CREATING NEW HOLIDAY TRADITIONS
Three Collar City men collaborate to host holiday community event later this month
TROY, N.Y. >> Three local men are working together to host the first ever Make Troy Beautiful Again holiday event.
The community event will take place Dec. 22, at the Troy Boys and Girls Club from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. This free event is open to people of all ages and everyone who signs up will receive a raffle ticket toward prizes.
“So this is Make Troy Beautiful Again first event and it’s to bring the community together of people who wouldn’t regu- larly meet in a normal situation,” founder and creator James Miles said about how the event idea came about. “So I’m a recovering drug addict and I made Make Troy Beautiful Again, as my personal recovery program and I started cleaning streets and the kids started asking me why I’m doing this and they wanted to get involved.”
Miles and Boys and Girls Club teen coordinator and outreach coordinator Tafari Harper met at a coat drive and along with Miles’ childhood friend Justin Conyers, the three decided to collaborate on the event.
“We’re doing the holi-
“We’re doing the holiday event to create traditions in our city, new traditions to give back to the children and show them we can make a positive out of everything and show them that there are still people here who haven’t given up.” — James Miles, founder and creator
day event to create traditions in our city, new traditions to give back to the children and show them we can make a positive out of everything and show them that there are still people here who haven’t given up,” Miles said about looking to create a positive tradition for the community.
“Having this holiday event is very important, not only to us but to our community. This is a community event. Everything that will be at this event was donated by the community. All the toys, bouncy bounce, bikes were donated by the residents of Troy, N.Y. So this is not an event that is owned by us, it’s a community event. We started this event as a way of bringing smiles to the young people’s faces,” Harper noted on the importance of connecting people in the Collar City.
“There are a few [more things] we need to make this an awesome event, donations of wrapping paper, juice, water, baked goods and anything else that people would like to donate to an event that will help young people have a great holiday. At this event we have Justin Conyers, he will be doing all the photos through his own company to make sure each young person has a chance to have a photo with Santa,” Harper said of additional donations the club is in need of.
In addition to a photo with Santa, Harper also said there will be pizza, a bouncy bounce, DJ, raffles, face painting, photo ID’s and a fire truck to entertain kids and their families.
“It’s about giving back to less fortunate people out there who don’t have things to look forward to on these holiday events, old traditions, smiles, family, things about the holiday that any- one when they think about their best memory that’s what we’re trying to deliver,” Conyers said about wanting to give kids an opportunity to create positive happy memories.
“We all have the same goals in our community and with this event, I feel like it could change the face of what’s going on. I want to spread the holiday love, holiday cheers, and traditions of the city. With this event, I’m trying to get out there and give back and change what’s going on around here. If we can reach one to one million I’m happy,” Conyers added about changing the culture around the city for the bet- ter.
Harper also noted how he hopes that this event will help people continue to mourn the loss of Jeremiah “JJ” Myers, who was murdered alongside his three family members in their Troy apartment last year. Myers was an active member of the Troy Boys and Girls Club.
“This was an awesome opportunity to team up with James and Justin to bring something epic to something our community needed when last year at this time the community had a tragedy that affected the Troy Boys & Girls Club and we know that a lot of people around this com- munity will be mourning the loss of a young person last year around this same time. Doing this event will warm the hearts of our young people to let them know that we all care about them and well remember the tragedy last year and that’s why we’re here now to give them a safe space,” Harper added of creating an uplifting event.
For those looking to donate, you can stop by the Troy Boys and Girls Club from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
“We encourage anybody who’d like to spend their holidays with us to come on out,” Harper added of what should be a fun event.