Celebrate the South East Area Event- Online Auction Looking Fantastic! Get Your Tickets Today!

Tickets are limited, so get yours today by clicking this link or scanning the QR Code in the picture!

Our event is just a week away and we are super pumped to see you there! On top of having some great musical entertainment like Jackson Cavalier and the Mount Hope World Singers. Renowned storyteller and neighbor Jay Stetzer has recorded a story about SEAC’s awesome beginnings. Additionally we have an amazing trove of goods and services donated by local merchants, artists, and businesses from all over Rochester! And don’t forget you can purchase raffle tickets to win a chance to go on a sailing trip experience!

And let me tell ya- they’re good! We put out the call to our local businesses and they answered!

Here’s a Fun Examples!

Out On The Town

Estimated value $320

Let the party begin with any number of adventures with family and/or friends at some of our exciting southeast area venues. From rock climbing, to cycling to team escape room action, this package will keep you on your feet. Enjoy a family fun pack at the Rochester Museum and Science Center once the weather cools or the rain sets in- there is always something to learn and explore at the RMSC. On screen now at the Strasenburg Planetarium is the I-Max feature film “National Parks Adventure”. Coming in November is the travelling “Dinosaurs” exhibit!

This package includes:

  • Family fun pack for RMSC ($72 value)
  • $100 gift card for four people to Omega Escape Room
  • Two bike tune ups at Free Wheelers ($60 value each)
  • $30 gift card for one hour climbing session at Rocventures

Pamper Yourself

Estimated Value: $325

Treat yourself to products and services from an astonishing array of neighborhood businesses and luxuriate in the feeling of investing in yourself as well as your local merchants! This bid is beautiful- inside and out- and “you’re worth it”!

This package includes:

  • Basket of Goldwell Salon hair products (estimated value $120)
  • $25 gift card from Hedonist Chocolates
  • $70 gift card to Happy Feet Spa
  • $85 gift card to Blossom Massage and Wellness
  • Beaded necklace from local designer, Agog Studio ($40 value)

Sweet and Steamy

Estimated Value: $180

East and Alex to the South Wedge to Park Ave., we have your cravings covered! Get some “go-go” juice, satisfy your sweet tooth, or unwind with a mellow organic steeped sip- there is something for every addiction on your carousel in this sweet and steamy package!

This package includes:

  • Two $20 gift cards to SPOT Coffee
  • $25 gift card to Hedonist Chocolates
  • $25 gift card to Cheesy Eddie’s
  • $20 gift card to Leaf Tea Bar
  • Two hand thrown ceramic mugs by Agog Studio ($50 value)
  • Bags of coffee from Cafe Sasso (estimated $40)

Battle of the Beers

Estimated value: $160

With the microburst of microbreweries that have popped up all over Rochester lately, we’ve “crafted” a fun and easy way for you to sample selections in one fell swoop (or a few fell swigs) with this tantalizing package of four packs from some of the hottest, newest, and smallest barrels in the southeast city!

This package includes eight 4-packs:

  • Heroes Brewery- Heart of Gold- British Special Bitter 
  • Sager Beer Works- 4-pack
  • Swiftwater Brewing- Boat Seltzer and Alpaca Kisses- IPA
  • Other Half Brewing- Poetry Snaps- Rice Lager and Showers- Double Dry Hopped IPA
  • Three Heads Brewing- The Kind- IPA and Too Kind- Double IPA

Limo and Lento

Estimated value $900

Slow down and savor the home-grown and home cooked culinary creations of Chef Art Rogers at Lento Restaurant at Village Gate. Enjoy a four course dinner and wine pairing for up to eight people for a date and time to be mutually determined with the owner. Discuss any dietary accommodations when arranging the logistics of this priceless noshable adventure. Prepare to experience exquisitely plated edible art and gustatory pageantry that awaken, and delight all five senses with textures, aromas, and flavors that will leave an indelible mark on your palette and your memory!

Package also includes $100 gift certificate from S and S Limousine towards your livery services for the night!

First South East Area Coalition Vocational/Trade School Scholarship Recipient!

Back in May SEAC announced our South East Area Coalition Vocation/Trade School Scholarship Fund for Center For Youth. Well I am thrilled and excited to announce that we have our first recipient!

Zhanaysia is a health studies student with a focus on Nursing. She states that the support helps her get through college and college has been very good to boost her mental health. The scholarship support from SEAC will help her purchase her medical books for the semester.

We are proud to support Zhanaysia in her studies and wish her nothing but success!

Be well all

Mike Evans

Executive Director

Feel Your Way: Weeding With Visual Challenges

On Saturday we held the first of what we hope is many workshops in collaboration with 490 Farmers! People braved the rain to participate in this event! A huge thanks to Kiki Smith, SEAC’s AWESOME Fundraising Coordinator, who led the workshop and really got her hands dirty (in a totally great way!).

We explored different assistive technology apps like Be My Eyes and Picture This, which may assist in identification and offer planting/harvesting info for plants. We explored the children’s garden, finding  hostas and zinnia. We used  one of the apps to identify something called evening primrose that no one present had been able to identify.

Then we got dirty, pulling vine weed  from the beds and paths that create Rochester’s Flower City symbol in 490 Farmer’s Children’s Garden.

Our favorite part was “weeding and eating”, nibbling at cherry tomatoes, borage, nasturtium, mini cantaloupe,  and tomatillos.   Several of the participants had never touched a  sunflower and reveled in the textures and variety of specimen they discovered, even realizing that sunflowers bear an enchanting aroma. We learned how to use our senses of taste and smell, as well as touch, to identify different plants in order to make choices about growing or discarding them.

Thank you to Cornell Cooperative Extension for being with us, supporting us and our community and having a booth!

We look forward to doing this again in the future!

Celebrate the South East Area Invitation! Tickets on Sale Now!

It’s time for a toast- to the people and places that make our community the healthy, helpful place it is! YOU! The city’s southeast quadrant is more than a place; it’s a feeling… A feeling of community. Of imagination. Of prosperity. Of possibility…

The party starts on Friday, Sept. 10 at 6PM at Sager Beer Works, 46 Sager Dr.

  • Enjoy a round on us while Highland neighborhood musician Jackson Cavalier woos you with his song.
  • Listen with wonder as nationally renowned storyteller and neighbor Jay Stetzer unravels the tale of our community’s fascinating past, including the creation of the South East Area Coalition itself.
  • Explore an auction trove of goods and services from the generous merchants, artists, businesses, and artisans from all over the southeast area!
  • Indulge in the craft beer and culinary creations of the hottest new microbrewery in the quadrant.
  • Enjoy a special performance by the talented SEAC community partner, Mount Hope World Singers.

Mark your calendars and stay tuned for registration information, sponsorship opportunities, and other exciting details!

Tickets are limited, so get yours today by clicking this link or scanning the QR Code in the picture!

We look forward to seeing you there!

Be well!

Kiki Smith, Lori Woods, and Mike Evans

The South East Area Coalition is super excited to collaborate with 490 Farmers to create Feeling Your Way: Weeding with Visual Challenges!

All ages are welcome to attend!

SEAC’s awesome and amazing Kiki Smith will be leading the class and teaching sensory gardening technics!

Thank you 490 Farmers for helping create this opportunity!

Plain text:

August 21st 9am-11am

Whether you are totally blind or have 20/20 vision, we can show you simple techniques to improve your gardening using your other four senses!

490 Farmers Community Garden

Southeast corner, Broadway and Meigs, Rochester, NY 14607.

RSVP appreciated but not required.

Questions? Email Courtney@490farmers.com

A Call to Interested Rochester Artists

Whether it’s participating in fun neighborhood beautification projects like Playful Sidewalks or sponsoring porch decorating contests, hanging out with our community at special events, taking some cool kiddos on fieldtrips of our service area, or creating new programs like our upcoming initiative to support Block Clubs (more info soon!), the South East Area Coalition understands the importance and impact that beautiful art can have.

As we continue to develop, SEAC is looking to partner with artists for various projects in the future.

If you are an artist and interested in potentially collaborating with SEAC in the future, please fill out the form below.

Don’t see the Google Form? Click here.

Playful Sidewalks

On July 10th, SEAC partnered with the Swillburg Neighborhood Association and two talented artists, Chloe Smith and LaShonda Davis to create two beautiful Playful Sidewalks in our service area!

We had coffee, donuts, laughs, and some young helpers, eager to spend the day painting! Thank you to everyone involved in this project and thanks to everyone who came out to say hi and help paint!

Thank you and be well,

Mike Evans

Executive Director

Chloe Smith Sidewalk (Corner of Field and Henrietta)

LaShonda Davis Sidewalk (corner of Pinnacle and Laburnam)

Here’s some fun pictures of the various festivities!

Fun at Wide Water Gardens

Our Growing With SEAC event has come to an end and we really want to give a heartfelt THANK YOU to Wide Water Gardens for allowing us to hold the event at their beautiful location. AND the weather held out, so that made the event even better!

It was a wonderful time and we really enjoyed connecting with local businesses, residents, and city employees! Thanks to everyone who generously donated during the event, helping us raise $750! These funds will let us continue to fund projects and initiatives through our Community Engagement Fund as well create new SEAC programs to benefit our communities!

A huge thank you to SEAC’s fantabulous Fundraising Coordinator, Kiki Smith, who took the reins without hesitation and just created a super fun, collaborative, and welcoming event. This would not have been a success without her enthusiasm, talents, and moxie!

Thank you to Lori (SEAC’s Bookkeeper) for helping out and keeping Kiki and I focused and thank you to SEAC’s Board of Directors for working the tables and handing out shaved ice and sweet treats thoughtfully donated by Rita’s Italian Ice, Get Caked, and Village Bakery!

Lastly, thank you to our sponsors who helped make this event a true success (more on them after the pictures).

Thank you all for the support and be well.

Mike Evans

Executive Director

Like the work we do? Please consider supporting our Annual Appeal!

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

Abundance Food Co-Op

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Grass Fed: A Vegan Butcher

High Falls Tree Service

Indigo Luxe Collections

Just Juice 4 Life

Misfit Doughnuts and Treats

 Red Fern



Hanging Out With Flower City Arts Center

Over the past two weeks I have gotten to hang out with the amazing teachers and awesome kids in the Flower City Arts Center Photography program, taking them on field trips in the neighborhoods in SEAC’s service area.

It was a wonderful experience and it was really rewarding to witness kids experiencing/learning something for the first time (like seeing the Rochester’s skyline from Cobbs Hill Park).

Some of the places we got to go: 490 Farmers, Washington Grove, Park Ave Neighborhood, Pearl-Meigs-Monroe Neighborhood, Neighborhood of the Arts Neighborhood, Swillburg Neighborhood, Cobbs Hill Park, South Wedge Neighborhood and more!

The teachers and kids are going to look through all the photos they’ve taken and choose ones for SEAC to proudly display on our website, print, and use on our Instagram page.

Here are a few not artistic photos I snapped on my phone! I’m looking forward to showing off all the awesome photos in the future!

Pizza!

A HUGE thank you to Create A Pizza for keeping our bellies full by generously donating pizza during our trips! The kids, staff, and I sure appreciated it!

Also a thank you to Kiki (SEAC’s Fundraising Coordinator) and Lori Wood (SEAC’s Bookkeeper) for assisting me by delivering the pizza and hanging out while I was on the walkabouts! I couldn’t have done it without you!

Be well

Mike Evans

Executive Director