The 2023 Community Chill Night is DIY Lowell’s fifth annual chili and stew cook-off event! Experience music, games, community awards, and a DIY “Chilly” Dessert fun for everyone! Our goal is to build community in Lowell by bringing together young people and elders, downtown and neighborhoods, townies and newcomers. This annual fundraiser celebrates the projects and events that have activated our underused spaces, brought diverse populations together, and made Lowell better. Check out the Community Chill Night page to donate/RSVP, nominate an individual or group as Volunteer of the Year and for the Community Transformation Award, register a chili/stew contest entry, volunteer, and more!

The 2022 Community Chill Night is DIY Lowell’s fourth annual chili and stew cook-off event! After two COVID years off, we’re back with music, games, community awards, and a DIY “Chilly” Dessert! Our goal is to build community in Lowell by bringing together young people and elders, downtown and neighborhoods, townies and newcomers. This annual fundraiser celebrates the projects and events that have activated our underused spaces, brought diverse populations together, and made Lowell better. Check out the Community Chill Night page to donate/RSVP, nominate an individual or group as Volunteer of the Year and for the Community Transformation Award, register a chili/stew contest entry, volunteer, and more!

Get ready for the 2021 Community Idea Summit! RSVP via Facebook here, and if you aren’t ready for in-person, Register via Zoom here for the hybrid option.

We’ll kick off the top projects chosen with over 70 votes:

• Public Bathroom Feasibility
• Centralville Food Truck Fest

Along with a Wildcard Idea chosen at the summit and the Multilingual Poetry Trail, the result of DIY Kerouac!

We help people of all backgrounds and ages build community, learn civic skills, and create fun projects. This summer, we’re asking you to give us five! How do you do that? First, donate $5 (or any amount you’d like) by clicking on the button below. Then, give us a virtual high-five on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram by telling us why you donated with a short selfie video or a couple lines of text and the above graphic. Why is building community important during this time?

Finally, pass the high-five to a few friends by tagging them. Don’t forget to use #GiveUsFiveDIY and tag @diylowell and include the link to https://diylowell.org – Help us reach our $2,000 goal!

Or use the following form to set up a monthly, recurring donation via Paypal:

[dntplgn recurring_amt1=”5.00″ recurring_amt2=”10.00″ recurring_amt3=”25.00″ item_name=”Donation for DIY Lowell” paypal_email=”info@diylowell.org”]

DIY Lowell wants to wish everyone an amazing 2021! There are so many things we missed last year–being able to gather and plan in person, all our community festivals and events like Points of Light and Folk Festival, and being able to meet with friends at restaurants and pubs. However, one thing we didn’t miss was Lowell’s amazing support!

Thanks to the community, we:

• Transitioned to a new Program Director, Alexis Ploss
• Worked with the Ghost Signs Alive project team to finish their J.C. Ayer projection, now exhibiting until 9:00 pm every night
• Kickstarted the Helping Centralville Connect project in cooperation with many stakeholders and the Solomon Foundation (Survey still open for those who missed it in 2020!)
• Joined with Free Soil Arts Collective and Commonwealth Places to start the Visualize Lowell’s Black History project
• Had an amazing, fun Café Crawl, giving punchcards to dozens of people who each visited up to ten cafés and won gift cards and other prizes
• A lot of other behind-the-scenes work, including beginning coordination of re-starting the Young Ideas Project “the Space” and growing it to additional youth groups, “Quarantine Café” virtual community meetings, and more!

Want to help us out?

Check out the Ghost Signs Alive fundraiser on the Lowell Virtual Market – the team is selling limited edition soap inspired by Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral and hand-crafted by Red Antler Apothecary and five distinctive postcards designed by the team–from a single postcard for $1.50 for a $15 for an entire gift basket.

Consider joining the Advisory Committee (link pdf) by emailing info@diylowell.org with interest.

Sign up for our mailing list to stay informed of all our activities and opportunities.

Thank you!

Note: You may still donate, but the Great Lowell Re-Opening Café Crawl is over–stay tuned for the winners!

Want to support local business and DIY Lowell at once? Join us on the Great Lowell Re-Opening Café Crawl!

For a $20 donation, you’ll receive a Café Crawl Card and two special thank-you stickers in the mail. When you present your card to a participating café, they will check off their name on the card and give you a special (cafés and specials listed below), limit one special per card per café.

• Customers are limited to one special per café per card.
• Share a photo on Twitter or Instagram at each café you visit tagging @diylowell and #diylowellcafecrawl to be entered into a weekly raffle for gift cards from participating cafés and more pulled each Saturday in November.
• Email a photo of your card with as many punches you can get before Nov. 30, because each punch will count as a raffle entry for you in our FINAL RAFFLE on Dec. 1.
• If your card is filled up with punches from every café, you’re entered into the grand prize: naming a drink for a week at Brew’d Awakening!

What are you waiting for? Donate with major credit cards or with a Paypal account by clicking the button below (donation is made secure via Paypal’s system but you can use any payment method)–make sure to share your current mailing address in so we can mail you the stickers and card! You may also pay by check with the instructions here. Don’t forget to email your mailing address to us at info@diylowell.org if you send a check.

Participating Restaurants

	Brew’d Awakening	61 Market St., Lowell, MA 01852	$2 off a purchase of $5 or more
	Coffee and Cotton	250 Jackson St., 4th floor, Lowell, MA 01852	One free medium drip coffee (hot or iced) with any food purchase
	Gallery Z	167 Market St., Lowell, MA 01853	Coming soon!
	Little Delights Bakery	132 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA 01852	Free Cupcake with purchase
	Panela Restaurant	7 Hanover St., Lowell, MA 01850	Free hot Colombian chocolate, in-store or to-go, when you order any breakfast item
	Purple Carrot Bread Co.	107 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA 01852	Free medium coffee hot or iced with purchase of $3 or more
	Rosie’s Café	155 Middlesex St., #1B, Lowell, MA 01852	Medium coffee + muffin for $5.00 (save 50 cents)
	The Worthen House Café	141 Worthen St., Lowell, MA 01852	50% off one appetizer
	Wham’s Café	737 Lakeview Ave, Lowell, MA 01850	Free Kahawa Coffee or Soda Can with each order or $1.00 off a 16oz or 24oz Smoothie or Frappe

Special thanks to all participating restaurants and to the DIY Lowell Advisory Committee for organization and support.

Dear friends and family,

During the past ten days, DIY Lowell has witnessed and listened to the Black members of our community and the other diverse voices calling for reform in cities across the United States, including our own.

DIY Lowell’s utmost values are diversity, inclusivity, and community involvement. Our mission includes bringing people of different backgrounds together to learn from one another on how to make meaningful change in our community. We focus on public spaces, supporting projects that are inclusive, non-discriminatory, and provide a forum for diverse people to enjoy Lowell on equitable ground.

As we’ve discussed this mission in light of the national—and even more importantly, the local—conversation, we have come to agree that we must focus on promoting an idea: community spaces must be actively anti-racist. People of all backgrounds must feel safe, welcome, respected, and free from harassment. Our community must ensure this regardless of their race, their circumstances, or their appearance. We wish to let everyone know: we support the Black Lives Matter movement and the nationwide protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. We add our voices to the urgent calls for reform.

DIY Lowell is committed to actively invite and include everyone. Over the last year, we have sought grants to reach out to more diverse members of our community, through meeting them where they’re at, translating and interpreting, and holding special focus groups. We’ll redouble our efforts and prioritize this work.

Just as importantly, we’ll continue listening and urge anyone who feels so moved to contact us and let us know how we’re doing. We don’t always hit the mark, but we want to know if we’re aiming in the right place. Please tell us.

A community leader friend once told us that Do-it-Yourself Lowell would be more accurately called “Do-it-Together Lowell.” We believe in the power of community members learning from one another, gaining the skills and connections to claim their Right to the City. We believe that not only must our public spaces be equitable, but also that all aspects of our city must be equitable. We look forward to playing a role in achieving that equity for all.

Thank you,
– The DIY Lowell Team

DIY Lowell has an exciting job opportunity! We’re looking for someone special to take over leadership of our program in 2020 and beyond. We’re seeking a Program Director, a 12 hour/week position ideal for anyone wishing to become immersed in the City of Lowell’s thriving arts and multicultural community. We need someone ready to work with diverse folks, including young people (ages 12-21).  We encourage people interested in community development, nonprofit administration, and/or all-ages civic engagement education to apply.

The DIY Lowell Program Director will be the sole permanent paid position in DIY Lowell and will focus on marketing and fundraising, along with program facilitation and outreach.

Please click here for the full job description and information on how to apply (pdf). Application period closes on May 29, 2020.