Recent E-Newsletters

CHRISTMAS WITH DIGNITY Making Spirits Bright! Our Christmas with Dignity event took place on Friday, December 10. We served over 375 families and 1,100 kids. Our hearts are filled with joy for all who donated toys, gift cards, and for those who volunteered to make this event happen. We are forever grateful. To learn more about Christmas with Dignity please watch our video. Merry Christmas! HOLIDAY GIFTS FOR OUR STUDENTS Our students received Christmas presents from The Starland Charities. Thank you so much for your generosity. Our students feel blessed! STAFF HIGHLIGHT As our vision statement reads, our desire at Hospitality House is to help our youth and families overcome by opening doors of opportunity. Nick Mingo knows what is it like to overcome and gives credit to God. He has been in our program since he was seven and is now 19. He has six brothers who all attended HH too! With help from teachers at his high school Nick recently earned his high school diploma this summer after completing several incomplete items and handling some difficult disappointments. This fall Nick started school at Normandale Community College. He is going against the grain as a lot of his peers

CHRISTMAS WITH DIGNITYMAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT! The holidays can sometimes seem overwhelming and Christmas With Dignity strives to make every effort to ease the burden of the families in the community we serve. Since 1993 we have been so blessed by God to make this special event happen every Christmas. We closed registration for this year with nearly 400 families, which amounts to over 1,100 kids. This is by far our largest group! With the shortage of toys this Christmas season and COVID still very prevalent we are planning a format change to our traditional holiday shop. Your donations of toys, gift cards or a cash donation is needed now more than ever. If you would like to make a donation please drop the items at Hospitality House December 7, 8, or 9 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. We are still in need of volunteers, and like most the urge to give back during the holidays is something God calls us to do. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Paula Larsen. We so graciously appreciate your support of the children and families during the holiday season! Contact Paula Larsen Board Member paualannelarsen@gmail.com or Call the Christmas With

URBAN LEARNING CENTER UNDERWAYOur doors opened with excitement as we welcome back enthusiastic students to our after school Urban Learning Center for additional assistance in math and reading. With reduced numbers due to the pandemic we are at full capacity with 100 students! We are also happy to announce we have revised our Teen Program to include activities and programs for them to grow in their Christian faith and provide fun activities and events for them to explore their passions and skills. These activities include art classes, college visits, youth development workshops, along with Biblical studies. Hospitality House is very blessed to be thriving in this new school year. FALL BANQUET“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”Ephesians 4:3 We are excited to invite you to our annual Fall Banquet on Sunday, October 24 and for our event to be live and in person! This year’s guest speaker is Pastor Brian C. Herron Sr., he is the Senior Pastor at Zion Baptist Church in North Minneapolis. Pastor Herron is active in the community and an advocate for Justice and Racial Reconciliation. Please join us and our captivating speaker for this special fundraising event.

“Behold I Set Before Thee an Open Door.”Revelation 3:8 An open door is what the late Woody Larson created with his station wagon, a baseball bat and ball when he began to reach out to the youth in North Minneapolis. He used his love of baseball as a way to connect with the youth and teach them about Jesus Christ. Now 61 years later Hospitality House is thrilled to be celebrating what Woody started and all we have accomplished to increase academic achievement and improve the community in North Minneapolis. We are excited to invite our community of past and present volunteers, board members, staff, athletes and alumni to attend the 60th Anniversary Celebration. ALUMNI OPEN HOUSEHospitality House Youth Development1220 Logan Ave. N.Minneapolis, MN 55411Saturday, September 18, 20211PM-5PM WOMEN’S LUNCHEONAMAZING! We continue to see the blessings from our community. Working Together for Good – the theme for our 3rd Annual Women’s Luncheon brought together many new and familiar supporters for us to learn more about how we inspire, encourage and develop the youth of North Minneapolis that we serve. If you were unable to attend our Women’s Luncheon, you can still access the touching and heartfelt speeches by Katie Wall

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”Romans 8:28 NKJV WORKING TOGETHER FOR GOOD inspires our teachers to help our students to be their best and achieve their dreams. Serving as a place of hope and by teaching core values based on principles of good character, faith in God, and belief in yourself, our Christian focused approach strives to build young leaders within the community of North Minneapolis. Please join us for our Women’s Luncheon to learn more about all the wonderful things we are doing to create an inspiring and uplifting atmosphere for our students. Women’s LuncheonMinikahda Country Club3205 Excelsior Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55416Wednesday, August 18, 2021 11:30AMRSVP: Nancy Wurm nwurm@hhyd.org or 612.522.4485 ext. 13SUMMER SPOT Building trust, communication skills, and learning their leadership styles is what our 4th-9th grade students learned at Base Camp located at Fort Snelling on July 8th. The younger students participated in various group activities where they worked together to communicate and accomplish difficult tasks such as the low ropes course. The students also learned the basics of archery and had the opportunity to challenge themselves while

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” 1 Tim 4:12 Our Summer Spot program began June 21 and we are excited to have 92 registered students K-9th grade this summer! We are so blessed to have our doors reopened post-COVID. Over the next eight weeks our teachers will be working with the students on academics, taking field trips and working on their character development by going over the virtues taught in 1 Tim 4:12. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for fun weekly updates! Academic UpdateWe are so proud of all the academic accomplishments and improvements that our students made over the course of the 2020-2021 school year. The pre and post-test scores show that by participating in our afterschool programs there was a 28% combined overall growth for reading and math and 42% overall at grade level. Business BreakfastOn June 3 we had our Business Breakfast at Edina Country Club. Thank you to all who attended to help make this event a success as we reached our $175,000 goal! How truly amazing! We are grateful for your

Praying for our CommunityHospitality House Youth Development is in daily prayer for our community and we invite you to join us. In the midst of the present day challenges and community unrest, we firmly believe that Prayer is our greatest weapon, and that God is still in control. He is the same today as He was yesterday and forever more. Amen! The following Bible verses are good reminders, and are still true today: Micah 6:8“What does God require of you, O man? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”. 2 Chronicles 7:14“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and restore their land”. We seek God’s Mercy, Grace, and Peace.Free Ham GiveawayOn March 25, we were joined by Minnesota Vikings Fullback CJ Ham and MPD Officer Dillard to give away free hams from HyVee. We had a wonderful turnout on a beautiful day and continue to love serving our community. Over 300 hams were given out to our neighbors in total. Students Ready to LearnEven in these

We hope you’re enjoying watching all the college basketball games this month. Here are some shots of future college basketball players from our teams at Hospitality House! Building BoatsThe 5th graders recently had the challenge to build a boat that could hold coins while learning about density and the Titanic. On Monday we began with 2 water density experiments to learn if something will sink or float. Tuesday students learned about how boats displace water to help them float. Students were given a “budget” so that they could purchase materials to build their boat. On Wednesday, we did the first round of testing and discussed what worked and what didn’t. One student’s boat held 136 coins! On Thursday the students then were given an unlimited budget to create another boat with the goal of holding more coins then their previous boat. Every single boat held more coins on the next day. A student’s boat held 160 coins on this day! SAVE THE DATE: JUNE 3, 2021 Local Sportscaster Mike Max will be speaking at our upcoming Business Breakfast taking place on June 3rd, 2021 from 7-9am at the Edina Country Club. We’re planning on an in-person event… Save the date

Hospitality House is celebrating Black History Month Remembering God’s Love on Valentine’s Day LEGO Building CompetitionThis past month, our Afterschool students participated in a LEGO Building Contest. Our students designed and built things that they would like to see if Hospitality House were to remodel and/or grow. Below is our 1st graders beginning their construction work. Here’s an amazing 2nd grader, in process of creating a model of a second gym. He loves to play basketball so there was no doubt that an additional basketball court and gym were his project. Also in our LEGO contest, another student wanted to have a new indoor pool as part of growing Hospitality House. He also loves pirates and ships so he included them in his new Hospitality House pool. Many of our kids were very excited about the possibility of expanding Hospitality House! Finally, a special thank you to our supporters for helping us work with these special children.NEW Microsoft Office Zoom WorkshopWe got a chance to try another new thing at Hospitality House: a Zoom Workshop! Michael Reeves, who has run many IT workshops previous to the Covid Pandemic, just began a 9-week series with our teens on how to use