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FridayMusings since 2003
Friday, February 23, 2024
Helping define Livonia's Quality of Life
20 years publishing FridayMusings without bias but not without opinion
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Mayor Maureen Brosnan and Karen Bonanno brought together the Livonia Youth Commission and Livonia Save Our Youth Coalition to create the 2024 Livonia Youth Summit at Schoolcraft College’s Vistatech Center. | |
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The purpose of this event was for Livonia High School students, the picture above is the delegation of students in attendance, to meet with local leaders and engage in dialogue regarding issues that concern students while giving young people a voice in the community.
Adult leaders set and discussed teens' insights and views while strategizing solutions for maintaining a healthy community.
Wednesday did what was expected as it facilitated dialogue and partnership between teens and adults, empowered teens in the gathering to share their viewpoint about what is happening in their lives and as important, in their hometown.
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Mayor Brosnan shares her reaction to the Youth Summit:
"It's been 10 years since Livonia came together to listen and learn about what matters most to our youth. At this Livonia Youth Summit 100 high school students' voices were heard on important topics like mental wellness, access to recreation, future planning, bullying and substance abuse.
"Listeners included elected officials and leaders from the City of Livonia, Livonia Public Schools and Clarenceville Public Schools. This generation of young people's secret weapon resides in their ability to articulate what they need and they open their arms wide to solve problems for others.
"I reminded them that at the last Summit they said they needed more space to gather and socialize. It's that message that is driving Livonia's plan to build a downtown at Five Mile and Farmington. Their vision for the City's future is moving forward and I got to share it with them. It's exciting to think that what they asked for 10 years ago could be here by the time they graduate from college, truly making Livonia the city our children want to come home to."
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From the opening comments from Karen Bonanno, Director of Livonia Save our Youth Coalition, and Mayor Brosnan it was clear that this was a call for students to develop a sense of community ownership.
Brosnan was open and forceful in commenting that the room of High School students was a part of the community that she and the City wanted to reach out to, to share the benefits of Livonia, parks among them, and that with the development of a new Five Mile/Farmington area with new retail, housing, park, home for entertainment, and an updated state of the art Library. "When they graduate from college they will want to come home to Livonia and with a new housing component of townhomes, apartments, and unique retail Five Mile/Farmington just might be their future."
In addition to the students, this was an opportunity for adults who are in leadership positions in the community to hear the input and insights of teenage high school students. Together the students and adults were able to sit and strategize real solutions in response to issues and to develop solutions that can be understood and perhaps implemented.
Dennis Myers, President of the Clarenceville School Board, says he was "impressed and inspired by the clarity of our young people. I took from this a challenge to help implement, through policy, the changes and requests that were shared by our youth."
The response was positive with Councilwoman Carrie Budzinski commenting that "The Livonia Youth Commission organized the Livonia Youth Summit at Schoolcraft College and it was a fantastic event. I was inspired and motivated listening to students from all 4 Livonia high schools talk about the issues they are facing and offering solutions to problems."
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This summit continues the vision of Mayor Brosnan who while working on the creation of a new Senior Center, discussing the steps needed to transform the Bennett Civic Center Library, repurposing Five/Farmington into a vision of a Livonia downtown, taking the first step toward public art, moving forward on ways to improve Livonia's building infrastructure that has been on the back burner for over a decade, and so much more on the transformation of a Livonia standing still to a Livonia moving forward resolving issues that have set on the back burner for too long.
This summit focused on Livonia, the future, forging positive relations, cultivating trustworthy, safe spaces, and offering our young citizens opportunities to engage in meaningful ways. Another defining characteristic of the Summit is that youth can be treated as equal partners, can engage with their hometown, schools, organizations in ways that are both constructive and productive.
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The Clarenceville Marching Band now has the tickets in circulation for their major fundraising event aimed at ordering much-needed new uniforms for the Marching Band. The same uniforms they have been wearing since 1997.
The drawing date for the winning ticket is May 15th at 6:30 at their annual Spring Concert.
There was a line forming to purchase the first tickets and this week Chuck Dardas purchased the first 10 tickets from Margaret
Kusisko, President of the Marching Band Parents, and Douglas Ferguson, Director of the Marching Band.
This is one-of-a-kind guitar that is as close to a work of art as I have seen on a musical instrument I only wish that I had the skill set to play it. Save a ticket for me as I just might take up guitar lessons.
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You can obtain your raffle ticket, for only $50.00 from members of the Clarenceville Marching Band, Bill Joyner at FridayMusings, Camerons Music (Livonia), Limelight Music (Rochester), Livonia UPS Store @ Five and Newburgh, or use the QR quote to purchase a ticket with paypal.
The guitar is a Warwick Star Bass II SCK Bass with a Speaker Cabinet including a heavy-duty Warwick Flight Case. One of the best used by U2, Metallica and so many other big-time bands.
The Hardies Family Trust donated $5,000 in matching funds for the first $5,000 raised. With that as a foundation, the Marching Band is on its way to raising the $30,000 needed to reach its goal.
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Little Love Stories. Livonia excels in Community Culture.
Theatre lovers will thoroughly enjoy this weekend
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Check out this review for Little Love Stories by Paul Bruce, shared with Musings by the Livonia Community Theatre.
Little Love Stories runs for one more weekend, 2/23-2/24, with two evening performances at 7:30 pm and one matinee at 2:00 pm on Saturday 2/24. Tickets are available at the door with cash only for $12 or order ahead at livonia-community-theatre.ticketleap.com/livonia-community-theatre-little-love-stories/
An absolute jewel has come to dwell in The Livonia Community Theater's playing space at Rosedale Gardens Presbyterian Church. This is the kind of show that the TRUE theater-lover craves. (True theater-lover being those of us who don't mind going on a hunt to find a theater located in someone's attic, garage, basement or currently unused fallout shelter.) The charming basement theater in the church currently utilized by this theater company may require working one's way down a few flights of a hidden stairway, but trust me when I say there is a pot of gold at the end!
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Little Love Stories, is the brainchild of Pat Hutchinson who, not only wanted to promote good theater but also original works, by authors whose material might otherwise have never seen the light of day. After plowing through literally scads of material, the company selected ten 10-minute original works by playwrights throughout the country to compose this production.
Of special note is the fact that three of these pieces are the works of local authors. Each of the ten selections revolves around the theme of love in one of its many and complicated facets, hence the collection's title, Little Love Stories.
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I feel that it is equally important to point out that this production has clearly gone out of its way to feature the diversity of love in ALL of its forms. I am eternally grateful to groups like this who place inclusion at the top of their list of goals. At a time when so much disinformation is spread by the very worst in our nation, this kind of courage becomes a beacon of light and an example for all. Clearly, hate has no home here. Well done LCT!
Each of the short stories is performed with just a few simple set pieces and props in a plain black set, allowing the performances of the actors and the written works themselves to become the feature focus. And what a cast of performers! The actors are uniformly talented, with a few standouts, beginning with Mo Thomas! Ms. Thomas plays the role of the narrator, a flight attendant helping to pilot the evening's host of lovers on their individual journeys. The cute theme of the narrator and all the monologues utilized were created by the talented Ms. Thomas. As she introduces each work she invariably drifts into song, allowing us to enjoy her lovely voice, as she produces a prop or costume piece to lay upon the scene as it opens. Clever in the extreme! What a delight!
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Mail Address
19514 Bainbridge 48152
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Cell address
734-674-5871
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The typewriter is not available for phone calls or emails Saturday and Sunday. Mental health and rehabilitation time. Out and about enjoying life.
What motivates FridayMusings:
We can't only define Livonia as taking small steps toward maintaining the way things were. That will give us mediocre outcomes. Our goal needs to be innovative and transformative.
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