost $26 million, of which Ross said $19.1 million has been raised.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers co- owner, Bryan Glazer, pledged $4 million to the proj- ect.
“We have established funds for some of the work, but we still have a long way to go.
“We are aware that our Cen- ter is within the West Tampa CRA, but we don’t know what that means for us at this time.”
Ross said he’s unsure what role the JCCF will have on the redevelopment plans for West Tampa, but he does promise what they do have planned will benefit the entire West Tampa community.
“We will be creating jobs and opportunities for a lot of peo- ple, and we will be a great neighbor.
“At least one of our repre- sentatives has been attending the meetings going on, and we’re aware of just about every- thing.”
Ross said they are open to sitting down with any commu- nity group or organization to talk about what they’re doing, and what can they do to facili- tate the plans for West Tampa.
“Without the funds, you can only plan at this point. That’s about where we are. We have a lot of projects planned, and
James Brown appears at the Armory in this 1972 photo.
It was professional wrestling that put the Armory on notice with the public.
we’re still putting together the sources to fund those projects.” City Council Chair Frank Reddick said he’s made con- tact with Ross and his staff, and they are keeping him ap- praised on what’s going on at
the Center.
“I just want to make sure
their plans are the same as our plans. We will be working to- gether in the future, so it’s im- portant to keep all lines of communication open.”
Ross said if anyone wants to look around the JCCF to see what’s going on, or if anyone wants to talk to him, they are welcome to stop by the JCCF on Howard Avenue near Cass Street.
The renovation project is ex- pected to be completed by Sep- tember 2016, and the renovated building will have more than 100,000-square- feet.
When the renovations are complete, the JCCF will include a gymnasium, fitness center, locker rooms, meeting rooms, a café, a public events center and art studio, and other features.
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