I am writing this at about 10:40 so it has been a very long and I am sorry to say not entirely productive day. It was “learning journey” day where we divided up into two groups to visit local businesses, schools, and organizations engaged in sustainable practices. Unfortunately, the group I was in spent over four hours on a school bus in 90+ degree weather trying to go around traffic jams.
Though not all the stops were learning opportunities for me there were some that will be of value in the future. First and most important was a presentation from a representative of the United States Green Building Council. She increased my knowledge of the LEED certification process and directed us to many resources that will be important as we make decisions on incorporating LEED practices into our renovations and new construction. We found that our local chapter is the Cascadia Green Building Council. This will be an invaluable resource as we move through this process. The architects, however, may come to regret what I learned today as I have many questions that need anwers.
Another of the sites we visited today will not have influence on our work, but it was interesting and worthy of a few sentences. It was an impoverished area in South Chicago where nine people were murdered last night and 52 people lost their lives over the July 4th holiday in gang related incidents. As we were driving to the site we witnessed a SWAT team and many other police vehicles conducting a search of an area.
The site we visited was Growing Home, a job training urban farm for homeless and low-income individuals in Chicago. It is a social enterprise business based on organic agriculture. The program provides experiential learning opportunities and employment in the horticulture field as well as job readiness support that helps reintroduce participants back into the workforce. It is an impressive effort to support individuals and families in this area. It was also the first site where we saw gardens. We also saw gardens in other places including many roof top gardens.
I won’t share any of the other sites except for our last stop of the evening, dinner at Uncommon Ground a green certified restaurant. They have the first certified urban organic roof farm in the country. It measures a whopping 0.015 acres, but still qualifies. The food was just great as was the food at all of the previous meals.
The most important learning of the day for me was really validation of what I already know. Our kids are great! Cort and Cassandra were with Mrs. Lee and me. They maintained a positive attitude and engaged through a very long and at times difficult day. Because they were on a different bus with Mrs. Glaser, Chase and Kaylie had an opportunity this evening to spend time with students from St. Louis and Long Island at the Navy Pier. Returning to the dorm on our bus we happened to go by the pier during the fireworks display so we were able to share that from a distance with the them. I look forward to hearing about their journey tomorrow.
Spending time with these kids gives me great hope for the future. They are bright, articulate, and curious young people who have the capacity to do good work. Most importantly, they care. They care about this world that we share and they care about those less fortunate than themselves. We are blessed to be able to spend time with them and to support their learning.
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