Part
of it is a pride issue. This is where my family
lives, this is my community, this is the
community that has given me so much. To see it
suffering in so many ways, there is just an
emotional response to that. To see that - despite
people trying so hard - that we don't have the
answers to what to do about these questions,
there is an intellectual challenge I think at the
core of this, too. We're just committed to trying
to figure it out."
"Flint Club is one piece of that. When it's community and collective, it has so much more power than when it's just individual. We want to build on the individual
commitments people have to the area and somehow pull that all together."
"The millions of media impressions that Flint, Michigan, are getting are innumerable: 'Flint, Michigan, down on its luck' - you can't totally change that because people are going to hear that. But what we need to ultimately do is get the New York Times article that says 'here is this extraordinary effort that is community-based and Internet-based' that's trying to turn that around so it becomes a great experiment in American optimism, in American problem-solving. That, if America is all that it says it is, then it should be able to make a place like Flint, Michigan, livable again."
"None of us are professional marketers. We just love Flint."
"Flint Club is one piece of that. When it's community and collective, it has so much more power than when it's just individual. We want to build on the individual
commitments people have to the area and somehow pull that all together."
"The millions of media impressions that Flint, Michigan, are getting are innumerable: 'Flint, Michigan, down on its luck' - you can't totally change that because people are going to hear that. But what we need to ultimately do is get the New York Times article that says 'here is this extraordinary effort that is community-based and Internet-based' that's trying to turn that around so it becomes a great experiment in American optimism, in American problem-solving. That, if America is all that it says it is, then it should be able to make a place like Flint, Michigan, livable again."
"None of us are professional marketers. We just love Flint."
Dayne Walling
(right, at National Youth Service Day at Northern
High School) says his Flint teachers had a
tremendous commitment to kids.
Dayne Walling, 30, son of
long-time Flint educators Paul and Reba Walling,
was born and raised in Flint and attended Flint
public schools. He graduated from Central High
School and Michigan State University. In 1996, he
was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford
University in England. He and college buddies
formed the Flint Club in 1999 as a civic- and
community-based group to motivate people to give
of their time and finances to revitalize Flint.
Their Web site is a place where people from Flint
or who have a connection to Flint can go for
information and discussion. They award student
service scholarships and will have a homecoming
event August 21 in Flint. Walling and wife Carrie
currently live in Minneapolis, with son Bennett,
3, and are pursuing advanced
degrees.
Point of action
Go to www.Flintclub.com and sign on to learn more about the Flint Club's mission of giving back and restoring Flint.
2006 update: The Flint Club will give the Crim the Made in Flint award on Aug. 25, 2006.
Point of action
Go to www.Flintclub.com and sign on to learn more about the Flint Club's mission of giving back and restoring Flint.
2006 update: The Flint Club will give the Crim the Made in Flint award on Aug. 25, 2006.
