Catherine Roberts

There’s a week left in Youth Services of Tulsa’s Gifts of Hope holiday wish list program, and a few teens still need adopting.

“Every holiday, people tend to adopt younger children for the holidays,” said YST’s Liz Neas. “Here at Youth Services, we serve children 12–24, and sometimes they get forgotten.”

She says that wish lists include things like jeans, coats and sleeping bags.

Of about 460 youths in the program, there are about 100 remaining who haven’t been adopted for the holidays.

It’s commonly understood that North Tulsa suffers from being a food desert. Many residents don’t have sufficient access to grocery stores to maintain healthy lifestyles.

One store, the Gateway Market, at Pine and North Peoria, is one of the only options North Tulsa residents have for buying groceries.

In Tulsa, there are a few groups and individuals working on that problem. The Tulsa Food Security Council has a mobile grocery store in the works, for instance.

When you got your old Christmas lights to hang up this year, did some of the strings not light up?

Don’t throw them away—they contain small amounts of lead, which, if not safely disposed of, can be harmful to the environment.

Michael Patton with the MET says there’s lead in the copper wires of the lights “to help protect the tree from getting too hot and catching fire.”

A recently announced matching grant by the George Kaiser Family Foundation is under way for cash donations to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. That’s in addition to a nonperishable food drive and a toy drive happening at fire stations city wide. 

The City Council is spearheading the partnership that’s making it happen. KWGS’s Catherine Roberts spoke with Councilor Karen Gilbert about the details of the drive, and how to get involved. 

Jack Henderson of District One and Blake Ewing of District Four return to the council, while Arianna Moore joins representing District Seven.

At a special council meeting Monday, Councilor David Patrick was elected Council Chair, to replace G.T. Bynum, and Karen Gilbert was chosen Vice Chair of the Tulsa City Council.

Tulsa’s Family & Children’s Services provides assistance and support to one in six Tulsans.

That’s a lot of families in our area who may be struggling to make ends meet this holiday season. Family & Children’s Services is asking you to help out, through its Holiday Assistance Program for its clients.

“They’re all individuals in families who have financial need,” says Tina Wells with F&CS, “who are also being served in one of our programs.”

An accounting firm based in Missouri, BKD LLP, is brought in to audit the Oklahoma City Disaster Relief Fund, which is accused of mishandling or withholding donations to Oklahoma City bombing survivors.

A group of survivors and supporters, called the Survivor Tree Committee, says this isn’t the action they hoped for.

“What we were asking for was an independent audit by Ken Feinberg,” said Holly Sweet, spokeswoman for the group, “who would come in, from totally out of state with no ties at all to anyone here in Oklahoma.”

This holiday season, money you donate to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma could be matched by a $100,000 grant from the George Kaiser Family Foundation. 

Last year a similar offer yielded a total of about $480,000 for the Food Bank.

“We were told that it would provide 1.9 million meals,” said Phil Lakin, who spoke on behalf of the Foundation at Wednesday’s announcement.

He says that while GKFF has multiple initiatives directed at breaking the cycle of poverty, the goal for this grant is to address immediate needs.

A newly renovated bus shelter at Pine and Peoria is just one step in a series of improvements Tulsa Transit hopes to make to its system.

Tulsa Transit General Manager Bill Cartwright says one goal is to improve on-street facilities.

“We have something around 1,500 bus stops around town, and we have a little over 200 bus shelters,” he said. “So we’ve got a long way to go.”

He says the new shelter, as well as goals for other new shelters, fits in with a plan to expand the bus system’s coverage and frequency.

Is the prospect of a trip to the mall making you put off your Christmas shopping?

This year, try going downtown instead. It’s the second year for the Deco District’s Pop Up Shops.

“Essentially what it is, is these shops just pop up in a vacant space for one month,” said Libby Auld, president of the Deco District Neighborhood Association.

She says the idea grew out of the desire to keep seasonal business downtown.

Last year, five of the pop ups stayed permanently.