Arts & Scraps fundraiser: recycling for Detroit kids

This Saturday, March 8, Arts & Scraps is holding its annual fundraiser. For $40 per couple, enjoy a strolling dinner, a tour of the NextEnergy green facility and alternative fuel lab, and Dragonmead beer samples. Plus, try your hand at several games, including bingo, roulette, craps, poker and blackjack.

The fun begins at 6:30 pm at NextEnergy, a Detroit non-profit dedicated to advancing the Alternative Energy Technology industry in Michigan. For more information on the Arts & Scraps annual fundraiser, contact Suzanne Janik.
Not familiar with Arts & Scraps? A non-profit organization based in Detroit, Arts & Scraps recycles 22 tons of industrial scraps into creative, fun materials for over 200,000 children in Detroit. The Arts & Scraps facility is open to the public Tuesday and Thursday from 11-6 and Saturday from 11-4. Stuff a grocery bag or choose from items in the single price area. Staff is available for help with project ideas. Arts & Scraps is also a great place for birthday parties. For more information, visit Arts & Scraps on the Web.

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Upcoming: Pistons Telethon

For the first time in Detroit sports history, a team will devote an entire day, including their game and their broadcast, to a telethon to raise money for charity.

On Friday, March 14, as part of the Detroit Pistons' season-long celebration of 50 years in Michigan, the organization will host the Pistons Cares Telethon Benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan. The team asks everyone in the community to help them reach their goal of granting wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.

The telethon will run throughout the day and into the evening as the Pistons host the defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs at 8 pm.

The entire telecast of the game will be devoted to the telethon. Throughout the night, representatives from the Pistons community will ask fans to call and pledge. Sponsors will present their donations and the Pistons will introduce stories of past and present Make-A-Wish kids.

All donations taken -- online, over the phone, through pre-telethon programs and in-arena the night of March 14 -- will place each donor into a drawing for unique, one-of-a kind prizes from the Detroit Pistons, including the grand prize of a road trip with the team on Roundball One.

For more information about the Pistons Cares Telethon Benefiting Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan, please contact Dennis Sampier, Director of Community Relations, at (248) 371-2034 or visit www.pistons.com.

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Southwest Solutions' Holiday Wish List

December is one of my favorite months. I love the holiday celebrations, the splendid food and treats, the tinsel, the pretty wrapping paper and ribbons, the flashy lights and everything else the 12th month of the year brings.

The thing I like most about this month, though, is the gift-giving -- and not the gifts I give to my husband, parents or friends. The gifts I enjoy giving most are the ones for individuals that I will never meet. Individuals that are not fortunate enough to have Christmases like the ones I had growing up or like the ones I have today.

My condo complex used to adopt a family for Christmas and, through this, I discovered how cool it is to buy gifts for children and families in need. My complex no longer does this, but every year I receive an email at the end of November from an individual or organization looking for donations of specific items and unwrapped gifts. Call it holiday magic.

This year, that organization is Southwest Solutions (SWSOL), a 40+-year-old community mental health and housing development agency working to build a healthy Southwest Detroit community.

I first heard about SWSOL back in 2005 when it won Crain's Best Managed Non-Profit that year, but really got to know the organization a few months ago on a bus tour of its agency and redevelopment sites. I was so impressed with the organization that I attended another event, the grand opening of the Whitdel Lofts, 32 new units of artist housing, a few weeks later. (Side note -- the Whitdel is a great old Moorish-inspired building, complete with the Contermporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID)-run Ladybug Art gallery, plus art education facilities.)

Any type of holiday giving is wonderful, whether it's a handful of coins thrown into a red Salvation Army kettle or giving up some of your time for others, but there's something special about going to the store, picking out a present and taking it to a representative of a positive organization like SWSOL.

Interested in helping Southwest Solutions this holiday season? Unwrapped, gender-neutral, educational gifts for children from birth to age 10 are needed, as are:

Laundry baskets with cleaning supplies and kitchen towels;

Adult-size XL and XXL hooded sweatshirts;

Men's and women's socks, hats and gloves.

Donations are tax-deductible and SWSOL is happy to provide you with a receipt for tax purposes. Gifts are needed in time for a December 16 Christmas Party.

For more information, please contact Mary Madigan, Fund Development Manager, at (313) 849-4902 or at mmadigan@swsol.org

Southwest Solutions operates successful programs in family literacy, mental health counseling, home ownership counseling, supportive housing and commercial revitalization. Please visit SWSOL on the Web for more information.

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Cintron, Bookies team up to help Battered Women

Headed to Young, Hot Detroit at the MGM Casino this evening? Stop off at Bookies Tavern afterward for drink specials, good music and a good cause.

At 9 pm, energy drink-Cintron kicks off a 5-hour-long holiday fundraiser for Angels for Christmas, a 501(c)(3) organization for battered women.

According to the National Organization for Women, every day four women in the U.S. die from domestic violence, the euphemism for murders and assaults by husbands and boyfriends. The number of women who have been murdered by intimate partners is greater than the number of soldiers killed in the Vietnam War. Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner. And young women, women who are separated, divorced or single, low-income women and African-American women have disproportionately higher incidences of assault and rape.

There's no cover for the event, and dress is casual. The cool part of this fundraiser is that Cintron will match all donations made. Donations are fully tax-deductible, of course.

So have some fun at a local Detroit nightspot and spread some joy this holiday season: Stop by Bookies Tavern after 9 tonight for Cintron cocktail specials, music from DJ Waldo, and most importantly, to help women in need.

About Cintron

Cintron's energy drinks are special for two reasons: they taste great and have quality ingredients. Unlike its major competitors, Cintron appeals to today's health-conscious consumers with drinks free of high fructose corn syrup.

Along with its four flavors of Liquid Energy Drinks -- Pineapple Passion, Tropical Azul, Citrus Mango and Sugar-Free Citrus Mango -- Cintron recently launched five varieties of green tea: Pomegranate, Mango, Guava Passion Fruit, Original and Diet.

Cintron is available at select Detroit locations, including Harbortown Market on Jefferson Avenue and Mazen Foods on Gratiot.

About Bookies

Bookies Tavern has been rocking Washington Boulevard since 2003. Click here for Girl in the D's full take on this out-of-the-way spot located just blocks from Woodward Avenue (map here).

There's plenty of street parking for Bookies along Washington Boulevard and Grand River, or pay a small fee and park inside the Trolley Plaza garage just across Grand River. People Mover-users: the Times Square station is located one block west of the Bookies' entrance.

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Eminem: shoes for a cause

Best known for his hotly-debated, chart-topping tracks and the ability to turn raw talent into gold, Detroit's-Eminem recently added a new skill-set to his multi-faceted resume: shoe-designer.

Earlier this year, the record-breaking rapper teamed up with Nike to design eight pairs of limited-edition shoes from Nike's Air Max series, including the original Air Max 1 (also known as the Air Max '87), the Air Max '90, -'93 (aka 270), -'95, -'97, 2003, the 180 and the new Air Max 360 (aka Max 2006).

After the shoes are created, Eminem will number and sign eight pairs of each.

All 64 pairs will then be auctioned off to benefit the Marshall Mathers Foundation, a non-profit created to assist charities working with troubled youth in Southeastern Michigan, and ninemillion.org, a global organization which seeks to educate and provide sports-related activities to the more than 8 million youth rufugees around the world.

The signed shoes will be available at Nike stores in London, Berlin and Paris starting with Nike Londontown Thursday, August 31.

They will also be available on eBay for four weeks beginning September 12.

Scheduled dates and specific auction items are as follows:

Aug. 31: NikeTown London:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max '87 - 1 pair; Air Max '90 - 1 pair

Sept.12: eBay:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max '87 - 7 pairs; Air Max '90 - 7 pairs

Sept. 16: NikeTown Berlin:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max 180 - 1 pair; Air Max '93 - 1 pair

Sept. 19: eBay:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max 180 - 7 pairs; Air Max '93 - 7 pairs

Sept. 22: Nike Store, Paris:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max '95 - 1 pair; Air Max '97 - 1 pair

Sept. 26: eBay:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max '95 - 7 pairs; Air Max '97 - 7 pairs

Sept. 28: NikeTown London:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max 2003 - 1 pair; Air Max 360 - 1 pair

Oct. 03: eBay:

Shoes to be auctioned: Air Max 2003 - 7 pairs; Air Max 360 - 7 pairs

For more information, please visit Eminem's website.

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