Dear Friends of the Campus District,

With Thanksgiving approaching, we thought we’d do a feature on gratefulness. We asked some of the students at the Campus International School to tell us what they are grateful for and we are sharing their sweet answers with you in this issue.

I would also like to share my own list of what I am grateful for here in the Campus District:

• A group of people who care deeply about the future of this district of downtown Cleveland. They demonstrate it through their gift of time, serving on the Campus District Board of Directors and committees, and through their financial contributions to the organization. (See their names in the box to the right.) Lead by our Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Schoop of Tri-C Metro Campus, they recently completed a strategic plan for the organization that proposes exciting things for our future work in the district. We will be sharing these plans at our annual meeting on November 22. If you are interested in attending, please call our office at 216-344-9200.
• People who volunteer to make the Campus District a better place. We have so many people contributing in so many ways throughout our community. A sampling of what they do: attending community meetings about safety improvements along Superior, volunteering as Promise ambassadors in the Central neighborhood to help children succeed in school and life, writing articles and taking photographs for our Campus District community newspaper, planting a perennial flower garden on the East 30th Street median strip, walking and biking the District with surveys to help us determine how to make our neighborhood more bikable and walkable, and the Men of Central who are helping children in the Central neighborhood schools with tutoring, reading and being a positive presence where needed. There are many more doing great work.
• A team of people who provide their talent and time to the Campus District as staff, interns and a loaned executive. Jack, Anna, Steve, Donna, Austin, Olivia and LaQueta bring energy, knowledge and passion to their work here and make many more things possible because of that.
• Our partners who help us solve problems and plan for future improvements: The CSU Levin College of Urban Affairs, the CSU Honors Program, the KSU Urban Design Collaborative, Cleveland City Planning Department, Cleveland Capital Projects office and Department of Engineering and Construction, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), the YMCA, the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), the Cuyahoga County Office of Public Works and its Bridge Engineers, and our neighboring non-profit development corporations of Burten Bell Carr, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Midtown Cleveland and St. Clair Superior Development Corporation. Our partnerships and collaborations make more good things possible for the the future of the Campus District.
• Our city council people Joe Cimperman, Phyllis Cleveland and Jeff Johnson. Each of them works tirelessly and uses their position to solve problems, generate resources for the neighborhood and advocate in the District’s best interests.
• And critically important to the vitality of the Campus District are the institutions, agencies, real estate developers, businesses and non-profits that are investing in the Campus District. They are delivering new student housing, new affordable and market rate housing, new restaurants, a new medical clinic for low income families and new facilities for learning that help students prepare for careers in the region.

We have so many things to be grateful for - including a bright future ahead! Happy Thanksgiving.

Warm Regards,

Bobbi Reichtell