Greating Creators!

It's August already and summer is half over. This is a great time to stop by our gardens to pick some Okra. We have two varieties spineless crimson and red burgundy - why not try them both!

AMERICORPS CORNER

This month, we say a bittersweet farewell to some of our amazing AmeriCorps members. While we're excited to see them take the skills they've gained here into new chapters, it's never easy to see them go. Swing by the studio this month to give them a high five, a hug, or just a heartfelt "you rock" before they take off!

We greatly appreciate and value their commitment and service!

But on another note, thanks to our community's tireless advocacy, we were able to keep the AmeriCorps program for another year! We feel so very blessed! In September we will have some new hires and we're excited to work with them and introduce them to you soon!

As part of the effort to save AmeriCorps, OneStar Foundation wrote a powerful article highlighting the impact of the program through the voices of our members. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, we encourage you to do so. And please feel free to share it with others who may be moved by their stories.

Where Hope Takes Root: How AmeriCorps Grows Community & Opportunity in Killeen"

COMMUNITY GARDENS

As we enter August we'd like to share with you the progress of our Butterfly Garden at 10th St. Earlier in the year we planted and tended to plants that would bloom in the summer for our pollinator friends. This summer we have had swarms of butterflies flock to our garden. These kinds of pollinator-friendly gardens help species in our ecosystem thrive - especially Monarchs. Take a look at our garden and see how many butterflies you can spot!

Watch video on Facebook

New Board Member

Introducing Cayssia David, our newest Board member

Cayssia David is a dedicated public servant, military advocate, and Gold Star spouse based in Killeen, Texas. She currently serves in the Community Development Department for the City of Killeen. In this role, she contributes to the administration of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support community development programs. In 2005, Cayssia's husband, U.S. Army Specialist Steven Ray Givens, was killed in action while deployed in Balad, Iraq, making her a Gold Star spouse .

Since then, she has been actively involved in supporting and advocating for veterans, military families and fellow Gold Star families. Her commitment led her to serve as a Gold Star Fellow and congressional staffer in Congressman August Pfluger's Killeen office, where she assisted constituents with congressional casework, participated in community engagement, and built necessary relationships with community stakeholders. Cayssia David's dedication to public service and her advocacy for military families highlight her resilience and commitment to her community.

We're so excited to welcome her to our Board!!

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

SEEKING A VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

For quite some time, we've had many reach out to us wanting to volunteer their time and talents with us which is amazing! We have very much wanted to bring them into our team! However, our board and staff just haven't had the time to match ALL the volunteers with the particular opportunities fitting their interests and availability. Our new board chair would like to make it a high priority to find one very special volunteer who would like to become our volunteer coordinator!

We know one of our supporters has the time and skills to help us oversee our volunteers. Our volunteer coordinator would volunteer approximately 10 hours a week, coordinating, scheduling, tracking and encouraging our volunteers. Or maybe it could be two people who each donate 5 hours a week! This position would require some basic management and communication skills and some basic tech skills to be able to use our database.

If you think you might be interested, fill out this application and you'll be hearing from us!

RECOVERY STUDIO

This year marks our 5th year anniversary! Killeen Creators has grown and expanded during these past five years in so many ways. We've made connections with countless organizations, provided food through establishing FOUR community gardens and helped people recover from trauma through our creative programs. We'd love for you to join us and spread the word about what KC does. Tell a friend or volunteer your time with us - we appreciate your contributions and it's because of YOU, our members, that we are strong and are successful in our mission.

Here is our August Calendar!

While we honor drop-ins if there are open seats, we encourage you to sign up on Eventbrite to make SURE there's room.

Please take note: our Recovery Studio will be CLOSED the first week of September due to training of our new AmeriCorps team. We'll be excited to reopen September 9th and introduce you to some new staff members!

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

This month our board's Fundraising Committee, lead by Dr. Mecka, is calling for a Membership Drive to recruit more Sustaining Members to help cover funds lost during recent sudden and severe DOGE cuts.

We are asking our CURRENT MEMBERS to please encourage at least FIVE of your friends to become Sustaining Members with a monthly donation of whatever they can contribute. EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS!!!

Your sincere ask followed by texting them our Sustaining Membership link is our BEST change to continue providing services for those of our neighbors who cannot contribute financially. Click on the Sustaining Membership button below to then SHARE it with your friends.

Sustaining Membership

SAVE THE DATE!

Sept. 26 & 27

We'll be having a Yard Sale & Plant Sale on September 26th & 27th!

We'd love for you to come out and see what we will have to offer and support our mission.

Start looking now to see if you have items you'd like to donate. Contact James with what kinds of items you are thinking of donating, particularly larger items so that we can include it in our advertising. We will have more information on when and where to drop off donated items in the September newsletter!

Upcycled Art meets Wednesdays from 11am to 12:30pm

In upcycled art, we use whatever we have on hand – paints, stickers,bottle caps, scrabble ties, or recycled jewelry parts – whatever we can find!

Look at this amazing group of Creators!

Some of the art our participants recently designed!

No art experience necessary and we provide the materials

Wouldn't you like to join us and get your creative juices flowing?

Stay-Tuned NEXT MONTH for following Updates:

• Our Urban Ag & Art Mobile!
• New AmeriCorps Members!
• 2026 Hearts of Killeen Call for Artists!
• Fall Classes!
• Yard and Seedling Sale Preview!
• Limited Edition Killeen Creators 5-year T-shirts!

As always, we THANK YOU for your interest and support. TOGETHER, we CAN create the community we want for ourselves, our children and our neighbors.

Donate

Killeen Creators

701 N 10th St, Killeen|TX 76541, United States|254-213-2210

You have received this email because you provided your email address to Killeen Creators, most likely in the course of a business activity. If you do not want to receive any more mailings, unsubscribe.