REVIEW: Shamrock Athletic Club Host Benefit for East End Community Services

Safe, engaged neighborhoods, stable, employed families and successful youth. Those are the goals and objectives of East End Community Services, a nonprofit organization formed in 1998 to help meet the needs of people living in East Dayton. They provide programs as part of a neighborhood transformation effort to help children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly succeed in becoming successful citizens, giving back to the community. Over 20 different agencies, donors, funders and neighbors along with AmeriCorps members and other volunteers have helped achieve these goals.

On Saturday January 24th, the Shamrock Athletic Club hosted an evening of art and entertainment featuring the music of Dayton scene icons Evil Eye Gypsy and rapidly rising hometown favorites Curse of Cassandra played sets to raise community awareness for East End Services. Local artists William Green and Katherine McClelland also showcased their work which can be seen at future shows and conventions.

COC opened with their renowned sound of goth, industrial, punk meets new-wave, trying out a few different versions of songs off their debut EP and a new tune, Not Your Crush. As the curse of cold bad weather, ice and snow blanketed the outside we start off hot getting slice and diced pricks by Pins and Needles. Alexas Machine starts out cuing her Lennox charm over the crowd making seductive, strong eye contact with several focused male eyes and blushing smiles. Drums and keys gave an electric stinging embrace. Cassandra’s not satisfied till we’d been Satiated as Miss Electra complexed us all with a piano played masquerade of sound-lust and fetish.

COC’s Binding for control with its Eurythemic charm and strapping satisfaction. Next is a piano played Stardance rhymed in astral alignment with a somber ending. Every Time I Feel Alone is visceral in industrial mood swings. I’m not your fairytale, not your fling, not your on-call booty and definitely Not Your Crush.  The One I need and I Miss You finished the set.

Evil Eye Gypsy started their show with a slow seven minute drive through the Mojave. The sun and temperature play tricks with the senses. It was biting cold outside but it’s always blazing in the desert. The guitar’s playing towards that stimulus, giving hallucinations of sifting through the sands with weather beaten hands with harsh thirst swept up in the mysteries of the gypsy’s allure on the wind.  If the desert doesn’t kill you, the Purple Haze awaits, all around, whatever the lady of the sands did, put a spell on me. Next we rocked n rolled, drank and partied all night having a Good ole Time with the friendly Miss Neighborhood service girl.

We get some down and dirty gritty rock with All I Had to Say then despite all the world’s problems and who’s hanging out with who, there’s always a Silver Lining.

The show was a bit of an experience for the band. Their original drummer was out of commission, and their replacement had a last minute issue so Curse of Cassandra’s Wolfgang stepped in and did double duty for a few tunes. The Names of those lost are written on the wall of life as well as in our minds and memories. We get a funny little song about Love then close the show with the iconic War Pigs with Wolfgang shredding on the skins.

East End provides programs helping over 300 children and teens in afterschool activities including the Miracle Workers program, as well as support for parents and caregivers through monthly Community Family nights. East End also provides crucial support to children and adults through housing development, community building, afterschool and summer programming, educational initiatives, teen services, services for parents, single adults and seniors reaching more than 3,000 people a year. In addition, they help expecting parents with child development education and what babies, toddlers and young children need to know about kindergarten, with programs supporting them through to college.

Job assistance, readiness, interview skills, resume building and online job searching, securing housing, health care or other crucial services, are provided by bilingual and trilingual staff. 1,400 households living in Twin Towers benefit from activities that improve the quality of housing and life in our neighborhoods.  They are working on a project to improve 25% of the housing stock. 40 new green, energy-efficient homes have been built in 2010 and 40 more were built in 2013. Neighbors receive training on financial literacy and a range of other topics.  Cultural events and festivals reach hundreds of persons at each event.

East End is also part of the Welcome Dayton initiative and provides services to assist in the resettlement process of immigrants who’ve chosen Dayton as their home including a bilingual, English-Spanish speaking and trilingual, English, Spanish and Arabic staff-assisting those with finding the right job for their skills.  East End has served an array of nationalities, including Latinos and refugees from several countries including Russia and Iraq. East End also provides critical services to the elderly to help them live in their own homes, independently as long as possible including case management, chore support and better home accessibility.

To learn more about these services, call 937-259-1898.  Their work’s been recognized by: the Better Business Bureau in 2005, the Access to Justice Award from Legal Aid in 2006, the Governor’s Award from the Ohio CDC Association in 2010, the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations Excellence Award in 2012 and received a national ARAMARK and the Together for Tomorrow Award from the US Department of Education and Corporation for National and Community Service in 2012.