April community meeting recap

The Hawthorne Empowerment Coalition’s April community meeting is in the books! Thanks to everyone who turned out! At this meeting, HEC’s longtime officers handed the reins of leadership to a new group of interim officers. HEC’s new officers are:

• Daphne Watkins - co-President
• Greg LaBier - co-President
• Gwendolyn Toler - co-Vice President
• Judith Thomas - co-Vice President
• Ann Lastuvka - Treasurer
• Jacob Goldfischer - Corresponding Secretary
• Valerie King - Recording Secretary
• Jacob Goldfischer - Corresponding Secretary

All of HEC’s officers are longtime Hawthorne residents. They will serve for one year and will focus on holding elections next spring, ongoing management of the Post Brothers community benefits agreement, updating HEC’s bylaws, as well as updating HEC’s financial practices to make it more agile in handling its finances.

In addition, the following neighbors are serving as HEC committee chairs:

• John Kehayias - Communications
• Kelly Korzun - Arts
• Ann Lastuvka - Zoning
• Gabby Thomas - Education

Please email info@hecphila.org if you would like to contact any of HEC’s board officers or committee chairs.

Those who attended the meeting last Thursday night got to meet most of the new officers and committee chairpersons. Ann, our treasurer, also reported on HEC’s financial status. The highlight of the meeting was the presentation of a $5,000 check to the Fanny Jackson School to help pay for much-needed improvements to the school’s basement multipurpose room.

Hawthorne Empowerment Coalition’s community organizer, Stan Horwitz, was present during Rep. Ben Waxman’s RCO meeting. During the meeting, the idea of a free safe firearms workshop was shared with our community organizer Stan. He is looking into bringing that workshop to our community.

The Coalition continues to work on making Washington Ave. safer for students to walk to/from school. To that end, Stan met with Ahmir Day, who is an aide to Council Member Johnson. Stan and Ahmir are working on ways to elicit support from other RCOs along Washington Ave. If you are unaware of the safety issues facing communities on the border of Washington Ave., a recent report by WHYY discusses the impact of the road diet on public safety. Click on this link to access that report https://whyy.org/articles/washington-avenue-philadelphia-traffic-project/

If you have any questions about Hawthorne or would like to volunteer with the Hawthorne Empowerment Coalition, please email info@hecphila.org or call us at (267) 209-3423.