Beautification Bingo and Big News!
At the afterschool program, we call it Beautification Bingo
It works like this. First, we divide the kids into teams and give them gloves, trash bags, and a bingo board. Then we send them out onto the streets of Comer. Their mission is simple: To pick up as much trash and litter as they can in an hour.
Every team member has a role. There's a Navigator, who keeps the team on the clean-up route. The Materials Manager handles supplies and the reacher-grabber. The Good Vibes Guru makes sure the team stays positive. The Communication Specialist keeps in contact with the Perch Afterschool Program's home base, while also checking off boxes on the bingo board.
The bingo board? That's right. We've got boxes for every type of litter. Fast food bag. Dirty diaper. Lottery ticket. Vape pen. Our clean-up crews have seen it all. Sure, it's dirty work, but in our experience something special happens when you're picking up litter. Folks stop with a hello and a thank you. You meet your neighbors. And our kids feel a sense of pride about the town where they live and keeping it nice for everybody. Beautification Bingo has been a true highlight of the Perch Afterschool Program, now in its third year.
Of course, it helps that there are prizes. When the pick-up is done, we gather at the Red Barn in downtown Comer to debrief on our work. We give out awards to the team that checks the most boxes and the team with the highest teamwork score (as judged by their adult chaperone). And then we share heroic feats to choose the MVP for that day's pick-up. These kids are tough, hard-working Comer citizens, so choosing an MVP is hard.In our December clean-up, the competition was fierce. One girl dug a nest of muddy plastic bags from a ditch. With some giggles, a boy collected a flattened brassiere from the road. But the boy who took MVP that day picked up something especially gnarly. Something even gloved hands dared not touch. It was... well, before we get to that, we have a little more to say about what The Perch nonprofit has been up to:
We have some big news…
In the new year, the Perch is planning to purchase the Comer Farmers’ Market building and the one-acre lot surrounding it so that we can continue our work of nurturing a creative community rooted in the center of Comer, Georgia!
But wait! Doesn’t The Perch already own the farmer’s market?
Here’s some back story: In 2020, one of our Comer friends bought the four-acre lot on Madison Street that included the yellow building, farmers’ market and surrounding land. For the next three years, he generously shared that building and surrounding space with The Perch nonprofit. This year, the owners decided to renovate that well-known yellow building to open a restaurant there, and sell part of the adjacent property to The Perch.
We are excited to purchase the farmer’s market building with its beautiful mural, volleyball court, and backyard! We plan to develop this space into a home for after-school programming, summer camps, concerts, Comer Quaker Meeting, volleyball games, makers markets, seed exchanges, popup clinics, events, concerts, and more.
This feels like a really big deal, as well as a significant investment for our young nonprofit. We hope that you share our dreams for a community center in Comer and can help us make this happen. We are grateful for all donations, big and small, and invite you to help us.
Can you make a monthly or year-end donation to The Perch?
Here are some more highlights from 2023…
We held an Earth Day Celebration in April with a potluck, tree planting and open mic — which included songs, poems, and at least two powerhouse interpretive dances! We planted a small oak sapling, named Georgina, and surrounded her with mountain mint to encourage pollinators. It was a lovely spring afternoon, and we’re looking forward to another Earth Day celebration in April 2024.
In June, the Perch and New Neighbors Network co-launched Movers and Makers Camp. Two days a week for six weeks, campers and counselors learned about creative and courageous leaders like Bayard Rustin, Jimmy Carter, Malala Yousafzai, and Greta Thurnberg. We visited the King Center and Center for Civil and Human Rights Atlanta, the Foxfire Museum in Mountain City, and went tubing in Helen. We also learned from local artists like Comer potter, Tom Homann and master drummer Arvin Scott. With daily yoga, games, and activities campers formed friendships and even walked over to City Hall to learn a little bit about local politics. Our 2023 Movers and Makers camp was hosted at Comer Methodist Church and funded by a Georgia Department of Education BOOST grant. We have funding for another year of camp and are seeking a director and teen counselors to have another awesome camp program in 2024 using our new space. Please email theperchcomer@gmail.com for more information or to apply.
The Perch Afterschool Program had a great fall! Over 35 young people ages 9-18 enjoyed spicy noodles and homemade cookies, games of capture the flag and flag football, yoga classes with Laura Nelson, and art projects with Ginni Edwards. We did monthly trash pick-ups around town (Beautification Bingo!) and took a field trip to the Georgia Museum of Art for an exhibit on the modern Southern experience. This fall the program has been meeting in the Red Barn in downtown Comer, and we are most thankful to be partnering with the City of Comer. We are currently seeking two more staff members to join our team for our spring semester. Applicants should be over 18 and available 3-6 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please email theperchcomer@gmail.com to apply. Our afterschool program is sponsored by New Neighbors Network and a Georgia Department of Education BOOST grant.
If you’ve made it this far you may be asking: What about that Beautification Bingo MVP? December’s winner was the sixth-grade boy who came across an old armadillo pancake on the side of the road. (Folks nearby know exactly what we’re talking about.) Our winner fully earned his new City of Comer T-shirt by fashioning two sticks into an armadillo spatula and safely disposing of the thing into a heavy-duty trash bag. (Side note: We’ve since added a rule not to pick up roadkill… but what’s been bagged is bagged.)
If you live nearby, we hope to see you at a Perch event in the new year. We’ll send an invite to our “Perch”-ase Work Party and Community Clean Up in February, our Earth Day celebration in April, and musical programming we hope to bring to the stage again before long. If you are supporting us from afar, we hope you'll swing by Comer for a visit!
So spread the word. Share your dreams about what you want to see and do in Comer and the space we are nurturing. We started The Perch during a time of deep division and isolation in our society with the dream of creating a place for people to gather together and build a cross-cultural community. A place where everyone belongs. That remains our wish for our community and for you!