You Can Hear the Ocean Roar

Ok, maybe most of you can't hear the ocean roar.  But I have an old Simon & Garfunkel album (the title their line) on the record player my mom grabbed when my Grandmother's old preschool migrated from the basement of the Methodist Church to wherever some other person runs the program Mrs. McIntosh ran for longer than I have yet been alive.  It would probably be a lovelier way to pass the afternoon if I weren't still afraid to take the plastic off my windows (seriously, this winter is so long) so my blinds are still closed behind my protective layer.

some students got together for a Candle Light concert during Earth Week

my two remaining AmeriCorps members

at one  point she sand the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (the Sufjan Stevens lyrics

they were pretty good about requests

Kristin set up a place to draw on the floor for those not singing or playing

The last month or so I've been rather frantically trying to pull together the first two big events of the summer.  The first was a kick off of the summer campaign with a mix of semester and summer volunteers leading 3 simultaneous community workshops at shelters run by an organization in Milwaukee called Community Advocates.  We worked with people who came to CA following a variety of life situations that made independent living impossible or unwise to help them understand how to be more energy efficient once they transitioned back into living in their own home or apartment.

one of the games we play with kids is Energy Charades.  Here, two ladies are helping this fine fellow act out a toaster

I tried to stay out of the way while Kathleen explained the benefits of compact florescent lightbulbs

Our other event was a reprise of Education Week, where volunteers visited Milwaukee, Madison, and Oshkosh to visit dozens of schools and teach thousands of kids in 4 days.  We also performed a dozen or so energy assessments, taught lessons in community groups (including a very popular senior group at the church where out of town volunteers slept in Milwaukee), and watched a documentary about the coal industry in the US.

organizing another game of charades

the really awesome room of an afterschool program we visited

cookies destroyed in the pursuit of coal (chocolate chips)

While both events were great (more or less), I am glad to be done with them for now.  I know I'll have another big event to start planning soon enough, but between finals and the switchover between semester members and summer hires, these last few weeks have had more kinks than I would prefer.  One in particular that kept coming up was working with other organizers' students.  It can be hard to find the line between stepping on someone else's leadership toes and leaving students without direction or feedback.  This summer presents its own challenges that should be interesting to tackle soon enough, but I'm still happy to leave behind some of the challenges I know already.

With the countdown to the end of the year stepping up, my Milwaukee must-do list remains rather long.  I'm excited for a more predictable schedule through the summer that should give me more time to explore, and I've made a more specific to do list for the summer (and I've been putting some of the things I want to do on random days throughout the summer, like an assignment except fun).  I'm looking forward to getting to know Milwaukee a little better, especially since it sounds like