It was my privilege, once, to read the written words of a Holliday Park member in good standing, who had served the community in many capacities in its beginnings, and had been asked….”how the Board of Directors had for so many years….led the community so well, often facing great adversity, with a certain “oneness” and clarity that let each resident feel confident and well represented by those they had chosen to do this job?”
The author of the answer to this question, had spoken simply and eloquently about a certain characteristic that had been commonly held by each of the “seven” Board Members, either by fate or circumstance. What was this quality? It was referred to as possessing “a humble heart”.
The author went on to say that each Board Member knew and recognized their individual strong points and their limitations. This self knowledge allowed them to value themselves and yet be honest in recognizing the strengths and talents of other people, and the contributions that each elected member brought to the challenges and tasks at hand.
Being humble, modest and unpretentious, and not overestimating your position on the Board, along with a true appreciation for the other Board Members, and the needs of the people you serve, also exemplifies true humility.
A great part of truly being humble-hearted is to know and expect that you will make mistakes and that every person makes mistakes, it’s part of the human condition. The hard work of being humble is to admit that other people may be right in their opposition to you, and your own best thinking. Accepting that you are fallible, that everyone is at some point; allows you to accept and respect the views of the other people who are working with you, for the greater good of the Corporation and its 694 members.
Being humble-hearted has benefits, very great benefits. Not only do you have inner peace and contentment because you accept yourself, warts and all; you are more kind and generous in your treatment of other people. When conflict occurs, you will, as many successful Board Members have done in the past, react with patience, a quiet demeanor, and respect.
You are able to open yourself up to learning and to seek the opinions of experts, and or those you admire for their knowledge and experience ,when you are in doubt as to what action to take when a problem needs a solution. Seeking advice and counsel from many sources, and having a plan for the future that is based on what has been learned from the History, By-laws, Policies and Procedures which have been established over-time, through trial and error; allows for mentoring, gaining insights, and for the attainment of progress in every endeavor.
Humble hearted people put aside ego, pride, personal agendas and self-serving behavior, in order to do a difficult job. They never boost or brag about their own accomplishments, nor do they value their own thinking above the thoughts and opinions of others.
Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
When you practice being humble, and do the work to keep your pride under control, it becomes a habit, and positive life changes occur. Those changes not only impact the quality of your life, but also the lives of those around you and the projects and work you undertake.
For these very reasons, Holliday Park has been blessed, in its History, to have had among its residents, those who have the self-discipline, morality, intellect, an deep within them, a warmly beating humble heart that allows them to be their best, and embrace the best in others, for the greater good of the community, and each resident within it.
When you exercise your right to vote, in the coming elections, or at any time, look to see who among the candidates, best exemplifies the virtues of humility and humanity that have just been described. Those who possess these traits are the wisest people among us.
When you decide to start a club or hold an event at Holliday Park, it can be a catalyst for many memory- making moments in your life. When a group of us were planning to get together and watch a movie and then discuss our views, we did some brainstorming and came up with a list of the kinds of movies that inspire thought, introspection, soul searching, laughter, enlightenment, and yes a few tears from time to time.
A list was assembled of the top ten films to view. Our excitement began to build. We spoke about this plan at Monday morning coffee and others, with whom we shared our enthusiasm, found the idea to be contagious. They too, wished to participate in this experience, but suggested that we use the clubhouse and let anyone who wished to join in, do so.
Our mission was to present a nearly NEW movie for a very small price, along with delicious home baked treats, hot popcorn, a soft drink and a “free raffle” of some kind, at each gathering. We hoped that neighbors would bring family and friends too, and the camaraderie would be palpable.
It was not long before the Saturday Night Movie was appearing on the event calendar of many residents, once each month, from September through May. We have seen biographies, comedies, dramas, stories based on actual events, happy-endings, and much more. Everything from the “Bucket List” to “Slumdog Millionaire,” has been presented, and many more excellent films await us. It is possible to see a recent release within weeks of its debut in theaters, and when the lights go down, and the story unfolds, the absorption begins, and the act of being entertained is truly felt.
A secondary goal, which our group felt an obligation to provide at Movie Night, was based on the premise that our cooperative holds dear – – – cost effectiveness! This is why we decided to offer this event for the small sum of $1.00. At first it was hard to make ends meet, because we wanted tasty popcorn, and decadent baked cookies and cupcakes. A lotto, a free raffle, and a current film, in a cozy room with enough seasonal decoration to celebrate winter, holidays, spring and fall, meant having to be creative, put in extra work, and coordinate the completion of many tasks, in a tight time frame.
Good people did all of these things, month after month, weather permitting, and the small numbers of happy movie-goer’s began to grow. The popping of corn, when shared with someone else, becomes special. Guys and gals were willing to move furniture, take tickets, set up the CD, and clean up afterward, while discussing their individual theories about what they had just witnessed on the screen.
Movie Night is more than just the renting of a CD and showing up at a predetermined location. It is a simple evening, planned by friends who met while volunteering, or interacting at other co-op events. Strangers who reached out to each other and forged a kinship based on the commonality of what we like to call our co-op home. People here like to be an active part of this community because it keeps carrying charges low, and its fun, challenging and necessary to the continued success of this wonderful place.
Holliday Park residents embrace their neighbors as family, as close personal friends, and as co-workers, for the benefit of the community. We have taken bus trips, and cruises to far away places, shared dinners and dialogs, campaigned, voted, gone swimming, worked at the Nature Preserve, planted gardens, golfed, comforted each other in hard times, and formed many unbreakable bonds while doing our part to continue the rich history that Holliday Park residents have contributed to with generosity, innovation, hard work and dedication, for years.
See what you have to look forward to if you move into Holliday Park. You can join us, and bring your ideas for continuing this very good thing. See you soon, at the Saturday Movie Night, lovingly begun in over 4 years ago by P. W. and S. L. whose love of baking , decorating, and door prizes, created a great evening for only $1.00 !
"Blooming where you're Planted!"
For a long time Holliday Park has had a reputation for having beautiful grounds. This is due to a combination of members taking pride in their units, and the Building and Grounds policies. These policies were developed over time, and address the need for guidelines that work for everyone in the community.
We do not have the “yards” that home owners do, and we are very close to our neighbors; therefore, as in all of society, rules to maintain order are needed. No one wants to look at someone else’s mess. These policies in no way hamper the member from being a gardener or from expressing themselves in their landscape. In fact, you don’t even have to have any flowers or shrubs if that is what you choose. But, if you want to have flowers, shrubs, and/or vegetables, the policies explain where you can plant them and how you must maintain them.
These policies are very much like the policies I have seen for the subdivisions that have been built in the last 10-15 years, as well as condo communities. For instance, if you want to have vegetables, they must be planted in the back of your unit. Shrubs must be kept to no more than 5 feet in height, if they are for privacy around your patio, or 1 foot from the rain gutter if they are in the front of your unit. Flowers beds can be planted around your patio, around a tree if you have one, and across the front of your unit, but they must meet the measurements set by the established policies.
You may have decorations in your landscaping, but they may not be over 2 feet in height, if they are in the front of your unit. Birdbaths must be placed in the rear, and bird feeders must be 5 feet high and overhang your patio so that spilled seed can be swept up.
There are also policies regarding keeping things neat and tidy. Garden hoses must be rolled up on a holder when not in use, and gardening tools must be kept in the back of your unit. Patios may not be used for storage, only patio furniture, barbecues, and potted plants are permitted.
If this sounds like a lot, it really isn’t and it makes for a very neat, beautiful, creative place to live. I love to see all the color and texture that our members put into their flower beds, hanging baskets, and patio pots. Every summer my salads come alive with my neighbor’s wonderful “home grown” tomatoes and green peppers. Some members have expressed to me that having the grass cut and edged by maintenance has made them enjoy the gardening they do, even more.
A gardening contest is often planned for the summer seasons, and many members get involved. Six judges are asked to assist with selecting a winner for the months of June, July and August. Nothing professional is required or wanted, so the prospective winner may even be a unit where a grandchild has planted some seeds that produced beautiful, colorful flowers. Pictures of the winning gardens are placed on the HP website. Please look for them, or if you are in our neighborhood, come by and see all our beautiful grounds.
Status Quo Family of 50
Families have all kinds of bonding experiences. Most people do not divorce their birth families; they stick together “through thick and thin”.
The newsletter committee (called the Status Quo Committee) at Holliday Park is somewhat like such a family. The challenges for staying on this committee are not so much provided by the personalities involved, as by the necessary inanimate objects used that sometimes seem to take on a life of their own.
One committee member who self-diagnoses, says she seems to have developed a kind of psychological disorder related to the duplicating machine. She insists that the machine, in its omniscience, recognizes when she is in the room and goes into a passive-aggressive stance, refusing to perform. Sure enough, when she is on duty, all kinds of paper-jams occur, requiring much problem-solving time.
The machine has been known to blurt out ink onto the edges of pages…just as an end to printing is in site. It also jams and even slants text occasionally to make sure that the human being who is pushing its buttons, stays alert and concentrates. Therefore, we have taken to working in pairs, and when one button-pusher, becomes daunted, her partner, the paper feeder, is there to step in and switch tasks, keeping the machine challenged and under control. It is at times like these, when lasting friendships are formed.
On one occasion two complete strangers came together to step up and take on the duplicator, having never touched a $5000 machine before. Their teacher was a very special volunteer who had trained over 20 people and was very confident. She watched patiently as these two people, with trembling hands, made a master sample and began the process of printing the news letter. The sweat was viable on the flushed faces of both participants. At the end of the three hour session, those ladies felt an incredible sense of pride and empowerment. Their teacher remarked, “you two were strangers but you’re leaving here, friends.” To this day that friendship not only survives, it thrives!!
In the work repertoire of yet another Status Quo volunteer, the machine has been described as a “nibbler of corners” of the paper being fed, and not to be outwitted, this stalwart worker cleverly reverses the paper, feeding it in backwards. This brilliant technique works. We have not only clever and confident volunteers, we have courageous ones.
Our committee is not totally subject to the whims of the duplicating machine.
Mastering the electric staplers is another story. No one has yet been wounded by the harsh and sudden clamping down of the voracious pierce of this instrument, but it arouses fear, and only the most valiant agree to face it regularly. We applaud them.
There are some machine-free functions that are necessary to get out the newsletter. Many of the committee members spend at least an hour every quarter-year, walking around a long table, picking up pages to collate the old-fashioned way. Some, with more energy, do what is called a collating jog, causing an occasional arrhythmia that results in a momentary production impasse. Such a clogging up of this human machine, has a way of providing time for informative social remarks and conversation. Social pressure has its place in this process as each collator must wear a rubber fingertip cover in order to pick up just “one” sheet of paper at a time. NO ONE wants to wear the LARGE SIZE, and therefore great struggles have been known to take place, and fingertips are forced into the tiny sizes. The resulting camaraderie, coming from knowing the private likes and dislikes of all involved, is good reason to continue the jog-walk dysfunction. Over time, many volunteers who collate, large fingers or small, have gone on to plan parties, outings, trips and other activities, that have forged new traditions within this fine community.
Still others on the Status Quo Committee rest in the satisfaction that, without their physical energy and stamina, the members of our cooperative would never have the pleasure of reading this informative newsletter that contains essential information from the Board of Directors and committees that support policies and procedures of the Holliday Park Corporation.
The deliverers–the ones who are free to walk or jog without causing dysfunction– finalize the process of newsletter production, by getting it out to our consumers, the members.
This Status Quo Committee consists of fifty-plus members, who, like family, stick together (as they have always done in the past) “through thick and thin.” There is a certain kind of “glue” that comes from facing all of these challenges, every twelve weeks, throughout the year. Each individuals strengths and weaknesses, real and imagined, blend with those of their partners, and co-workers in such a harmonious and positive way that no one gives up this volunteer-position easily. There’s a waiting list of hopefuls right now, wanting to join us.
You are welcome, why not get on the list.
Who doesn’t like to travel? Residents at Holliday Park have many opportunities to take trips. First of all, Holliday Park has its own very active Travel Club, which was established about 22 years ago. But, in addition to our own Travel Club, we are fortunate to have access to three other Travel Clubs in our own backyard! One club is located at St. Theodore’s, only a few blocks away; one at the Westland Friendship Center, about two miles away; and another at the Dyer Center, also about two miles away.
This past year, my mother and I were fortunate to take an inexpensive vacation through the Dyer Center, operated from the Wayne Westland Board of Education building. The trip headed towards Quebec, Canada.
After driving one and a half days, getting off a ferry that held several buses and having a “hairy” ride along tight island drives, we entered a resort cabin that would be our “island retreat” for three nights. I felt like I was walking into a movie set. It was my idea of a Cabin in the Catskills. La Roche Pleureuse is truly a hidden garden of pleasures on an island reputed to be magic. It is enchanting. The view in every direction shows magnificent vistas of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the cliffs of the island, and across the river to the mountains of the Charlevoix region of the Province of Quebec, Canada.
The best morning was spent in the beautiful saltwater pool. The meals were delicious, and hearty enough to fuel me for the hike around the trails up and down the cliffs. We visited the sights of the island, including a historic cathedral, a special bakery, and the apple winery. On our way off the island, we stopped to tour the paper mill that makes paper with the traditional methods with cotton fiber base. Paper processed in this manner lasts through time, and made a special gift for my holiday messages.
On the ride home, we stopped to visit the Canadian Notre Dame Cathedral, and picked up our English speaking tour guide in the Capital City of Quebec. We missed the session of Parliament, but were able to view the Provincial Landmarks, and the everyday sights of the local French speaking populace.
Riding back on the motor coach with these interesting travelers was wonderful. We were happily munching on the snacks provided by the Dyer Center Travel Coordinator, winning at the horse racing and bus-ride bingo, collecting Michigan trivia with brain teaser print outs, and drowsing during the screening of videos. We also listened to some of our adventurous fellow travelers who had spent time at the Casino, and won enough money to cover their travel costs.
If you want to have fun and see the rest of the world, while making new friends and companions in your home community, come join us at Holliday Park Towne Houses Cooperative!
I have always been interested in Economics. Adam Smith, the founder of our Capitalistic System, convinced the King of England to allow individuals of his Kingdom to amass wealth through their own individual efforts, and then tax them on part of their yearly income. As we know, it worked.
Concerning home ownership, Adam Smith said in his book, “The Wealth of Nations,” that a home can make money for its owner if it is rented, but that the revenue of its owner can never be increased by actually living in it.
When learning economics in advanced schooling, I was thoroughly taken back by Adam Smith’s statement that home ownership usually does not pay off if the owner chooses to live in it. I, therefore, never acquired a house; and instead, chose Holliday Park Townehouses, a moderate income, non-profit Cooperative, as my home.
It has worked very well for my wife and me at Holliday Park throughout the years — paying low rent, having repairs done by the Co-op, getting the better prices because of quantity purchase power, and paying low property taxes, etc. This gave us the opportunity to invest our money in other profitable ways. If you think of home ownership, — with all the headaches, interest payments, repairs, and high taxes, etc., you seldom come out ahead, unless you are using a house for speculative purposes. Living in a home, the owner is constantly being “nickeled and dimed to death.”
That is not to say that the “American Dream” of home ownership should not be pursued. But, there is a time and place for everything. Remember hearing a few years ago about the enormous Pyramid Scheme, which amounted to 50 billion dollars. The current Housing Crisis, perpetrated by some money lenders, has striking similarities to a Pyramid Scheme in which greed and mismanagement by lenders, misinformation from the government, and naivety on the part of our good citizens helped shatter the “American Dream,” as we knew it. This scheme pushed up home values, gave the appearance of wealth, brought about higher interest payments, higher property taxes, and higher repair costs… leaving the American citizen little or no money to save and invest. It left the average American in jeopardy.
This unfortunate circumstance could be turned into an advantage for you. This may be the time to make the best of a bad thing, and think seriously about making Holliday Park your future home. Here at Holliday Park, we have comfortable living at very reasonable costs. You will have opportunities to save money for future use, to amass wealth, to enjoy doing fun things, to travel the world, to send your grand kids to college, etc.; and you will probably live longer, because you will not have the headaches of home ownership. All the advantages of friends and camaraderie are here, too, if you just look for them.
I believe Holliday Park is a sound investment, and a comfortable, easy, enjoyable, and inexpensive way of life. Because we are non-profit, our rents, including heat, range from only $241 to $353 per month, depending upon what size unit you choose to live in. ALSO, NO MORE MORTGAGE PAYMENTS. I hope you will consider Holliday Park as your future home. You will save money in the long run.
