Hi everyone and sorry for not writing for a while but I have been busy....
This week I was able to finally get the donations of the bikes! Finally Eleven bikes came in strolling for our organization and now we are just waiting to get funded for helmets and locks. Then we will begin rolling around little Village like its no ones business:)
Our garden has also been growing quickly and we got some amazing mint, parsley, and collar greens. The tomato plants are already showing some tiny tomatoes and well I don't think I will be able to harvest any by the time I leave but at least I have seen them grow and will be harvesting some of my own back in Oregon at Le Belmont.
Something really inspiring to me has been going to the field museum and learning about history. They have an amazing show about pirates, and water but the best one hands down is the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr exhibit it is a photography exhibit and since you all know I bought a new camera it is just eye opening to see all these images and how powerful they are! Specially knowing that without these images and the media there probably would have of never been a change!
I have also been doing outreach in the community and promoting a federal program that is giving people in IL up to $6500 to weatherize their house and be able to save energy, and its all free, from the inspection all the way to the changing of windows, insulation or whatever job needs to be done.
Tomorrow we will be protesting for to different campaigns, one is for public transit, and the reason we are protesting there is because LVEJO was able to obtain a grant for the CTA or Chicago Transportation Authority for over 1 million dollars for a new bus route and the money has disappeared. We are going to the CTA to protest and make it known that we want the bus route that the money was assigned for, this will be in the morning. While in the afternoon, we will be at the other campaign which I have been working on and we will be pressuring the lady in the pre-trial tomorrow to come to an agreement with the city and to sell her plot of land so that we can begin building our park. Both events are having press conferences and will be a lot of fun. Plus we all have to dress up so lets see how it goes, because to be honest I think everyone in the office hates dressing up and well lets not say they are not the most fashionable bunch:)
All else is good I will be returning to OR the 7th of August and am hoping to see all of you at least for a day or maybe an hour or so, hopefully to chit chat and just have a great time!
Take care all I will be writing more before I leave and I will be letting you know more about my crazy life in the windy city...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
4th of july
So to begin this blog I will let you know that chopping wood is a lot harder than what I thought it would be:) Weeks before we had gone to take part in taking down a tree so that we could begin a community garden. I volunteered to go back and chop the wood so that we could use it for firewood and people wouldn't have to buy some when they go to the beach for a bonfire, so I went and tried and well all i can say is it was hard work i got some done but after i couldn't even cough because my sides hurt from the work!
Also we found out the ladies name for the case were we want her to sell the park. Although we have the information I cannot disclose her name. we also found out that the cities appraisal came in at 5 million and the ladies came in at 12 so a pretrial/ settlement is coming soon and we will find out what happens. but i truly believe they are going to go to trial and then the process will take a while so... I guess we will hopefully have the park in a couple of months
On the good end we did get the city to not put the plastic tarp over the contaminated site and I was able to go gather some questionnaires with answers from the neighbors. Now we have to wait and see what the lawyers say.
Our community garden keeps on trucking and has already given us a bunch of lettuce we have some beautiful broccoli and cabbage.
I also took some pictures and had some fun at the fireworks and although the show was disappointing i got some great shots and also got to play with the shutter speed and they came out great. i will post them soon
Last but not least I went to go watch food inc. and if you really want to know where your food comes from and how the evil industry has been taking over all the products this is the movie to watch. It is sad how the agro-industry has taken over and harmed our small farmers and done everything possible to abuse them and their rights as they do with the immigrant workers who are turned into slaves in the USA.
We all have to come together and empower our small local farmers and try and help rectify this by buying local "organic" produce. I put organic in quotations because the organic that comes from these corporations follow very vague guidelines and are not 100% organic as you will see in the movie.
Also if you are interested in the subject please read the omnivores dilemma from Michael Pollan it is a masterpiece!
Also we found out the ladies name for the case were we want her to sell the park. Although we have the information I cannot disclose her name. we also found out that the cities appraisal came in at 5 million and the ladies came in at 12 so a pretrial/ settlement is coming soon and we will find out what happens. but i truly believe they are going to go to trial and then the process will take a while so... I guess we will hopefully have the park in a couple of months
On the good end we did get the city to not put the plastic tarp over the contaminated site and I was able to go gather some questionnaires with answers from the neighbors. Now we have to wait and see what the lawyers say.
Our community garden keeps on trucking and has already given us a bunch of lettuce we have some beautiful broccoli and cabbage.
I also took some pictures and had some fun at the fireworks and although the show was disappointing i got some great shots and also got to play with the shutter speed and they came out great. i will post them soon
Last but not least I went to go watch food inc. and if you really want to know where your food comes from and how the evil industry has been taking over all the products this is the movie to watch. It is sad how the agro-industry has taken over and harmed our small farmers and done everything possible to abuse them and their rights as they do with the immigrant workers who are turned into slaves in the USA.
We all have to come together and empower our small local farmers and try and help rectify this by buying local "organic" produce. I put organic in quotations because the organic that comes from these corporations follow very vague guidelines and are not 100% organic as you will see in the movie.
Also if you are interested in the subject please read the omnivores dilemma from Michael Pollan it is a masterpiece!
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