Holiday greetings! 

This year, my holiday message is a simple one: take a look at the staff photo below, taken a few days ago at our Holiday party. I don’t tell them this nearly enough, but these are the faces of extraordinary, inspirational  people who bring diverse perspectives and talents to Isles’ audacious mission. They work really hard to make innovative things happen, in places where it matters most, with modest financial compensation.

How lucky I am to be part of this team!   

We are also grateful for all our loyal donors and volunteers, particularly those who donate their time, wisdom, and wealth to serve on our board of trustees.  Five trustees retired from the board this year: Frances Blanco, Henry Von Kohorn, Jacque Howard, Michael Dundas and Ann Marie Senior, our outgoing chairwoman.  (Next month, I’ll share the six new trustees who are joining Isles in 2015.)

If you see these good folks, staff or board, thank them for caring.  But then give them a hug for doing important things that matter – every day.

We deeply appreciate your friendship and support.  But this only works when others out there, like you, care enough too. 

May your gifts last a lifetime this holiday season. 

Isles’ friend, advocate, and donor Bill Scheide passed away on November 14, shortly before his 101st birthday. Bill was a Renaissance man. World class musician, arts collector, philanthropist, civil rights supporter, and anti-poverty advocate, his impact reached back many decades and across the country.   

Bill’s quiet but powerful voice for civil rights began when a young lawyer, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, asked Bill if he would support a case called Brown vs. Board of Education. Bill Scheide would become a primary funder of the case that desegregated U.S. public schools, and  he served as a member of the NAACP LDF Board ever since. 

Ironically, an earlier Trenton case was critical to Marshall’s landmark Brown v. Board legal strategy. In 1943, two mothers, Berline Williams and Gladys Hedgepeth, were outraged that their 12 year old children could not attend the new school built in their neighborhood because they were black. They filed a lawsuit against the Trenton Board of Education with a simple demand: let their children attend the same school as the white children.

In January 31, 1944, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled “It is unlawful for boards of education to exclude children from any public school on the grounds that they are of the Negro race.”  
A few years later, Brown v. Board of Education overturned the doctrine of “Separate but Equal” across the land.

Three years ago at our 30th Anniversary, Isles honored the Scheides and Williams families, introducing them to each other for the first time.  That emotional meeting closed the loop on one of the most far reaching but little known partnerships between Trenton and Princeton. 

In her comments that night, Judy Scheide spoke of Bill’s vision for an “enlightened community.”  We are grateful that his vision included support for Isles.

Eight years ago, Isles was the beneficiary of Bill’s first orchestral birthday party. What a treat it was to watch his childlike love for the music, especially when combined with a cause that he was passionate about. 

We were witnesses to a man (nay, a couple) that bent the arc of history towards justice, in unusually disarming and youthful ways.  What an honor to have called Bill a friend.

Thanksgiving, perhaps our most important holiday, was not always a holiday. Luckily for us, a small group of determined people spent many years advocating for it. Their leader was Sarah Josepha Hale (author of Mary Had A Little Lamb).

Born in 1788 to parents who believed girls should be educated too, she was taught at home and became a writer and poet.  Her book about slavery titled A Tale of New England, held that while slavery hurts and dehumanizes slaves absolutely, it also dehumanizes the masters and retards the progress of their world.  We are all connected.

Sarah also spent over 17 years trying to convince presidents to create Thanksgiving, until President Abe Lincoln responded to her advocacy in 1863.  He liked the idea but had an additional motive – he hoped that a national holiday of thanks might unite the country in the midst of war.

Sarah’s story is an important example of what can happen – indeed what does happen all the time.  When once-marginalized people receive education, teach themselves, and benefit from a support system that helps them dodge the arrows of the status quo, great things happen!  And for that, we at Isles give thanks.

It feels unsettling, at times, to be situated in one of the most educated, affluent regions in the wealthiest country, while living and working in its capital city – one of the 30 most distressed cities in America. Over the years, we have tried to bridge these worlds with integrity. Our job at Isles is to engage all these communities, and Princeton University increasingly helps us do that. They recently featured me and Isles in a Princeton Alumni Weekly article titled, The Good Neighbor. 

We are grateful for the interest and exposure to Isles’ work. Of course, it doesn’t capture the full breadth of the many hundreds of staff, volunteers, and leaders over the years who made this possible, but it’s a good start for the history books. Check out the article here.

One of our earliest efforts – community and school gardening – is discussed in this edition, along with an interview of Isles’ gardening manager and guru, Jim Simon.

With the holidays approaching, we hope you think about some gifts that will keep on giving, like a gift to Isles in the name of a loved one or family member.   

With gratitude and in community,

Marty

“When the student is ready, the teacher arrives.”

We use this ancient saying a lot around Isles Youth Institute.

But most people who talk about education – especially of underserved students – speak to the importance of great teachers, school buildings, curriculum, etc.

Of course, these are important. But the quiet secret of education is that it requires a student who wants to learn. So the big question is, “How do we create an environment that encourages students to want to learn?”

At IYI, we start each school year with Mental Toughness, a two-week period that tests whether each student is ready and interested in learning. This occurs in the city and out in a rural camp in Blairstown, New Jersey. The newsletter describes what occurred this past month at Mental Toughness.

This issue also highlights a long-time, passionate advocate of Isles, Barbara Coe. Barbara has been a great friend, trustee, and advisor over the years. We are grateful for her passion and roll-up-the-sleeves willingness to work.

With gratitude and in community,

Marty

A problem well defined is half-solved. This timeless adage seems especially true for developing communities. 

This summer, in just seven weeks, Isles, working with the Trenton Neighborhood Restoration Campaign and the City of Trenton, coordinated teams of community volunteers and Rutgers interns, mapped all of Trenton’s 31,000+ properties. The goal? To identify every vacant building and lot in the city and it’s condition.

Vacant, often decaying buildings impact safety, quality of life, and the economic and environmental health of the city and region – and there are thousands of such properties around Trenton.  The study will serve as a guide for the administration of Trenton’s new Mayor Jackson, as well as Isles, developers, and othes who need to know where the real problems – and opportunities – reside. 

This newsletter features this project and how it was completed in record-breaking time.  It’s an example of our “Learn, Do, Teach” approach to meeting our audacious mission. 

I am honored to introduce two new additions to our Executive team at Isles. John Hart, Chief Operating Officer, and Judy Nixon, Chief Financial Officer, joined Isles this summer.  You can learn why we are excited to work alongside them here.

With gratitude and in community,

Marty