| Middletown Residents Invited To Join Year-Long Community Action Project |
| Friday, December 19, 2008 11:24:14 AM - Middletown Ohio |
Middletown Residents Invited To Join Year-Long Community Action Project- Making Middletown Better
December 18, 2008
Long-time Middletown residents and community volunteers, Sam Ashworth and Ann Mort, are planning a new initiative to Make Middletown Better, to spur actoin within the city 51,000 residents to spruce up, invigorate and make Middletown an even better community in which to live, work or own a business.
While Middletown, like other cities, has struggled with the transition from industrial to medical and high tech business, the recent announcement by Forbes Magazine that Middletown was chosen as the 10th fastest dying community in the country, was a stinging blow to the community pride.
According to Ashworth, "We had been considering asking the community to join together in doing several community-wide projects. This just seemed to be the right time to bring out the plan. Now, we ask those in Middletown to join us in a year-long project."
The two are announcing the effort before the end of 2008 to mark the 50th anniversary of Middletown having been presented the All America City award in January of 1958. That award was the culminatino of several years of comunity effort in "Making a Good Community Better." According to Ashworth, "It's time to bring out that type of effort again."
While early plans are beginning to fall into place, there is much room for everyone in the community to bring forth individual, group, team, church, club or business projects- or build on efforts already underway and make them significantly better during 2009. Families and business owners might begin with property upgrades - landscaping, painting, etc. There will be specific projects initiated by a committee, but many mor einitiated by others. There may be projects that develop long-term efforts.
Ways for the community to become involved will be announced in early January 2009. "We are announcing this effort now, to get those family holiday dinner table conversations going to discuss how each person might help the old hometown be an even better place to call home, rather than how much they dislied the label placed on the town by a publication. At the end of 2009, we want to be albe to invite the Forbes folds to town to have a look and see what determined people can do," said Mort.
"We will measure what one community can do in this span of only one year. Those projects should let us know what will be done, a contact name, how many people will be involved and when it will be finished. We will keep a running list of projevts underway and those that are finished, along with the estimated volunteer hours involved," said Mort.
"In a normal year Middletonians do an impressive number of community service projects, festivals, economic development projects, etc. It will be fun to see how mnay we can do when we make a special effort," said Mort. "And we'll celebrate and take note of our successes as we go along."
Those with projects, ideas, or suggestions are invited to email Sam41@cinci.rr.com 513-593-0062 or RMort@cinci.rr.com 513-649-4506
Sam Ashworth, graphic designer, professional musician and small business owner and Ann Mort, writer, public relations conultant and small business owner were business partners in publishing the local "Good News/In Town" magazine for 10 years and have worked together on community projects and for clients in the area for nearly 20 years. Both seve on many volunteer boards and comittees. Ashworth is a former Director of Middletown Historical Society, Mort is a former Middletown Convention and Visitor Bureau Director.
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