Cake on My Face?

Three years of life in rural Japan has gradually affected my English. I'm losing my idioms...is "cake on my face" a way of saying you really embarrassed yourself? (Oh...I think it's having "egg on one's face" that is the appropriate phrase I'm thinking of.)

Well, in this case, I got cupcake frosting ALL OVER myself and the concrete pavement outside my lodgings in Ithaca when the giant box that held many, many delectable Sincredible cupcakes collapsed from the weight!

Despite the big and messy boo boo, it's been an incredible day for me, getting better acquainted with fellow Cornell alumna Sam Shaber, who came to Ithaca to give a benefit concert for the Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Fund. Donations to the fund are welcome...please click here for more information.

I spent the afternoon with Sam running various errands and helping her set up for the performance at Cornell's Anabel Taylor Hall. A great big thank you also goes out to Lisa Elliott, the Assistant Director of the Cornell University Public Service Center, for all her help in putting this event together, right down to making the drive to Starbucks with me to pick up the donated coffee and serving supplies!

Ding Kong, the inaugural winner of the Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Award,was present to receive his award certificate and $200, which he promised to put to use in a local nutritional literacy pilot project for children he tutors at the Paul Schreurs Memorial Program.

By the way, Sam is playing two dates in L.A. (May 2nd at the Knitting Factory and May 22 at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood). See Sam's website for more tour dates around North America.

The following is an interview with Ding which was posted at Sam's website. Congratulations, Ding! Sam, for all you do, YOU ROCK!!!!!

MARIBEL GARCIA COMMUNITY SPIRIT FUND AWARDS ITS FIRST PRIZE TO STUDENT DING KONG

The Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Fund has chosen its first award recipient!

Ding Kong is a Cornell student who's been working with low-income kids in Ithaca as a tutor and nutrition counselor. Ding will be awarded his certificate and $200 prize at the benefit concert for the Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Fund on Thursday, April 26th at 7pm. The event will feature nationally touring artist (and Cornell alum) Sam Shaber in performance, as well as an opening set by current student Candace Berne. There will also be a reading of Maribel Garcia's fiction.

Mr. Kong sat down with us yesterday to talk more about himself and the work he's been doing in the Ithaca community.

SAM SHABER/MGCSF: The Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Fund is excited to present you with our very first annual award. Can you describe the work you've been doing in the community of Ithaca?

DING KONG: I am very honored to receive this grant, on behalf of the Paul Schreurs Memorial Program! I assure you that we will use it wisely for the pilot project, which will focus on food label/nutrition literacy and empowerment through cooking lessons, culminating in a panel discussion and family dinner that the youth will plan and cook for their families.

I have been working with the Paul Schreurs Memorial Program since October. I am one of many tutors for the after-school program, which reaches out to middle-school students who benefit from supplemental tutoring and having an older student to connect with. I noticed that the snacks we serve are not the healthiest snacks we can give, while realizing that asking the program to buy healthier foods is both financially and logistically burdensome on the program coordinators, and may also be futile without an active nutrition education program.

SAM SHABER/MGCSF: Is there anything that particularly inspired or motivated you to get involved with this program?

DING KONG: I want to work in education when I graduate, and I think that as an aspiring educator it's important to always keep a connection with youth. I've been involved in campus organizations for a long time, working to address bigger and bigger issues on higher and higher scales, but I felt that I was critically missing the individual component of it, and felt a need to connect with issues that I cared about on a personal level.

SAM SHABER/MGCSF: Can you give us a little background information on yourself? Where did you grow up? What are some of your interests? Do you have a major at Cornell? Do you have any particular plans after you graduate?

DING KONG: I am a Junior in Natural Resources, focusing on Environmental Justice Education. On campus I am heavily involved in environmental/social justice organizations like the Sustainability Hub and the Environmental Justice Working Group. Off campus I am involved with the PSMP, creating a curriculum for environmental literacy, creating publications for the CRESP Center for Transformative Action, and working with an arts-based youth community center in Harlem, NY to design and build a living sculpture in their garden.

I've lived in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles for most of my life. As an immigrant to the United States, I feel obligated to work on issues facing underserved and underrepresented communities on issues of environmental, food, and education justice.

SAM SHABER/MGCSF: What's been the biggest challenge so far in the community work you're doing?

DING KONG: The biggest challenge in working with communities is dealing with being the outsider. In my work with PSMP, where I am a college student tutoring Ithaca students who know I am not from their community creates a barrier between us, in addition to the age gap and generation gap.

I find that this challenge translates to finding ways to relate to the students and creating that bond first, before actually being able to work with them on different projects. This isn't just a hump that we suddenly pass one day and never have to deal with again, but something dynamic and fluctuating that I think about every time I'm there.

SAM SHABER/MGCSF: What have been the rewards?

DING KONG: It's hard to see what the rewards of this work are, but that's not what we are doing this for. I find it hard to measure my progress or gauge my level of connection with the students and the community, but can only hope that the work that we do is contributing to something better, and I guess the reward, at least in that sense, is knowing that we are doing something positive.