Investing in the harvest to come

Friends,

Early winter and spring were tough.

Like many of you, we felt the impact of gun violence on our city. We felt the weight of a heavy load in our neighborhood.

However, like many of you, we did not lose hope.

As we prepared our spring and summer gardens, we smiled at the future to come. As our Urban Farmer (the Great Dennis O'Bryan) nurtured each plant from a tiny seed, we held to the hope of a harvest. As you surely know, the first planting of a crop symbolizes promise.

I couldn't help but think about how this metaphor of promise looms over our city like a sweet fragrance. And whether you know it or not, you have played a role in this sweet looming of fragrances and hope.

This promise looms over our children.

We continue to invest in our Binghampton youth in the way that we invest in the alluvial soil of the Delta, trusting that sown seeds inhaled by our earth will breathe back the life of rich, sustaining vegetation. We trust that every program sown... each recipe, bike ride, and paintbrush... will yield a creative thought, discipline, and piece of art that blooms from a young creative nurtured by our team. We hold to the promise to come. Our children will blossom into their respective, beautiful identities, seizing their futures in belief that they are- and will always be- great.

So...

Let us claim this promise together. Binghampton and our city are abundant with the metaphor of seed sowing, investment, and the hope of a bright future.

Friend, we love and appreciate all that you do for us and our beloved city.

With promise,

Jazzy