These are my friends, Doc and Anne. They have lived in a renovated (mostly with their and their friends’ hands) home in Glenville near Case (a couple of neighborhoods away from us in Cleveland Heights) for about 8 years now, and raise two kids there.

This is their son M, pictured hiding under a table with our daughter a couple of years ago. They were not as good at hiding as they thought they were.

Doc has consistently built up relationships and neighborhood investment since making the Glenville community his home. The Harrills are a great example of how people can and are investing in Cleveland in tangible and meaningful ways. With a lot of intentionality and hard work this city is being reclaimed from empty lots to community gardens; instead of to scatter and live in fear, the response is becoming to gather, connect, and support.

Our family has engaged financially and with our time and elbow grease in what Doc and Anne are doing before and we’ve always been glad we get to participate a little bit sometimes in the important work they are doing. And now they are at a point where the community has been asking them to expand what they have successfully done in summers past to be a year-long program. So many great possibilities if the kickstarter gets funded, but they only have a few days left!

Please consider investing, sharing, etc. if this seems to you like something Cleveland benefits from and should have more of (hint: this is something Cleveland benefits from and should have more of). I’d recommend that you at least find and watch the ReFresh video available on the kickstarter page because it captures something really important about a growing movement in the city of Cleveland.

I don’t need to say too much more about it because they said it well themselves in the video(s). Check it out.