Today, we are awarding $300,000 for the first ever Emerging Business District Demonstration Grants. pic.twitter.com/1fqKjeXU5d
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) April 19, 2016
Some fledgling business improvement district (BID) organizations in Dupont Circle, Shaw and along the 14th and U Street corridors were officially awarded a boost from the Mayor’s Office earlier today.
Mayor Muriel Bowser doled out more than $300,000 across five planned BIDs as part of her office’s first-ever “Emerging BID” demonstration grant program. According to the Mayor’s Office, the purpose of the grants “is to subsidize the organizing operations necessary to establish a Business Improvement District.” In other words, hand out cash to help up-and-coming BIDs fund their operations while they get off the ground.
Though it doesn’t really feel like winter outside, students from Ross Elementary School in Dupont will make sure businesses and bystanders along 17th Street NW get in the holiday spirit tonight.
Ross students will gather at Pansaari (1603 17th St. NW) at 5:30 p.m. and travel up and down the street singing seasonal songs and dispensing holiday cheer, said Dupont Circle Main Streets executive director Bill McLeod.
“We did this last year, and it was a hoot,” McLeod said. “The kids from Ross School were amazing, and merchants [along 17th Street] loved it.”
Though the caroling will only last for an hour, the warm feelings that follow may linger for the entire evening.
(This post was updated at 9:33 a.m. on Tuesday with yet another way to give.)
Black Friday is gone. Cyber Monday is almost over. Time to put the pocketbook away? Almost! But not before Giving Tuesday tomorrow.
What’s Giving Tuesday? It’s sort of like the charitable equivalent of your average consumerist holiday spending spree. Held on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the event is meant to kick off the charitable season for nonprofits across the globe.
Cool, but how do I donate? There are plenty of national charities you can donate to, many of which are mentioned on the Giving Tuesday website. Additionally, there are tons of local good causes worth supporting. Here are 13 ways to give back without leaving your neighborhood:
- Attend a Collective Action For Safe Spaces happy hour at Right Proper Brewing (624 T St NW). The happy hour will help support the organization’s safe bars program.
- Contribute to the Sitar Arts Center. Each donation will be matched one-for-one up to $1,000 by the Wise Owl Club.
- Buy shoes and dance classes for kids at the Dance Institute of Washington.
- Give to the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community.
- Help beautify the Dupont Circle neighborhood by contributing to Dupont Circle Main Streets.
- Kids need to read and write real good. Help ’em do that at 826DC.
- Donate to Green Door, a program that “prepares women and men with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses to work, live and thrive in the District of Columbia.”
- Help The Starfish Foundation educate 150 at-risk youth in Guayaquil, Ecuador by buying drinks at Johnny Pistolas (2333 18th St. NW) in Adams Morgan.
- Give to Martha’s Table or Bread for the City to help feed the hungry.
- 86 cents of every donation to Thrive D.C. goes toward helping the homeless.
- Seasonal food hub Common Good City Farm accepts donations year-round.
- Columbia Heights performance and art nonprofit BloomBars is entirely community-funded.
- Ride a bike near Dupont Circle in honor of World AIDS Day tomorrow and help donate to Whitman-Walker.
- Help families with SNAP access fresh fruits and veggies by donating to the Columbia Heights Farmers Market Bonus Bucks campaign.
- Through the Heart, a nonprofit dedicated to pregnancy loss support and education, is also accepting donations.
Photo courtesy of Giving Tuesday
Dupont Circle Main Streets needs volunteers to help staff its Art All Night info hub during the annual event this Saturday.
Volunteers will meet at the Dupont Circle Metro entrance at 20th and Q streets NW. Volunteers are needed from 6:30-9 p.m. and from 8:30-11 p.m.
The Dupont info hub will act as a reception area for visitors, said Main Streets Executive Director Bill McLeod. Volunteers will hand out brochures and maps and help guests on their way to the area’s 12 exhibits. McLeod added that the info hub will also include a large light-up map at the station with a teaser about what kind of art can be found at each exhibit.
Those interested in volunteering should e-mail Dupont Circle Main Streets.
Photo via Facebook/Dupont Circle Main Streets
News from Dupont-Logan-U Street (mostly).
From Tom Hay. Questions for Tom? send him an email.You can follow him on Twitter @Tomonswann.
Dog Park Meeting
The Shaw Dog Park’s monthly meeting ,of the dog park committee is this Wednesday, April 20, 7 pm, at the Hotel Helix. All are welcome to attend. Shaw Dog Park located at 11th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW (just south of R Street) and operated by Shaw Dogs, a volunteer group. Our newest contributor, Tori Tyree, has some tips for the dog park.
Dupont Group Fundraising on eBay
Interested in bargains and want to help a local organization? Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets is holding an eBay fundraising auction. HDCMS’s mission “is to make Dupont Circle’s commercial corridors economically healthy, improve our quality of life, and reflect our community’s pride and history.” As of this writing they still have lots of cool vintage cufflinks, collectibles and artwork available to the highest bidder.
