HOLIDAY SPIRIT * YOUR HELP * COMING UP * Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter * Vol. 13 * Dec. 1, 2012

YOUR DONATIONS STRENGTHEN WORK

OF UPTOWN BILL'S AND MUCH MORE

Dear Friend,

The more things change, the more they stay the same. With the first day of December comes the end of an era. After having founded the Extend the Dream Foundation over ten years ago, Tom Walz retired from his staff position effective December 1st.  

He asked that there be no formal event to acknowledge this. His plans are to volunteer with the Extend the Dream Foundation, but now as a non-staff member, and now mostly working with Mick. You can find him working at Mick's workshop on almost any given day.  He stops into the coffee shop every Saturday afternoon with his granddaughters and treats them to a milk shake.  He spent this past fall –as he has for many years—parking cars at Iowa football games rain - shine—or snow—to raise money for the Extend the Dream Foundation. He picks up donated items in his truck to be sold at the Vintage Shoppe. He goes to the Sharpless Auction every Wednesday to search out treasures to be restored to their original glory by Mick or to be resold by Gretchen in the Vintage Shoppe.   

And in between all this, Tom Walz is providing encouragement to a man who recently lost a job, or to a woman who is struggling with an addiction, or to a person who has recently left prison.   If you are out and about in Iowa City, you will run into him, and when you do, chances are, your interaction with him will bring a smile to your face and a warm glow to your heart.  Every community needs a Tom Walz, but ours is fortunate to have him!  

There will be a notebook at the Coffee House for you to stop by and write a sentence, or paragraph, or page about how knowing Tom Walz and  knowing of his work has affected your life.  So often we fail to let people know how they have enriched our life—and a person like Tom Walz has enriched lives all over town and all over the country.  Please take a moment to let him know what knowing him means to you. Please come down and sign the book and include a fond memory or thought or  poem. If it is not possible for you to physically get to the coffee house, please feel free to mail a hand-written note (enclosed envelope) and we will tape it in the notebook. We will give the notebook to Tom on the first anniversary of his non-staff status, December 1, 2013. (We can't say the anniversary of being a volunteer for one year because Tom Walz has always been a volunteer for the Extend the Dream Foundation since he founded it.  Some things don't change.)  

We look ahead to 2013 as an important year for the Extend the Dream Foundation. 2013 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bill Sackter, whose spirit and inspiration have guided us since the original Wild Bill's Coffeeshop opened in the University of Iowa  School of Social Work in 1975. (Bill was born April 13, 1913 in St. Paul, Minnesota.)    We are making plans to celebrate Bill's birthday all year long.

The centennial celebration will include a showing of "A Friend Indeed," Lane Wyrick's amazing documentary of the life and legacy of Bill (Friday, April 12) and an all-day birthday party at Uptown Bill's Coffee House (Saturday, April 13).  We're expecting Barry Morrow, Bill's friend and screenwriter for the "Bill" movies, to be here (along with his wife, Bev).   Please save the date on your calendar.  We will be sharing additional details with you as the plans develop.

Thanks for your continuing support of the Extend the Dream Foundation. Your donations help strengthen and expand the work of Bill's Coffee House, Mick's Workshop, the Vintage Shoppe and other enterprises. Each of these projects is part of our effort to make Iowa City a better place for individuals of all abilities.   

We depend on proceeds earned through the Coffee House, Vintage Shoppe and other EDF enterprises which cover about 75 percent of the annual budget for Extend the Dream Foundation.  We rely on grants and donations for the remainder.  (Donations also help us with the cost of capital improvements, like a new roof for the Vintage Shoppe and a new carpet for Uptown Bill's..) 

Please consider making a donation to support the work of Uptown Bill's and the other enterprises. .  You can donate online from our website (www.uptownbills.org). Look for the "Donate Now" button in the upper right corner.  (We've partnered with Network for Good to make online donations quick and easy.) You may also donate via Pay Pal: https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/charity_m.jsp?id=49706

Like to send a donation by mail? Here's the address: Uptown Bill's/Extend the Dream, 730 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240.

If you would like to make your donation in person, come down to Uptown Bill's at 730 S. Dubuque St.  We'll have the coffee on for you, and you can sign the book for Tom Walz …might as well order a milk shake while you are there…Tom's granddaughters say they are real good….

Thank you for your continuing support.

Mercedes Bern-Klug Tom Gilsenan

EDF  Board Chair EDF Executive Director

 

***Like to stay informed about activities and events at the coffee house, vintage shop and other enterprises? You can visit our web page at www.uptownbills.org. Or check out our pages on Facebook. Nearly every one of the enterprises now has its own page. You can also follow us on Twitter and see us on You Tube. You can also subscribe to our email Newsletter.

TOUCHED BY THE 

HOLIDAY SPIRIT

By Tom Gilsenan

EACH YEAR when I put up the tree, I am flooded with nostalgia. The memories of previous years swirl around as the tree goes up and the decorations go on.

One recent year the first memory which came to mind was the switch to an artificial tree. That was nearly 20 years ago. It was a bitterly cold day when we went to look at the trees that year. Standing at the Farmer's Market, we reached the

conclusion that this whole tree search was crazy. We headed to Target and bought our tree there instead.

While this seemed a sensible decision to us at the time, I recall that daughter Molly was horrified. Her response was something like this: A plastic tree? Dad, how could you? My childhood has been ruined.

I didn't anticipate this response, though thinking back I probably should have. After all, Molly was the daughter who at a younger age had not been the least bit surprised when someone left a tree at our door one Christmas. It seemed to

her just a part of the magic of Christmas.

That "plastic" tree is long gone, as is its successor. I bought a new artificial tree three years ago, the first one I've had with built-in lights. This is a great innovation, I thought.

Remembering that, I thought putting up the tree last year would be a snap. But that isn't what happened. When I set up the tree and plugged it in, only half of the lights went on. The tree looked so sad. My first thought: Not even Charlie Brown would take this one. My second thought: Molly just may have been right.

But I forged ahead, getting out the box of ornaments. I looked through them, recalling the acquisition of this one and that one. Here was one made by daughter Shannon; there was one from friends Mike and Melissa. 

Then I came across two bought at Dayton's, the old department store in downtown Minneapolis. One was from a "day after Thanksgiving" adventure the last year the store was called Dayton's. The other was from an after-Christmas sale some years ago. I looked at the ornaments and sighed. Not only is Dayton's gone, I thought, but its successor Marshall Fields is gone, too. Now that store is just one more 

Macy's, a cog in a chain spread across the country. Why don't they just call it McMacy's.

AS I put the ornaments on the tree, I thought of all the other local names which have disappeared from downtown Minneapolis, Donaldson's, Powers and Young Quinlan among them.

The same is true for nearly every city in the US: Armstrong's in Cedar Rapids; Younker's in Iowa City, Capwell's in Oakland, Emporium in San Francisco. The list goes on and on. We have lost so much.

But it's not only retail stores we have lost. Take local brand names like Cream of Wheat. Now it's just one of hundreds of names owned by the food giant Kraft. How about Creamettes macaroni? The pasta brand is now owned by some East Coast company and the manufacturing plant has been turned into condos.

By this point, I had worked myself into quite a snit. And I'd just about finished with the ornaments. There were just two more. One was Oscar the Grouch - a fitting one at that moment considering my state of mind. I put it on.

The final ornament was a small tractor, one I have thought of as the littlest Minneapolis Moline. I remembered buying it and thinking: It's not quite the right "prairie gold" color of real MM tractors, but it's close enough. I found a spot near the top of the tree for the tractor. I hung it on the short branch I had picked.

Then something remarkable happened. The lights on the top half of the tree came on. I was genuinely surprised, startled enough to let out a "wow."

Now, my practical friends would say that I had merely loosened some kink in the branches of this artificial tree. But I'm not listening to them.

AT THAT moment, it seemed to me that the spirit of the holidays had come into the room and lit the rest of the tree. The same spirit touched me, brushing away my glum mood. It was delightful.

I hope the same spirit touches you this holiday season and brightens your new year, too.

COMING UP THIS WEEK

AT UPTOWN BILL'S...

Wednesday, Dec. 5: Spoken Word at 7 pm. Presented in collaboration with Little Village magazine. 

Thursday, Dec. 6 (St. Nicholas Day): Artvaark (art activities) at 6 pm. Open Mic at 7 pm.  Music with Erin Ebnet at 8 pm.

Saturday, Dec. 8: Family Folk Choir at 1 pm; Gilded Bats play at 7 pm. 

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Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter is a virtual extension of Wild Bill's Coffeeshop and Uptown Bill's Coffee House. Published since 2000, the Newsletter is written by Tom Gilsenan, a former manager of Wild Bill's and now director of Uptown Bill's. You can write to him at tomgilsenan@gmail.com

Wild Bill's Coffeeshop is a project of the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. It has been a part of campus life in Iowa City for more than 35 years. Located in North Hall, the coffeeshop is open weekdays from 8 am. For more information, check the Friends of Bill's Coffeeshop page on Facebook. You can call the coffeeshop at (319) 335-1281. Donations to support the work of the coffeeshop may be sent to: Bill's Coffeeshop Fund, University of Iowa Foundation, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52244. Contributions are tax deductible.

Uptown Bill's is the crosstown cousin of Wild Bill's. Now in its 12th year, it includes a bookstore, performance venue and other businesses in addition to a coffeeshop. Located at 730 S. Dubuque, Uptown Bill's is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am. For more information, check the Uptown Bill's website or Facebook page. You can call Uptown Bill's at (319) 339-0804. Donations to support the work of Uptown Bill's may be sent to: Extend the Dream Foundation, Uptown Bill's, 730 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Contributions are tax deductible. You can also donate online at the Uptown Bill's website: www.uptownbills.org