Community Calendar Project

2024 Moments in Medford Calendar Sold Out

Thank you to all that supported our 2024 calendar artists.

All funds raised through the calendar sales support our programs for the Medford Housing Authority residents.

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About the Medford Community Calendar Project

In 2019, we created a fundraising Community Calendar project in support of the residents of the Medford Housing Authority (MHA).  The positive response from the MHA residents and the Medford community encouraged us to continue and broaden the project.  In addition to our "Made in Medford" and "Moments in Medford" calendars, we have created programs, like the Artepreneurs Youth, an after-school opportunity that further supports the MHA youths.  

About the MHA
The MHA houses one of the most diverse communities in Medford. Of the 290 units of federally subsidized family units and 402 units of federally subsidized “elderly/disabled” units, 66% of residents identify as Haitian. Our calendar projects have brought together MHA residents from different races, financial backgrounds, age groups, genders, abilities, cultures, and beyond. The success of this project thus far is based on its flexibility which allows residents (who are often working multiple jobs) to contribute their stories and experiences in ways most comfortable to them. It also opens up these relatively “unseen” and “unheard” members of the community into the mainstream in ways that they choose to do so.

An Overview of Our Projects: 

2022-2023
We are thrilled to announce that early in 2022, we were awarded a grant from the Mass Art Community Council! These grant funds cover the calendar production costs and enable us to focus our fundraising efforts to support Artepreneurs Junior and other developing programs, like JustFlix, that benefit the MHA youth and adults alike.

2021-2022
During the pandemic, we transitioned our operation to a digital platform.  We were able to solicit submissions for a 2022 Calendar from residents that displayed their creative talents alongside images donated by local photographer Betsy Lenora. The 2022 calendar featured the broad artistic talent of MHA residents from the ages 8-100+ years old. Residents responded to the question of what gave them hope during the pandemic with photos and stories. Their submissions included photography, gardening, painting, and storytelling, were compiled and formatted into our 2022 calendar.

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2019-2020

Our initial project was inspired by "Together: Our Community Cookbook", a project conceived and supported by Megan Markle, published to raise funds for families affected by the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, UK. In a similar way, we wanted to bring our community together through the sharing of food, culture, and stories. In 2020, our first calendar, “Made in Medford”, was a labor of love and good food; that showcases family recipes from MHA residents alongside artistically arranged photographs of each prepared dish. Over the course of 2019, residents shared recipes, stories, cultures and culminated our efforts with a potluck dinner hosted at the MHA. (You can read more about it here). We successfully published this inaugural calendar and raised $5,000 for resident programming at the MHA.