Camping Soothes the Soul

Karen Foxgrover is clearly here to inspire and teach others. Our relationship started as that of an employee to an employer when I worked as her attendant in the early 1990's. Fortunately over sushi and conversation our connection evolved into a lifelong friendship. Karen is one of the most active women I've ever met. She's involved in numerous organizations from advocacy work for the rights of people with disabilities to teaching workshops on how to communicate more clearly to modeling self care by doing everything she can to live as healthfully as possible.

Over the years Karen has told me of the psychological and spiritual importance of her annual summer pilgrimage to the woods of Wisconsin to go camping in an accessible setting. She participated in the b-day challenge by making a donation to With A Little Help, Inc. The website explains, ""With A Little Help...", Inc. camps allow for the extensive and individualized assistance adults, including individuals who reside in institutionalized settings, to participate in activities and outings which persons weakened by neuromuscular conditions otherwise could not enjoy.

The one-on-one assistance provided by volunteer attendants and the use of a very unique and recently remodeled accessible facility make it possible for the disabled adults to attend and actively participate in the camping experience. For many of the disabled adults, camp is the only opportunity for swimming, adaptive sports and recreational activities. Camping opportunities also provide much needed respite time for family members and personal care attendants who provide around-the-clock daily care."

I'm not sure yet exactly what the best way to contribute to With A Little Help will be, but I'm certain Karen and I will figure out the perfect way to help when we soon get together for sushi to belatedly celebrate her birthday.

Life Becomes Perfect

Mother Amma, divine mother, compassionate, consoling, says, "compassion to the poor and needy is our duty to God." I read on her website that "Amma always points out that the purpose of one's life is to realize who we really are. She says, 'By realizing our own Self we become full, with nothing more to gain in life. Life becomes perfect.'

I think I first heard about Amma from the woman to whom this blog is dedicated. I believe St. Lulu got a hug from Mother Amma at one point. So at the time I thought of Amma as she who hugs, I haven't thought about her for a long time until Alison Einbender brought her up at Elizabeth's house (the teacher in "The Art of Teaching Creatively"). It was a magical day, the women in Elizabeth's circle are very special, they all possess these wonderfully big gifts but are humbly human. Alison and I talked about quite a few things that day connecting over the perfection of all things from the mystical to the imperfect. I was so grateful for the company of such cool women and that Alison brought the Divine Mother's inspiration of love and light and happiness with us on that day. Later that week, Alison made a donation of $40 to Mother Amma.

Wikepedia has a summary of the humanitarian programs of Amma which I think is relevant to spirit of the World According to St. Lulu: "a program to build 100,000 homes for the poor; hospitals; orphanages; hospices; women's shelters; pension disbursements for widows; community aid centers; homes for the aged; eye clinics; and speech therapy centers. Many of Amma's centers in the US run 'Mother's Kitchen', or 'vegetarian soup-kitchens', where volunteers prepare and serve meals to the poor and needy, 100 schools, 20 temples, one super-speciality hospital in Kochi, feeds thousands during mass kitchen, provides pension every year to over 15,000 widows, builds 25,000 houses annually for the homeless and has 35 Amma welfare centres all over the world to spread her spiritual message, a billion rupees (23 million dollars) in aid to the victims of the 2004 tsunami. The Math's relief work is happening in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar islands and in Sri Lanka, a $1,000,000 to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina fund. She also sent a top aide to the devastated areas soon after the storm struck in the United States to assess the kind of help needed by victims, and thousands of blankets were sent and distributed to the survivors of the Kashmir and Pakistan earthquake.

The Art of Teaching Creatively

A good teacher is always challenged by teaching because her or his job is to cultivate the student's limitless potential, feed the student's curiosity, and facilitate the way finding to that individuals highest good. Under "No Child Left Behind," the challenge of teaching has been increased by the pressure to "teach" children to fill in the correct answers on tests. Mistakes, which are arguably, the most instructive teaching tool, are discouraged on scan tron tests. Add to the challenges that teachers already face the constraints of tight budgets and increasing numbers of students from families who are struggling economically and you've got an almost impossible task. Its like throwing a diver,in a cotton straight jacket, into a tank full of hungry sharks and expecting them to teach the sharks to eat seaweed.

Elizabeth Doyle got her MFA right here in Madison at the University of Wisconsin. A few years later, when she recovered her creative energy, she realized she needed to teach so she went back to school to get certified in K-12. Then she climbed into the straight jacket and jumped in the tank. She's doing a brilliant job. You should see the job she's doing. I'll ask her for some samples of the students work to add to this blog. For example, she showed me a before picture that one of her students made at the beginning of the year and an after picture that he made at the end of the school year and you could see the strides he had made in the ability to think abstractly and with dimensionality and complexity. She also has put together a fundraiser for the school's boundless playground.

Elizabeth's mother, Kay, is also a teacher and an artist. I've gotten to know her a little bit through Elizabeth and I have to say she is very generous with her daughter (and her daughter's friends). I think that it is one way she shows her daughter how much she believes in her and supports her. Her mom has graciously invited me to travel along with Elizabeth on trips to both Canada, where she has a summer place, and Tortola, where she has a winter place, and where I have taken two of the most restful vacations of my life. That is why it didn't surprise me when Kay wrote me from Sioux Lookout, Ontario to tell me that she was going to support the art department at Elizabeth's elementary school. She said, "She can decide how to use it." I can't wait to see what Elizabeth does with it, but I know it will make the world a more beautiful place.

A Good Neighbor

We sat on a screen porch eating cheese and crackers, talking about some of the hard things that happen in life and some of the pleasures, like sitting on a screen porch with wonderful people eating cheese and crackers, talking about some of the hard things that happen in life and some of the pleasures. Over the course of a few hours, the summer breeze we enjoyed was punctuated by a light rain shower, sigh, heaven on earth.

Here's a picture of giving, creative family for you: Janet Laube is a social worker and education associate at the contemporary art museum, her husband is a doctor/professor, her daughter is a singer, her son is a former peace corps volunteer who runs an eco-lodge in Nicaragua. I was thinking her donation would have something to do with the work she does with people, from little girls to big men, helping them regain control over their violence and aggression. I thought maybe she donated to a project in Nicaragua that her son is connected to. Janet also works in the education department at MMoCA, we met there when I was an education assistant for MMoCA during graduate school. Thus, I thought I wondered if her donation would have something to do with the arts. Once again, I was surprised when Janet told me the story about why she donates to Neighborhood House.

If you are African, and live within 200 miles of Madison, you know Neighborhood house because you've been to a graduation or wedding party there. If you are not African, but you are local to Madison, you know Neighborhood house because it the oldest community center in Madison. Neighborhood House offers affordable gathering spaces for groups to use, runs a food pantry, and creates programs and resources for everyone from youth to seniors.

Neighborhood House is the closest community center to Janet's home and she believes in it because she believes in working together as a community to help one another. In fact, she's so committed to Neighborhood house that she serves as president of the board of directors...a fact I would not have known if not for a beautiful summer evening sitting on a screen porch eating cheese and crackers, talking about some of the hard things that happen in life and some of the pleasures.

http://www.neighborhoodhousemadison.org/involved.html

Letter From Iraq, a Father's Mission to Carry On

About three weeks ago I was looking for an interactive map of the capitol square in the Wisconsin State Journal site and instead I found an interactive memorial day post about Wisconsin service members who had died in the previous year.
I looked at a few of them until I sat weeping at my desk. The story that started getting me worked up was the one that a daughter wrote about her dad. She wrote, "I thought it was going to be like any other trip: he leaves, he come back, he leaves, he comes back. But I was wrong." So by the time I got to the story about the 24 year old woman from Madison I was already cracked and it was just a matter of time before I would break. What got to me more than anything was her video letter home titled "Hi from Iraq."
I kept thinking about her parents and what they must be going through. Such a beautiful, apple-pie looking girl. I went back to work but I really haven't been able to stop thinking about her.
Tonight I was packing up to leave work and a colleague of mine, a City employee who takes care of the building, came in to check on things in the office. He remembered that last week I was in late one night finishing up a grant and he asked me if I would ever be willing to help out a group he's a member of with grant writing. I asked him what the group was and he told me that it's called Operation Never Forgotten, he's a member of it because his daughter, a medic in the Iraq war, died last October from wounds she sustained when her unit was attacked by improvised explosives. Turns out, as fate would have it, I was already familiar with the story. The WSJ article had led me to a YouTube search to an internet review. His sweet baby girl is the very 24 year old Rachel Hugo I had shed tears over just a few weeks before. I had no idea I already knew her father.
Mr. Hugo, doesn't need a $40 donation before I turn 50. He needs someone to write a grant NOW so that he and his wife and son can put up a billboard reminding people that their daughter, and people like her, died trying to help people. He told me that she wanted to help people in Iraq and she wanted to serve her country. She was due to come home in about a month when she was killed. She had already gone "on an on-line shopping spree" according to the newspapers. He told me she would have graduated this May with her RN degree and gone on to help more people. He told me that he promised her last time she was home on leave that if anything ever happened to her, he would carry on.

Judy believes in Haitian Self-Determination

Judy Grochowski is a leo sister. Her birthday is August 12th. She is one of the hero teachers I met when I was coordinating the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design's outreach programs. I have a very crowded pedestal full of teachers who care way more than most people even know there is a need for caring, Judy's on it. She was the first person to write me back about this project.

She wrote:

My favorite charity is the Norwich Mission House in Port Au Prince, Haiti. My daughter and I did a mission trip there a few summers ago and it was an incredible experience....they are supported by the Norwich Diocese of Norwich, Conn. As a matter of fact, the priest from the Mission House is coming to Our Lady of Lourdes Church (Milw-58& Forest home) on Aug 22 for a fundraising spaghetti dinner. He will speak and provide an update on the state of affairs in Haiti currently.

Here is the thing, back in 1986, when I was a senior in HS I was supposed to go to Haiti with a dentist my mother knew who ran a free clinic there, but in Februarythere was a huge coup that finally over through the Duvalier family and the trip was canceled. I still feel like Beethoven was playing a scale and didn't hit the last note. When I got this email from Judy I realized I still need to go to Haiti. Hmmm. I called the group she mentioned, confessed that I'm not catholic and asked if I could come with them. They are gonna put me on a wait list. If any of you want to come with I would love to share the experience with someone I know.

Do-what-you-can-Dawn

You know the starfish story where the old man says, "What are you doing?" and the boy says, "I'm trying to save the starfish, sir." and the old man says, "but there are thousands of starfish and only one of you, what difference can you make?" and the little boy throws a starfish back in the ocean and says, "I made a difference to that one." Well, Dawn Caldart, a Milwaukee attorney, and frequent guest feminist at the Boys Club, is one of those people who looks at the starfish on the beach, rolls up her sleeves, and starts tossing them back in the water one by on. Thing is, she makes it look like so much fun that other people run to the beach and start chucking starfish back into the ocean too and pretty soon there are a whole bunch of people drinking beer and saving starfish and running around on the beach having a great time...

She wrote:

I often contemplate the "what's in-between." Recently, I read what I consider a manual for life, "The Miracle of Mindfulness." The clarity that comes with being present in this time and place has been life changing for me.

Although malnutrition is always present in Ethiopia, this year's lack of
rain, rising food costs, and inconsistent food distributions have made the
situation much worse, with rates of severe malnutrition particularly high in
the region where my daughters were born.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has teams working in
southern Ethiopia where more than 11,800 children have been treated for
severe malnutrition to date. MSF is helping Ethiopia's most vulnerable
children now so these children can help the Ethiopia's children of tomorrow.

A $40.00 donation will feed a child for 40 days.

Larry's Lutheran Largess

Larry Albrecht and I met volunteering for the Milwaukee International Film Festival. Our work consisted of getting together with fascinating, intelligent people about once a week to watch incredible films from around the world and wax film criticism. As we got to know each other I learned that Larry was part of an elite old boy's club that meets once a week at Brucke Cafe. Committed to social justice and human rights, and steeped in Lutheran guilt, Larry eventually asked me to attend the highly secretive Brucke Boys Club as a one-time guest feminist.

It was a very interesting evening, I took notes. My scribblings from that historic evening say things that must remain confidential due to "privacy concerns." I also put myself on the circulating roster of consensual guest feminists and offered to make occasional appearances. The boys are a motley crew of players who will remain anonymous. Lets just say they are united by their love of beer and women and political banter. Their politics lean to the left and their steins lean to the right, if you know what I mean.

Larry is a good guy but boy does he have issues. Mostly humanitarian. He wrote, "I donate regularly to Lutheran World Relief which does great work in poor
and oppressed communities around the globe, grounded in love, faith and
hope, and which has the highest ranking for foundations/charities with
minimal overhead. I will send an extra $40 on your behalf, which also keeps
a relationship with your and my spiritual heritage."

ACT 6 AIDS Ride - wow, that was fast!

This was my first completed Birthday Donation Challenge. Scott Thornton donated $100 to the ACT 6 Aids Ride and I sent in my $40. I love this heart felt, witty thank you note so I asked for permission from Peter Jones to share it here:

I just returned home from the ride and this email brought even more
tears to my eyes; I thought I had cried them all out this afternoon when I
saw the sadness and hope we all shared at the closing ceremonies of the
ride.

I left the ceremony right away when it ended because I don't really like
that kind of stuff (and I had a tanning appointment - kidding - but I do
need to even out this farmer tan I got) and I just wanted to be alone to
think about the past 4 days.

As I rode my bike back to Olin Park (where my car had a nice $25 dollar
ticket waiting for me on it - "Thanks" Officer Cottrell!) from The Capital I
was crying thinking about how lucky I am to have been part of this and how I
made a difference. Riders along the bike path clapped and high-five'd me
and it was incredible; I am usually so guarded in real life (as Scott may
know but most would not based on my donation page) so it felt very
empowering to be recognized from my ACT 6 tee shirt I was wearing that I had
just done something H U G E !!!

Now, I have been called selfish before (heaven knows I would have skipped
ahead of you line if the cafeteria at school were running out of taco sauce
on Taco Tuesday!) but this past four days of:

a) being totally out of my element (uh . . .no hotels!)

b) allowing myself to become hot, sticky, and smelly (DO NOT bring Evian
Spritzer in your bike bag - it gets super warm and is NOT refreshing - plus
the bag could hold something more important like a bike tube or Butt Balm)

c) not having immediate access to my comfort foods (okay - so I did bring
some peanuts and licorice in my luggage but I got busted eating it at 2:30
one morning by a school guard so it technically doesn't count as "comfort" -
it is so embarrassing to have a flashlight pointed on you in the middle of a
dark gym floor of some school in Vancouver or Iceland or wherever we biked
to - surrounded by snoring cyclists - with licorice whips hanging from your
mouth and a handful of Dry Roasted Planter's poised for immediate
consumption. The guard was all "Ma'am . . . please binge eat outside of the
gymnasium." I replied in a very low pitched voice so as not to be
recognized the next day in case he was taking names "I'm carbo-loading for
tomorrow!" I think he bought it because he moved on but I did notice my
"sleeping" neighbor watching with one eye open and focused on my bag of
Twizzler Nibs. You better believe I hid those babies!)

. . . and finally d) actually BIKING 300 MILES makes me know that I can do
so much more.

SO much more.

And I will.

I am lucky. I DID this! I can make a difference and in the past four days
I did . . . and it felt so incredible!

So thank you, Karin and Scott. It means so much that you donated and
believed in me!

Thank you!

Cystic Fibrosis Marathon, Miles To Go

I met Mike in 1986 within two months of moving to Madison to attend college. In fact, we met working at the Howard Johnson's across from my dorm. One of the first feminist aha moments I had was noticing the way the women there were treated by management versus the men...Mike and I became friends and by November he took me to Chicago to meet his family, including his mother, to whom this blog is dedicated.

Mike lives in Poland and we have only seen each other once in the last 10 years, sadly it was at his moms funeral. Thanks to the interweb we have been able to stay connected through all the major ups and downs over the years. He wrote me, "I can’t believe that it has been 20 years or more years since we first met...So much has happened to us, so much experience, so many changes. Life just keeps going, we keep learning, and hopefully we become better people with the passage of time."

Mike is donating to his cousin's cystic fibrosis appeal. It is a time sensitive appeal so I'm gonna move it up on the 10 year giving plan and send something in with the next paycheck. The boy in the picture is the son Mike's cousin Trisha. He wrote, "You may remember (her) from when you visited her Mother’s home during my Mom’s funeral. He has a chance to live to be about 35, so I truly hope that they find a cure before Colin reaches that age. I am optimistic that they will."

Eddee's Bridge

>Eddee Daniels is a Milwaukee photographer and teacher. He is a very community active man, I know he's a part of Friends of Milwaukee Rivers and other environmental causes. We met volunteering for a sub committee of the Friends of the Hank Aaron State Trail that was working towards placing more public art on the trail. I admire all the work he does locally in Milwaukee but surprise, surprise, everyone is deeper and higher then you see on the surface:

I just returned from what has become a biannual trip to Nicaragua, my fifth, to work with my
favorite organization. It's called Bridges to Community
(www.bridgestocommunity.org) and its mission is to bring people from the US
down to Nicaragua to work with local people who need houses and other
infrastructure, schools, wells, community centers, etc. The Nicaraguans get
new houses and the "gringos" get a taste of what it's like to live in a
vibrant community, with grace, love, respect, and humility. We often feel
like we receive more than we give.

Bridges to Community was founded in 1992 by my father, and others, so I have
a personal interest. But I go back again and again even though my father
died seven years ago.

You can see images and read more about my experiences in Nicaragua on my
website at www.eddeedaniel.com. Look for the projects on Nicaragua.

I'm also having an exhibit of Nicaragua photos at the united community
center in Milwaukee in Sept. with a special guest from Nicaragua who will
give a poetry reading on Sep. 15. For their home page see:
http://www.latinoartsinc.org/display/router.asp?docid=131. For info on my
show see: http://www.latinoartsinc.org/display/router.asp?docid=515

Either a Borrower or a Lender Be

Teri Sullivan devotes her professional life to Arts@Large, an organization that raises money to support arts education in Milwaukee schools. With A@L I've seen her put her passion into action, working with Kim Abler to grow it from seed to oak. Arts@Large funds so many amazing projects in Milwaukee. She could tell you many heartwarming stories of children with potential creating and connecting and finding their power in spite of the many, many obstacles on the road. I LOVE ARTS@LARGE.
But, Teri didn't write to me about giving money to Arts@Large, probably because I already serve on the board (although we all know I could donate a little bit more of the green piece of paper). Anyway, Teri likes to expand people's world so she challenged me to give to another great program, "I have been giving loans to KIVA to help entrepreneurs in 3rd world countries get loans to either expand their businesses or start new ones. This is very cool. I will give this month as well if you wish to match." I had fun looking at the KIVA website and exploring many things that have been written about them online. Check out: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/kiva-chronicles
or
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/oprahshow1_ss_20070904/12
here is one so you don't have to link:

Consumed

Extra Helping

Peter Arkle

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By ROB WALKER

Published: January 27, 2008

Kiva.org

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More from Rob Walker at his blog, http://murketing.com/
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• Rob Walker's Consumed Column »

Over the last few months, some visitors to the Web site of Kiva, a nonprofit that lets users make interest-free “microloans” to entrepreneurs in low-development (that is, poor) countries all over the world, were greeted with a surprising message. “Thanks Kiva Lenders!” it began. “You’ve funded EVERY business on the site!!” Has a charity ever announced that it had enough money? Would-be lenders were dumbstruck, says Kiva’s public-relations director, Fiona Ramsey: “They’re stunned for a second — ‘Here I am, I have money, I want to help someone, and you’re telling me that I can’t?’ ” The note encouraged the visitor to check back soon, as a new batch of loan-seeking entrepreneurs will often appear mere minutes later. But still, Kiva is a philanthropic organization facing an extremely unusual challenge: maintaining adequate supply (people who need help) to meet demand (people who want to give it). “We don’t want people coming to the Web site who want to make a loan and there’s no one to loan to,” Ramsey says.

Kiva has attracted more than $19.5 million worth of loans, from more than 220,000 individuals. You may already be familiar with the project, which has received a phenomenal amount of glowing attention — and that’s one reason demand is so high. The site presents a photo of each loan seeker and a short summary of who and where they are and what they want the money for. A restaurant owner in Nigeria needs $450; a small farmer in Samoa needs $330. With a few clicks you can help someone on the other side of the world and play a part in solving the problems of global inequality that so often seem insurmountable. While it can be hard for charitable givers to really know where their money goes and whom it helps, Kiva lenders receive updates from the loan recipients. And they almost always see their loans repaid. (The default rate to date is 0.16 percent.)

The venture started in 2005, a time when skepticism about, for example, whether the huge sums donated to tsunami relief efforts were doing any good. It also dovetailed with an increased interest in a more capitalistic version of philanthropy that felt more like investing than simply giving. Add to this a drumbeat of high-profile attention and endorsements — from the PBS series “Frontline/World,” the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Bill Clinton — and you get spikes in demand normally associated with limited-edition luxury products. After Kiva was featured on “Oprah” this past September, for instance, “we sold out,” as Ramsey puts it. Since the holidays, individual loans have been capped at $25, to give as many people as possible the chance to participate.

Sometimes frustrated visitors to the site write in to demand an explanation for the dearth of needy people to help. Kiva’s 23-person staff works with 77 “field partners” — microfinance institutions on the ground in 39 countries, who line up potential borrowers. About 250 volunteer translators and editors around the world post new requests as quickly as they can — which can mean gluts as well as shortages. “We could keep, for lack of a better word, a stockpile of entrepreneurs,” Ramsey says. “But these are real people. We’re not looking at them as inventory.” It can take a while to vet potential borrowers. For example, a Sudan-based organization expressed interest in a partnership at a microfinance conference last August, and it took a couple of months of research, conversations and looking at financial statements before Kiva agreed to work with it. Even when that process was finally complete, Kiva had to help acquire the digital cameras to take pictures of borrowers; the organization is expected to start posting loan requests soon.

Ramsey says that the $25 cap will mostly be in effect for the next month or so, partly because Kiva sold about $2 million worth of gift certificates over the holidays, many of them still waiting to be invested. Meanwhile, some users get so caught up in helping that they behave like collectors, looking to add new countries and new kinds of businesses to their portfolios. (Entrepreneurs in Iraq and Afghanistan are particularly popular.) The chat boards on a kind of fan site called KivaFriends.org indicate the mixed feelings about the high demand for loan recipients. “I was trying to leave the field open for the newcomers,” one enthusiast there confessed recently, shortly after adding to a personal portfolio of 62 loans — even as the number of hopeful borrowers was dwindling quickly. “Makes me feel guilty.” That’s an odd thing for such a generous person to say, but it’s one indicator of what an unusual dynamic Kiva’s popularity has created. Even philanthropists don’t want to look greedy.

ACT 6 AIDS Ride

I got this email from my friend Scott, his was the first gift I matched. He wrote:

Here is my story.

I was working in a grocery store when I was a senior in high school. The
AIDS epidemic was just beginning. Newsweek or Time magazine had a cover
story of the new Gay Cancer that doctors could not figure out. I was the
fist male checker the store had ever hired and that magazine was in the
checkout rack. It was a time when I was struggling with my own sexuality
and hearing customers comment on that magazine cover, often for my benefit,
was scary.

Just a couple of years before that my father had been in Washington D.C. on
business. When he returned, he declared that they could have dropped a
bomb there and wiped out all of the queers. That was 1979 and he had been
there during the Gay Rights march on Washington.

When I moved to Madison I looked for an organization that I could volunteer
for that might make a difference. At the time AIDS was still looked on as
a gay disease. I volunteered with them for several years and somehow still
felt immune to its devastation. I hadn’t lost any friends or knew anyone
personally with AIDS. Then one night when I was passing out condoms at one
of the bars an AIDS Network client came up to me and thanked me for all
that I was doing. That really hit home.

I don’t do much volunteering there anymore, but still support them as much
as I think I can. Now, I do have friends that are HIV positive and
probably more that I don’t even know about. I know how important
organizations like AIDS Network are to their lives.

When I heard that my friend Peter, who I hardly ever see, was riding in the
ACT 6 AIDS Ride this year I thought this would be a good year to start
contributing to that event as well. So I'm sending $100 to AIDS Network,
600 Williamson Street, Madison, WI 53703 and asking that it be credited to
Peter Jones. Maybe sometime I’ll try to do the ride myself.

Scott

Baba Jean Eats Local Beans

Baba Jean claims to be about 60 years old. She moves like a ten year old carrying the wisdom of a 100 year old, she's spirited and spry, but not overly-impulsive. She's hot. You can tell she takes care of the temple if you know what I mean. Some of us have a harder time staying connected to our bodies, I've learned a lot from watching Baba Jean flow and dance and weave into and out of circles. Eating local must be part of her secret. She's into it right now. I'm gonna take the challenge.

here is the link
http://eatlocalmilwaukee.googlepages.com/home

an online local foods resource for SE Wisconsin.

EAT LOCAL. TAKE THE CHALLENGE. Take the Challenge during the second week of September to find out how local you can go. . .

Why Local? | What is Local? | Set Your Goals | Resources | Friends of Real Food | For Chefs | Festival | Events | Download our Brochure (pdf) Download our postcards (pdf)

Milwaukee's Eat Local Challenge, sponsored by the Friends of Real Food, is meant to encourage people to challenge themselves to increase the amount of local foods they choose. This website is dedicated to helping people prepare for the challenge and meant to be a resource for year-round local eating.

As we lead up to the challenge, more resources and information about local eating in Milwaukee will be added. So, watch this website grow...

TAKE THE CHALLENGE.

Savor and celebrate the benefits of local food.

Join Friends of Real Food on Wednesday, August 13th from 6-8 pm at the Urban Ecology Center to plan for the challenge. Throughout the year, we seek to educate ourselves and our community about mindful eating, sustainable food systems and other food related issues. During the August meeting we’ll be sharing our personal views on and goals for local eating as well as information about local food sources.

In addition to enjoying foods that are locally grown and/or produced, this challenge helps us answer:
• What does “local” mean?
• What are the benefits of buying local food?
• How can we find local food around Milwaukee?

Friends of Real Food aims to make eating locally a sustainable option.

For more information, contact eatlocalmilwaukee@gmail.com

---

HOW LOCAL CAN YOU GO?

KRASS Women's Theater Kicks-Ass

I met Jan Levine Thal years before she met me. I used to admire her inspirational witty front line activism in the 1980's and at some point during that special decade I bought the book "Commie Dearest: Digressing Diatribe by Jan Landers Thal lifted from the Madison Insurgent, 1988-91" and loved her even more. Finally one day, because this is Madison, I was invited to a dinner party where Jan was also a guest. Slowly and progressively after that introduction (thank you Robin & Alistair), our circles cycled closer until at some point I realized we had a bona fide coffee date worthy friendship. My admiration for this remarkable woman has not wained in the last 20 years, it has become stronger. She wrote me about her latest project of passion:

My current passion is the Kathie Rasmussen Women's Theater, which just got its incorporation papers and will do its first public reading in the fall. We aren't ready to accept money (waiting for a nonprofit fiscal receiver) or scripts (will do published work first) yet but your best vibes, and those of your friends who support women in the arts would be just peachy. Our mission is to put plays written by women on the stage (less than 17 percent of all plays produced nationwide are written by women -- I'm not sure whether that includes children's theater which wouldn't exist if women didn't write for, administer, and teach -- though happily talented men are involved as well). We also want to train and promote women directors and designers. Because we can count on fewer than ten fingers the number of women directors in Madison, a town with TONS o theater. I could go on, but you get the idea. Men are most welcome to act, design, be involved, of course.

thal@ssc.wisc.edu

Bees are Happy Making Honey

Charlie Koenen gives and gives and gives. I met him when he was organizing a peace vigil for the Iraq war. One time he lent me the money to buy Nina gogo boots for her Halloween costume. He loves to give and does it freely. He wrote, "Here's my favorite place to give...The Milwaukee Bicycle Collective- this has direct results... helping kids in the inner city make good bikes, learn problem solving, and share a community spirit other than gangs. then always there's my friends at peace action."

Keep it light and happy. Namasté

charlie (btw the bees are happy making honey!)

Milwaukee Bicycle Collective: Connecting Youth and Bicycles
by Peter Schmidke / photos by Peter di Antoni

On a humid Sunday afternoon at the Milwaukee Bicycle Collective on Clyburn Avenue, Ian Fritz hands out bicycle rims to a bubbly Ricky Ramirez and two other neighborhood kids. Seated knee-to-knee on overturned milk crates, they stare curiously around at the gaggle of tools and bicycles as Fritz explains their mission–to remove the worn spokes from the rims so they can replace them with new ones. Ramirez fixes his pliers around a spoke and gives a couple of hard squeezes, each with no result. Fritz repositions the pliers in the middle of the spoke and this time it crinkles cleanly.

“The collective is a loose affiliation of folks who help kids in the neighborhood and the community,” explained Fritz, who coordinates the collective. “We provide space, tools, parts, and instruction for people to work on their bikes, or to build one if they don’t already have one.”

The organization occupies an airy upper loft at 2910 W. Clyburn in a building owned by Fritz’s father. In addition to Fritz, other volunteers include Shea Schachameyer, George Wortz, Dan Lionberg, and Trevor Munroe.

The group started moving in during March 2001, and they opened their doors that June. They closed their operations that winter because the upper loft is unheated. This winter they will also stop operations, and resume in the spring.

Fritz said he became inspired to start a bicycle collective when he saw non-profit shops in Oakland, Tucson, and Philadelphia. “Rather than needing a lot of money to buy a bike or repair a bike, places had a ‘sweat equity’ idea where if you worked for them, that could be exchanged for a bike or parts for a bike.”

Between 75 and 100 bikes at the Milwaukee collective last year were distributed through sweat equity, Fritz said.

“There are some things that are beyond the kids, and I sort of do that stuff. But there are definitely things in the process that they can learn for themselves so that they can maintain their bikes when they’re not in the shop. And there are some kids who make themselves really useful and will even help other kids work on bikes.”

Patching flat tires, straightening rims, and installing brakes are just a few of the tasks Fritz and the volunteers help their customers master.

“The majority of people who come here are kids around this area. Sometimes kids’ parents or other adults come in too,” Fritz said. “There are a couple of kids from 17th and Locust who come–they ride their bikes here.”

Fritz emphasized the collective’s need for more volunteers. “The folks who are volunteering right now are mostly just people I know. We’ve had people come and go over the last year and a half. Mostly it has been word-of-mouth.”

Fritz said that volunteers who are not knowledgeable about bike repair can still lend a hand by sorting parts, cleaning, or answering the phone.

The shop also has a continuing need for good parts. “We have a lot of parts, but a larger percentage of it than I would like is junk,” Fritz said. “I’d like to see an increase in the quality of the stuff we have. If it’s junk, we end up with the burden of having to get rid of it.”

The collective has received donated parts from Corey the Bike Fixer, Wheel and Sprocket in Port Washington, and Rainbow Jersey in Whitefish Bay.

“My employer (Corey the Bike Fixer) helps us out a lot, and he doesn’t really see this as a threat to his business, because it’s all the way across town, and we don’t have any money.” The collective also serves mostly under-privileged kids who would be unlikely to be able to pay for bike repair services.

Dave Schlabowske, Program Manager for the Milwaukee branch of the Wisconsin Bicycle Federation, has met with Fritz at the collective. “I think it’s a great thing,” Schlabowske said. “There are very few bike shops in that area. When I visited the shop, there were lots of kids waiting for the door to open.”

In the near future, Fritz would like to organize repair classes and create a web site. Fritz is currently applying for federal tax-exempt status to allow the collective to receive tax-deductible donations.

To contact the Milwaukee Bicycle Collective, call 431-0825 or email them at info@bikecollective.org. Shop hours are Sundays 3-7 p.m. and Thursday 5:30-8:30 p.m.

A similar program is offered by the Boys and Girls Club (not one near Ian’s shop) Their contact person is Dana Nix at 447-5333.

Lloyd's Local Love

My friend Lloyd Mueller had a hard time choosing between the Racine Dominicans and the Love and Charity Mission. He went back and forth for a while and then he came out with this big philosophical rap about why he thinks Mother Louise Hunter's Love & Charity Mission in Racine, Wisconsin is the best possible place to support. Ultimately, he likes seeing where the money goes. "It is the most direct way to affect change. Its not filtered. Does it serve everyone? No. Does it serve as many people as it can? Yes." The mission is only a mile or so from Lloyd's house, so its easy for him to run over with some food or $40 bucks. "People living there have no money, they are the most needy, they are not getting state and federal funds. They should be the most loved in the world. We should measure our society by how we take care of the people who need it most."


Here's an article about it from "Today's Christian"
The Heart of Love and Charity
How "Mother" Louise Hunter turned a life of hardship into a mission of hope.
By Amy Adair

"Mother" Louise Hunter

On a blustery February night in 1966, a sheriff rapped on Louise Hunter's door. Claiming the family of 16 was in violation of Racine, Wisconsin's public health code, he ordered the Hunters to vacate their two-bedroom house within 24 hours. With no money and no place to go, Louise started to pray.

A day later, there was another knock on the door. This time it was a local pastor who offered to sell the Hunter family an 18-room house for a dollar. Louise instantly knew it was a miracle. As thanks, she prayed that God would use her to help others in need. According to Louise, that's when God gave her a vision for a mission called Love and Charity.

"From that day on," Louise, who is known as Mother Hunter, says, "in my heart and in my mind, I wanted to help somebody."

Mother Hunter, who is now 72 years old, has devoted her life to helping the desolate and homeless. She has a keen understanding and gentle awareness of the needs of the poor, because poverty and pain have defined her own life.

A Life of Heartache and Grief
Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Great Depression, Mother Hunter was raised in a poor farming community and worked in the cotton fields. She grew up too fast, and by the time she was 20 she was unemployed and a single mother of three young children. Returning to her childhood faith, she prayed for a husband. She met a man named James Hunter. They married and eventually had 18 children together.

Her marriage was tumultuous, filled with heartache and grief. In 1976 the Hunter's 6-year old son, Thomas, died in a house fire. Two years later, James was killed in a car accident.

	"My mission is set up so that people can come out of darkness and see the light. This is what Love and Charity is all about."— Mother Hunter

"When James died, I said to the Lord, 'Why would you take him and leave me with all of these children?'" Mother Hunter recalls. "I've had many heartaches and pains, but God made a way."

Life was even harder for Mother Hunter after she lost her husband. Her family wanted her to move back to Mississippi so they could help her raise her children. But she could not turn her back on Love and Charity. So, she kept the doors open and continued helping those in need. Her kids literally grew up at the mission, helping out whenever they could.

Mother Hunter's relentless faith that Jesus Christ can heal any wound, no matter how deep, is the foundation for Love and Charity. "If you do not suffer, what can you tell somebody?" Mother Hunter says. "In order to make it to where I am today, I had to go through some pain and sorrow. But Jesus stayed with me."

Open Door to Healing
Hoping to share her unwavering faith with all who walk through the doors, Mother Hunter is determined to keep Love and Charity a faith-based mission. In fact, she has refused to accept any federal aid. Though it would relieve mounting financial hardships, doing so would mean that Mother Hunter could no longer require every guest to attend Bible studies and church services. So instead she relies on donated food, clothes, and money. "It's all about getting Jesus on the inside," Mother Hunter says. "My mission is set up so that people can come out of darkness and see the light. This is what Love and Charity is all about."

While Love and Charity's door is always open, those who wish to stay must adhere to Mother Hunter's strict rules. Not only do they have to attend the mission's church services, but for the first ten days they can only leave Love and Charity to help pick up donated food from local businesses. If needed, they must enroll in drug or alcohol rehabilitation. When they are physically able, they have to find a job, set up a bank account, and save money toward their own apartment. "There's no time limit when you come here," Mother Hunter says. "You can stay five minutes or five years. I let everyone know that I'm willing to help them."

Mind on Jesus
It's no exaggeration to say that Mother Hunter has impacted thousands of lives. She's fed hungry kids, helped people find shelter, and even brought people back from the brink of suicide. Mother Hunter says that it is all the power of the Holy Spirit, and she is simply following God's calling.

Her story was recently published in Love and Charity: The Life and Story of Louise Hunter and Love and Charity Homeless Shelter (Publish America), by Reverend Dennis James Woods. Woods, a close family friend of the Hunters and the founder and pastor of Power of the Holy Ghost Deliverance Ministries Inc., served at Love and Charity in 1993.

"The book brought tears to my eyes," Mother Hunter admits. "I could hardly believe one human being went through so much suffering. I only made it because I kept my mind on Jesus."

Love and Charity is more than Mother Hunter's life story; it is a powerful reminder of the reality of homelessness and poverty, says Woods. Both Mother Hunter and Woods pray that readers will feel led to reach out to those in need.

"Mother Hunter seems to have a aura of God," Woods says. "Her whole life has been devoted to this ministry and her community."

Mother Hunter's energy is endless. In the late 1990s she opened a sister shelter, Love and Charity II, in Memphis, Tennessee. She still begins her day at five o'clock in the morning—ready to greet anyone who comes to Love and Charity with a warm meal and an open heart.

"Love and Charity is a ministry," she says. "It's a hard ministry at times. People don't even realize that tonight somebody is sleeping outside. Somebody's child. So I try to do all I can."

Amy Adair is a freelance writer living in the Chicago area.

Send donations to:

Love and Charity Homeless Mission
1031 Douglas Avenue
Racine Wisconsin 53403
Or telephone: 262-634-7059 to offer your assistance to the helpers and those who benefit from the help given.

Choice isn't Choice with out Access

Georgia has just left social work...for more social work. She gives for a living, and then sometimes she gives more. I've been an pro-choice activist since the 80's, in those days I participated in clinic defenses with a Madison Group called, "DARE" Defend Abortion Rights Emergency, I went with the Campus Women's center when we marched on Washington...but, over the years my activism evolved into attending cocktail fundraisers for NARAL and Planned Parenthood. Somewhere along my merry bourgeois way I didn't notice that the issue of choice is irrelevant for women if they can't afford an abortion. This is why I need friends like Georgia to wake me up.

I hadn't heard of the Madison Women's Medical Fund before. Georgia wrote me about them, WMF helps women pay for abortions. She explained, "I've worked with them quite a bit and the demand always exceeds the amount in the fund. I don't believe women will ever have true equality until they have the full capability to control their bodies and decide when and how (and if) to bear a child on their own. I believe this is a medical decision to be made individually, and barriers such as misogynous social policies, religious oppression or scarcity of medical providers or cost should not interfere with this decision."

Here is a little information from their website:

The right to choose an abortion is meaningless without access to abortion services.

Although abortion is legal, increasingly restrictive laws are limiting access for all women. Poor women unable to pay for an abortion are effectively denied access to complete health care services.

Federal and state government funds cannot be used to pay for abortions; most health insurance will not pay for abortions.

Wisconsin has the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation. Poor and rural women are particularly hard hit by these laws. One law mandates two visits to a doctor, 24 hours apart, increasing the costs of obtaining an abortion.

Wisconsin has limited abortion clinic services, located only in Milwaukee, Madison and Appleton; often women must pay for travel, childcare or overnight accommodations in addition to using scarce resources to pay for an abortion.

Thanks Georgia, I can totally get with this.

Heather has Spoke'n

Heather Berlowitz and I bond over bikes among many other things. We've shared biking joys and biking traumas. She totally understands what it is like to be in love with a bike. I wasn't surprised when she wrote me, "My cause of the moment is Bikes Not Bombs in Jamaica Plain, Mass. They re-furbish donated bikes and sell them at an awesome community bike shop. They employ at-risk kids as mechanics and customer assistants. And...their bikes are great--very unique and high-quality. I commute on mine everyday. They advocate for cycling and for kids--a winning combination. Unfortunately, sales of bikes don't come close to covering costs. They organize a huge community bike ride every year to raise $$$ and they take donations. I've donated my old bike (not the Trek, don't worry...) and I'll donate $40..."

They do so many cool things locally and abroad.

Who is St. Lulu?

St. Lulu is Lois Majchrzak, who Askia and Nina and I called Aunty Lulu, who, while she was on this earth was an aspiring saint and now, I think has accomplished her aspirations. St. Lulu as I will refer to her in this blog taught me this prayer, "Dear God, Use me, please use me, in any way you feel is for the good of the all." She told me it was very powerful and that if I dared uttered the words I would probably be in for a surprise and a lot of hard work. I am always on the precipice of having the nerve to say it.

St. Lulu could handle any crisis no matter how unseemly it was. She welcomed anyone into her home always and fed them in body and ego and spirit and gave them presents and sent them back into the world when they were ready.

Her limitless giving was sometimes frightening. People liked it best when they were the person she was loving and accepting and helping wholly. She was amazingly talented at upholding the human dignity in everyone.

Her son told me that one time her children gave her a digital camera and then her favorite priest came over on his way somewhere and she gave him the camera because he needed it more than she did.

She was a giver and lover of people and she took a lot of flap for it.

I met her when I was 18. Here are some of the things she did for me:

• Never never never criticized my essential self,
  
• gave me tons of stuff I thought I needed,
  
• when I was 21 I stayed at her house the night before I left to study abroad in Sierra Leone. She stayed up with me and put her arm around me because I was suddenly so scared I couldn't deal with knowing how much my life was going to change...and it did,
  
• when I was 22 she welcomed my African husband and me home with open arms and she and her husband slept on the couch and gave us their master bedroom,
  
• when I was 24 she helped me learn to parent and gave me stuff that I actually did need, like clothes for Nina and patience,
  
• later in my 20's and 30's she coached me through other life events that were hideous and embarrassing.

I knew the day I met her I wanted to be like her. Later in life I added the phrase, "but with boundaries." I'm still trying to figure out the ratio of giving to boundary.

The reason I put together this blog in her honor is because Lois aka St. Lulu was often judged for her generosity, people saw her as a victim and a martyr, but I think Lois was here doing what she was meant to do. She was actually her happiest when she was helping other people, no matter the cost. Judging her never seemed to make anything better for anyone.

Every time I give freely or experience others doing so I think about her and the world of one that she lived in and I see her throwing her head back and laughing in joy.

Birth, Death, and What We Do With What is in Between

This Blog is a project of my 40th birthday. It started with an email that I sent to about 100 friends sharing, as I am prone to do, way too much information:

I haven't soul searched this much since I was 18 and brimming with existential angst and the need to individuate. Alas, with my 40th birthday around the corner I have been thinking a lot about what is important in this world. What has risen to the top for me is very unoriginal: to love and be loved, to express oneself and to encourage others to be fully expressed, to steward creativity, and to enjoy this period of embodiment as much as possible.

What didn't make it to my list is all my stuff. Oddly, that is what I seem to have the most of: baggage in all its material and spiritual and physical forms.

So there is also this thing coming up for me about making the world more like the world I want to live in. I am thinking that this should be the decade of putting whatever power I possess into the good ephemeral list above and deaccessioning some of the stuff that is weighing me down.

I'm challenging myself to do more and I'd like to invite you to help me start. Today is August 4th. One week from today, August 11, will be my 40th birthday. I would like my friends to help me in my mission by sharing a story with me about your favorite cause and why. In fact, for any donation you make to that cause between now and my birthday, I will match (up to $40) before I turn 50 -- with the caveat that I won't give money to causes that I can't get with-- but that probably wouldn't be an issue with the people I love. Just send me a return email with how much you gave and why and I'll let you know when I match it.

As the email responses came in I was sort of wowed by the depth and breadth of what my friends feel strongly about, and that so many of you give so much. Lloyd Mueller suggested I start a blog to chronicle the project and the causes people champion. He also cautioned me that some people might see this project as an effort to draw more attention to myself. I thought about what he said...some people might indeed be looking at this project that way (I've certainly drawn attention to myself in many ways over the years, turning 30 involved much more nudity for example...I digress). I really think this project is about being sick and tired of plodding along, picking up tons of garbage for myself, and wishing the world better luck next time. Suddenly the impetus to take responsibility for this life, this world, has become more urgent.

Every time one of you tells me what you are doing to make this life better I feel relief. I am grateful for the work you are doing on this earth and I feel so lucky that we are connected.

If you participated in the birthday challenge, thank you so much for giving me your story. It is exactly what I needed!