Recapture your high school angst by watching John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club" on the big screen. BYO snacks and drinks to Grace Church Van Vorst (39 Erie St., 2nd St. entrance) at 7:30. All welcome!

Just a reminder to the community: If you'd like to meet with the Pastors of Grace Church about Saturday night community parties, we'll be in the Sanctuary of Grace Church tonight at 6pm, with coffee and snacks. If you're interested, we hope to see you there.

Dear Neighbors,

We are very shocked and saddened by what took place on our sidewalk after our "back-to-school" party last Saturday night. We sponsored this party as a fun event for students between the ages of 13 and 18 from our local high schools. These children come to the party from schools in our neighborhood: Dickinson, Ferris, and St. Mary's, Create, St. Peter?s Prep, McNair/Academic and Lincoln are among them. We wish to provide a safe environment for our kids to dance, relax, socialize and enjoy a party together. We want to reach out to them. We hired five off-duty police; two were assigned to search every student before they enter the party and three walked among the children and monitored the exits during the party. There are no weapons and no alcohol, cigarettes or drugs at the party. Students can buy water and soda. Many students are dropped-off and picked-up by their parents. Some students must depend on the light-rail or walk home after the party lets out.

I was at our most recent party along with our assistant pastor, Nick Lannon, and our youth minister Herman Thompson. We know the children were safe and had a good and enjoyable time before they left.

Clearly what happened on the street afterwards was unacceptable and dangerous. We have been told that a man on a bicycle rode by the church and fired a gun into the air in front of our kids. We understand that incidents (not a spent shell, but a fist-fight among four boys) have taken place on the streets after other parties this summer. We want to keep our children and the neighborhood safe. Our inner-city youth have no where to go and recreate; they do not have safe places to have fun and to form relationships. We want to reach out to our kids and to make Grace Church (The kids call us Grace House) a place where they can come and get healthy meaningful social interaction.

We are working with the police and with many volunteers to make sure our parties are safe. Primarily, we are hoping that together we can make sure the sidewalks are free from any danger as the students exit the party. We will post volunteers on the blocks, lower the number of children and try to release them in smaller bunches.

We don't want to let a few people prevent a whole generation of our children from having safe fun once a month.

Nick and I would be very happy to meet with you and to hear your ideas for safety. We will be available on October 6 in the Church from 6-9pm We will all be there with coffee and a snack, please stop by and speak with us. If you would like to volunteer with our youth, please let us know that too. Together we can make room for everyone to enjoy our neighborhood.

Janet Broderick, Rector, Grace Church