Stories of Hope (Part 3)
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‘I’m going to do everything I can to help them land on their feet.’ How one Chicagoan is helping a family navigate this sanctuary city
By Heidi Stevens and Tribune News Service. Published: Jan 05, 2024
Brad Zibung and the Torres family outside of their new apartment, which he helped them secure.
(Courtesy of Brad Zibung)
Brad Zibung, a Chicago real estate agent, was heading east on the North Avenue bus to see a play at the Steppenwolf Theatre. It was November. The play was “Sanctuary City,” Martyna Majok’s story about the uncertain future of two undocumented teenagers brought to the United States as children.
Zibung noticed a family — mom, dad and two young kids — carrying a lot of items and dressed in clothes that wouldn’t stand up to Chicago’s cold. They got off the bus at the same stop as Zibung and he watched them struggle to carry a large vinyl bag filled with, it turned out, canned goods. He offered to help. The family accepted
They were headed to the Red Line station and Zibung walked with them. Together they carried the bag down a long flight of steps to the train. The family only spoke Spanish, so Zibung and the father made conversation by texting each other’s phones and hitting Google translate while they waited for a train.
The family, named Torres, was from Venezuela, Zibung learned. They were heading south to 95th Street and then west to a shelter.
“Turns out it was the same day of the Northwestern-Iowa game at Wrigley,” Zibung said, “so the train rolls up and it’s packed with drunk fans.”
A Red Line rite of passage.
The family of four squeezed in a train car. Zibung assured them the crowds would thin out after the downtown stops and asked them to text him when they arrived at the shelter. They obliged.
The texts continued through the holidays. The family was staying in Dolton where the parents were finding odd jobs.
Zibung visited with winter clothes that his sister picked out for them during her holiday shopping. Zibung took them grocery shopping and Target shopping.
What began as a bit of kismet — guy heading to a play called “Sanctuary City” gets off the bus with a family trying to navigate life in an actual sanctuary city — was budding into a friendship. They went to the Billy Goat. They swung by the Church’s Chicken near the United Center one day and Zibung watched the dad give some of his cash to a woman standing outside asking for help. To read more, click on this link: Heidi Stevens: One Chicagoan helps a family navigate our sanctuary city (chicagotribune.com)
DailyGood was born in 1998, when one college student started sharing inspiration with a half a dozen of his friends by sending them an enriching quote every day.
Today, DailyGood leverages the internet to promote positive and uplifting news around the world to more than 100,000 subscribers through the daily and weekly newsletters. Readers receive a news story, an inspiring quote, and a suggested action that each person can take to make a difference in their own lives and the world around them.
Often watching the nightly news and reading mainstream newspapers it's hard to remember the presence of good in the world. And yet it is constantly around us. The world is full of everyday heroes and true stories of transformation. They have helped sustain life down the ages in a multitude of ways, small, simple and profound. DailyGood aims to shine a light on these stories and in doing so to change the nature of our conversations. If it can spread a few smiles along the way, its purpose is served.
Our philosophy is quite simple: "Be the change that you wish to see in the world." The entire project is fully run by dedicated volunteers who contribute hundreds of hours finding the right stories and quotes. All of our content is distributed and syndicated for free. We don't advertise or promote any products. We don't ask for anything with the trust that whatever is needed will come.
And in the end, we are thankful that so many benefit from DailyGood because it gives us a meaningful opportunity to serve.
Thank you for your partnership in spreading the good.
The DailyGood Team
To learn more about the DailyGood Team and their work, click on this link: DailyGood: News That Inspires
Over 550 RUSD middle school girls attend GEMS conference
Racine Journal Times, Article and photos by Ryan Patterson Jan 14, 2024
Temple Lester gives the keynote address during the Girls Empowered by Math and Science Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Lester was occasionally made fun of for her interest in science, but she did not let that deter her.
SOMERS — As the only girl at a science camp in elementary school, Temple Lester was initially told she would be a princess.
After talking with her mother, Lester stood up for herself the next day.
“I don’t want to be a princess,” she told camp counselors. “I want to be a scientist just like all the boys.”
That is when Lester learned the importance of self-advocacy, a lesson she shared Thursday during the 11th annual Girls Empowered by Math and Science Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Lester, the GEMS conference keynote speaker, was occasionally made fun of for her interest in science, but she did not let that deter her.
“I used to not like telling people what I did in fear of their judgment, but I had to learn that it’s OK to be myself, and there’s people out there who will celebrate me no matter what,” Lester said.
That stood out for Jada Lue, an eighth grader at the R.E.A.L. School.
“Most people told (Lester) no; she still did what she believed she could do,” Lue said.
Lue was one of more than 550 Racine Unified middle school girls, nearly all of whom were eighth graders, who attended the GEMS conference.
Students were from all seven RUSD buildings with middle schoolers: Gifford, Gilmore Fine Arts, Jerstad-Agerholm, Mitchell, R.E.A.L, Starbuck and Walden.
The girls spent the day at UW-Parkside’s campus. After hearing from speakers in the morning, students participated in several workshops and listened to a panel discussion.
Workshops included students building Bluetooth speakers, making jewelry and learning about brains.
Having fun! Students laugh with one another during the Girls Empowered by Math and Science Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. (Photo, Ryan Patterson) To learn more, click on this link: GEMS conference draws more than 550 RUSD middle school girls (journaltimes.com)
Previous Story of Hope follow-up: Continuing the story of Attitude of Gratitude which was in the January 2024 Hope Newsletter, below is a message I received form one of our subscribers to the Hope Newsletter. The writer of the message is, among many things, a spiritual guide who works with many individuals and groups of people. In this instance, the group he is talking with are men who are or have been engaged with the criminal justice system.
Hi Bob----
Thought you would appreciate this in light of the theme of this month’s newsletter. ?
At yesterday’s session the five men and I read this together:
Lakota author and activist Doug Good Feather is committed to sharing Native American wisdom and practices with nonnative audiences as a way to help and heal humanity. He writes that no matter what our circumstances, gratitude is available to us
Each and every morning offers us a chance to start anew, fresh, and to begin again. Each morning when we wake—if we choose to listen—is a message from the Creator to remember the privilege we were given of waking up. It’s a reminder to get up and prepare us, to honor ourselves, to connect with Mother Earth and the hearts of other beings, to inspire and encourage those who cross our paths, and most importantly, to enjoy life.
Gratitude moves stagnant energy when we’re feeling stuck in life. The simple act of practicing gratitude disrupts negative thoughts and changes our mindset to see the world in a positive way. Not only are we more attractive to others when we live in gratitude, but the most ordinary things can become extraordinary, creating a fuller, more beautiful expression of our life.
After reading this I asked the men if they knew what the word gratitude meant. All of them said “no.” I said it’s what you feel when you feel grateful about something. (My wife laughed at that part---she thought my explanation was pretty lame. ?) One of the men asked, “Is it like appreciation?” I said, “Yes, gratitude is like feeling appreciation for something.”
I was reminded how important words are. Without knowing the word “gratitude,” one might be less able to experience it. I felt blessed to be able to share that with the men.
Continuing the story of Attitude of Gratitude which was in the January 2024 Hope Newsletter, below is a message I received form one of our subscribers to the Hope Newsletter. The writer of the message is, among many things, a spiritual guide who works with many individuals and groups of people. In this instance, the group he is talking with are men who are or have been engaged with the criminal justice system.
I received the email below from one of the subscribers to the Hope From the Bottom Up website and monthly newsletter.
“Dear Robert, I thought you might find the Attitude of Gratitude (AoG) website and related Facebook group interesting and worth sharing with the Hope From The Bottom Up group. Here is the link to Attitude of Gratitude (AoG). https://www.gratitudeaddict.com/attitude-of-gratitude-with-chronic-pain
There’s a Facebook Group with the name, and then Lauren Zalewski (the founder of the group) has gratitude addict as a webpage.
Like I said, it helped me TREMENDOUSLY when I was devastated by my injury and pain and accompanying physical limitations. It helped me “move” my mindset to what I could do, even if that meant drawing in a reclining position!
I was approximately member number 450 back in 2015 when I joined the group, and now there are over 10,000 members. People make positive connections with others who are in the same boat! We don’t discuss anything medical or about pain on the Facebook page. It’s prohibited. But some people break off into their own Chat Groups on Messenger, which is private amongst the Chat Group members.
Sharing this information in your Hope Newsletter would be awesome. If it can help anyone else who sees it or they spread the word to someone else who may benefit from it, that would be great.”
Walden school donates hundreds of boxes of food, more than $9,000
Ryan Patterson, Racine Journal Times, November 24, 2023
RACINE — Dozens of students carried boxes of food Tuesday morning onto pallets. The boxes were then placed in a truck and will eventually help feed area residents.
That team effort illustrated the collective work done this month by students and staff at Walden III Middle School and High School during the building’s annual food drive.
Walden collected 472 boxes of food and $9,183 for the Racine County Food Bank, 2000 De Koven Ave. Cash was collected Tuesday during an all-school assembly, where an additional $243 were raised.
That total is slightly less than the school donated last year, but it remains one of the county’s largest food drives.
“This is still so much food, and we’re still so proud of all of our efforts,” said Eliana Hanson, Walden student government president.
Walden school donates hundreds of boxes of food, more than $9,000
Ryan Patterson, Racine Journal Times, November 24, 2023
RACINE — Dozens of students carried boxes of food Tuesday morning onto pallets. The boxes were then placed in a truck and will eventually help feed area residents.
That team effort illustrated the collective work done this month by students and staff at Walden III Middle School and High School during the building’s annual food drive.
Walden collected 472 boxes of food and $9,183 for the Racine County Food Bank, 2000 De Koven Ave. Cash was collected Tuesday during an all-school assembly, where an additional $243 were raised.
That total is slightly less than the school donated last year, but it remains one of the county’s largest food drives.
“This is still so much food, and we’re still so proud of all of our efforts,” said Eliana Hanson, Walden student government president.
“This is still so much food, and we’re still so proud of all of our efforts,” said Eliana Hanson, Walden student government president.
Racine Mayor Cory Mason, left, listens to Eliana Hanson, Walden student government president,
during the annual food drive at Walden III school.
Walden’s annual food drive has occurred for decades, and Hanson said she was “overjoyed to be continuing this long-standing tradition.”
Hanson helped organize the food drive and said it is one of her favorite times of the year because it brings the school closer.
Hanson helped organize the food drive and said it is one of her favorite times of the year because it brings the school closer.
“Coming together to work toward this one big goal is really, really amazing,” Hanson said.
Casi Schatzman, Walden student government advisor, said it is fun to see teamwork and collaboration during a time of giving. “It gets the kids excited, gives them something to work together for,” Schatzman said. “It really fosters a good sense of community.”
Schatzman enjoys seeing the students’ work pay off “in a tangible way.” “It takes the abstract and makes it very real,” Schatzman said. “We have done a lot together.”
Dan Taivalkoski, Racine County Food Bank executive director, said Tuesday was one of his favorite days of the year, and he praised and thanked students. “We couldn’t do what we do without folks like you,” Taivalkoski said. “As I look around the room, the future of our community is in very good hands.”
Racine Mayor Cory Mason agreed and expressed pride in the students’ leadership. “It makes you a wonderful reflection of our community,” Mason said. “It is really going to make the lives of people in this community much better because of the work that you’ve done.”
The food drive started Nov. 13. There were competitions to encourage donations, and several prizes were awarded to middle school and high school home groups at Walden, 2340 Mohr Ave.
After the awards, a few award-winning students smashed pies in teachers’ faces. Sounds like a lot of fun ?
Colleen Kujawa: Want a cure for cynicism? Try digging holes and planting trees.
By Colleen Kujawa Chicago Tribune Oct 13, 2023
I spent the last Saturday in September digging and standing in holes. I walked home sore, sweaty and happy. And buoyed against the naysaying that goes hand in hand with living in a complicated city.
Dozens of people showed up at Athletic Field Park in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood that morning for a mass tree planting. They picked up shovels and swung dirt to bring verdant new life to the parkways of the streets nearby. The old proverb is still true: It takes a village to make a difference. It takes people showing up.
My team of four, led by Openlands treekeeper Floyd, planted five trees in three hours. We hustled. We measured, we dug, we finessed. When we found ourselves planting in the shade, we celebrated our good fortune. When we moved on to the next patch of grass and had to labor under the sun, we quietly cursed. Or at least I did.
When you plant a tree, the hole you’ve dug has to have a flat bottom. Otherwise, the tree won’t stand and grow straight, as my teammates and I learned from Floyd. That means you have to stomp the dirt with your feet. After three hours of work, I mastered the art of stomping Chicago parkway dirt flat.
Volunteer Maureen consults with Openlands treekeeper Floyd during a tree planting event Sept. 30, 2023, near Athletic Field Park in Chicago's Irving Park neighborhood. (Colleen Kujawa/Chicago Tribune)
My teammates Maureen and Arsenio weren’t tree planting newbies like Cristina and me, which I playfully declared gave us an edge over the other teams. We weren’t competing, but still, five trees in three hours? Floyd looked at us like a proud papa.
Arsenio told us that he likes to check on one of the trees he planted in another neighborhood at a previous event. He drives by in his car to take a look. After committing my sweat and modest muscle power to this effort, I understood why. I became part of that investment — of so many people’s time, as well as money, support and coordination from the organizations and leaders who make good things happen… We make a difference by showing up. If you’ll forgive my bluntness, cynicism is for the lazy. I helped put trees in the ground because I am making a choice. To read more, click on this link: Colleen Kujawa: Want a cure for cynicism? Try planting trees. (chicagotribune.com)
Walden No Place for Hate Group continues positive work
Ryan Patterson, Racine Journal Times, Oct 8, 2023
Makenzie McKnight, No Place for Hate member, goes through a gift bag Thursday at Walden III High School,
2340 Mohr Ave. McKnight has faced discrimination, and now she is working to help people
who have gone through similar ordeals.
RACINE — Makenzie McKnight has faced discrimination, and now she is working to help people who have gone through similar ordeals.
“As someone who’s once experienced hate, I want to be able to help other people that may be going through it,” McKnight said.
Makenzie McKnight, No Place for Hate member, goes through a gift bag Thursday at Walden III High School, 2340 Mohr Ave. McKnight has faced discrimination, and now she is working to help people who have gone through similar ordeals
McKnight, a sophomore, is one of about 15 Walden III High School students in a No Place for Hate group recognized Thursday morning for its ongoing efforts to create positive school cultures by improving equity and combating bias and bullying.
For the second consecutive year, the group received a banner from the Anti-Defamation League.
“No Place for Hate strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable climate while working on building safe spaces and communities to empower adolescents to stand up against bias and embrace their background and heritage,” said senior Yasmeen Patrick, NPFH co-president. To read more, click on this link:
I THINK MY EARLIEST UNDERSTANDING OF WANTING TO WORK WITH WILDLIFE WAS PROBABLY
WHEN I WAS SIX OR SEVEN, AND MY PARENTS HAD A GUEST VISITING FROM OUT OF TOWN.
Following a Master Naturalist Path
Becky Sapper| Ashland, WI
A story from “Love Wisconsin.”
Becky Sapper has the perfect job — she is a nature lover who gets to teach volunteers all about Wisconsin's natural world. Growing up she was very interested in wildlife and had her trusty field guide to help identify what she found in the woods. She has always loved the cozy feeling of being surrounded by trees. Today she lives up in the North Woods and runs the Master Naturalist program.
If you are not exactly sure what a Master Naturalist is – we weren’t either before we talked with Becky. It is one of the many UW Extension programs quietly making an impact in every corner of our state. Master naturalists are the folks you see doing trail maintenance, prescribed burns, leading hikes in state parks, or doing citizen science to collect important data about birds, water quality, and invasive species.
You can find her story on The Love Wisconsin website at this link: Following a Master Naturalist Path - Love Wisconsin We hope you enjoy spending time with Becky and hearing from her why she really believes that people can make the difference.
Wetlands are Back at Cliffside Park!
Root-Pike WIN & Racine County Break Ground on this Major Wind Point Plan Project
Wetland work has begun at Cliffside Park! Listed as “Highly Critical” in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources-approved Wind Point Watershed Restoration Plan, this 40-acre project will enhance native flora to encourage migratory bird stopovers, boost pollinator foraging, and reduce sheet runoff to the eroding Lake Michigan bluffs.
The wetland scrapes have been recreated and now have open water. Planting and seeding of native species, as well as invasive species eradication, will occur through the fall and into next year.
Thank you to Racine County, U.S. Fush and Wildlife Service, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and Microsoft whose generous support and funding made this project possible!
For more information about the Root-Pike WIN organization on the Hope From the Bottom Up website, click on this link: https://hopefromthebottomup.com/hope-filled-organizations#root
Judge rules in favor of youth plaintiffs
in landmark Montana climate case
Sam Wilson, Racine Journal Times, August 14, 2023
A Montana district court judge ruled Monday that a state law barring its agencies from considering the impacts of climate change when issuing permits is a violation of the state Constitution’s right to a “clean and healthful environment.”
The ruling comes two months after the conclusion of a seven-day trial in Helena that attracted national attention as one of the first to challenge a state’s fossil fuel policies on constitutional grounds. A group of 16 young Montanans filed the lawsuit in 2020, alleging that Montana’s laws supporting fossil fuel development are contributing to climate change, the impacts of which are violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
The 16 youth plaintiffs outside the Lewis & Clark County Court House in Montana.
“Montana’s (greenhouse gas) emissions and climate change have been proven to be a substantial factor in causing climate impacts to Montana’s environment and harm and injury to the youth plaintiffs,” Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley wrote in the order.
She continued, “Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life-support system.”
The state Legislature is specifically tasked with protecting that “environmental life-support system” under Montana’s Constitution. In the legislative session that concluded earlier this year, Republican lawmakers amended the Montana Environmental Policy Act, or MEPA, to prohibit consideration of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in permitting decisions. MEPA guides the environmental review process for permits, such as those granted for coal mine expansions or new power plants. That prohibition within MEPA, passed as Senate Bill 557, is now invalid, under Seeley’s decision. To learn more, click on this link: Montana youth win climate trial, first of its kind in US (journaltimes.com)
'You do not have to suffer alone'
New nonprofit provides transitional assistance
Alex Rodriguez, Racine Journal Times, Sept 28, 2023
RACINE — A new nonprofit organization hosted a block party Saturday at Pritchard Park to celebrate its launch and introduce itself to the community.
Lovingkindness Transitional Services, which provides assistance to individuals transitioning from homelessness into housing, is a branch of Lovingkindness Homes. Both were started by Lakesha Davis.
About 25 years ago, Davis moved to Wisconsin to escape domestic violence and found herself homeless.
While staying at the Shalom Center in Kenosha, Davis decided to find a way to create a better environment and “create a clear path toward success.”
“From that point, I started to educate myself financially and with education to learn how to get myself out of that situation,” she said. “I just took it all in and want to give it back to people. This is how you move from homelessness to home-owning to business-owning. This is the blueprint and I just wanted to share that with everyone.”
Related to her not for profit work described above, Lakesha and her husband started an LLC in 2020 which provides a broad range of services to individuals and families to live in and eventually own their home. It is called Loving Kindness Homes.
“From that point, I started to educate myself financially and with education to learn how to get myself out of that situation,” she said. “I just took it all in and want to give it back to people. This is how you move from homelessness to home-owning to business-owning. This is the blueprint and I just wanted to share that with everyone.”
Related to her not for profit work described above, Lakesha and her husband started an LLC in 2020 which provides a broad range of services to individuals and families to live in and eventually own their home. It is called Loving Kindness Homes.
Here is a link to their business, Loving Kindness Homes, LLC: https://lovingkindnesshome.com/
Tony’s Community Meals offers free healthy meals weekly
to Union Grove residents
by Emma Widmar, The Racine County Eye, August 16, 2023
UNION GROVE — Tony Stephens Jr. spends every weekend grocery shopping, meal prepping and cooking as a way to provide healthy meals to his neighbors in Union Grove, who are in need.
The resident, who moved to the area about three years ago, has taken his love for cooking and pays it forward through what he crafts in his kitchen.
Stephens, who works 12-hour days during the second shift as a full-time CNC machinist, began what is now known as Tony’s Community Meals through work.
Chicken teriyaki stir fry is just one of many examples of the delicious, from-scratch cooking available through Tony's Community Meals in Union Grove. – Credit: Tony Stephens Jr.
Meal prepping has always been a part of his routine and during the pandemic, he found himself cooking for his coworkers due to the difficult times.
Even with cooking for himself and others, there were still meals that had gone uneaten.
“At the end of the week, I’d have a bunch of meals. I don’t wanna throw them away, so I started giving them out,” explains Tony.
Tony began paying it forward to his neighbors.
“I started seeing people in the Union Grove Newsletter, people that needed them, so I started giving them to them, rather than throwing them in my freezer, or throwing them away,” says Tony. To read more, click on this link: Tony's Community Meals offers free healthy meals weekly to Union Grove residents | Racine County Eye
‘They come to this country with a dream’: Woman teaches English to migrants on a South Loop basketball court
By Laura Rodríguez Presa, Chicago Tribune, Jul 17, 2023
Samantha Oulavong, right, teaches basic English to Karla Urbino, 45, from Nicaragua, and Brayan Lozano, 28 from Colombia, at Margaret Hie Ding Lin Park across from the 1st District police station on June 29, 2023, in Chicago. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
There hasn’t been a single day since May that Samantha Oulavong is not thinking of the migrants who stay at the police station in her neighborhood in the South Loop. The children, she said, remind her of her younger self, when her parents made their way from Laos seeking asylum in the Chicago area when she was 5 years old.
Of course, in more than one way, their story is not the same, she said, “but our heart is.”
“They come to this country with a dream,” she said.
Oulavong has been visiting the 1st District police station almost every day since May, when the first families began to seek refuge at the station near her home. She drops off food and clothes and, most recently, has begun to teach basic English to the migrants and their children regardless of a language barrier — she doesn’t really speak Spanish — in the bleachers of a basketball court across from the South Loop station.
“Most want to know how they can ask for a job,” she said. “‘Busco trabajo,’ I tell them to say, meaning, ‘I’m looking for a job.’”
Oulavong is just one of the many Chicagoans who have stepped up to provide more than just food and donations for the thousands of asylum-seekers who have arrived to the city since August of last year, filling a void as state and city official grapple to create more temporary housing for the migrants.
The volunteers have celebrated birthdays with migrants, taken them to baseball games, given them haircuts, provided professional therapy — and now are teaching them English. To read more, click on this link: Woman teaches English to migrants on a Chicago basketball court (chicagotribune.com)
Hiring workers from the South and West sides
is a win-win for Chicago
By Bob Karr, Chicago Tribune, Published: Jul 23, 2023
Bob Karr is the senior vice president of administration and chief legal officer at Blommer Chocolate Co.
Can a job stop a bullet? For a city struggling with gun violence, it’s an important question.
There is no doubt much of our crime has its roots in economic distress. People without opportunity in the legal economy will resort to the illegal economy if only to eat, pay rent and feed their families.
For several years, Blommer Chocolate has been hiring from communities on the South and West sides of Chicago where gun violence is an everyday occurrence. Some of our employees have come to us through the violence prevention program Chicago CRED.
We first learned about Chicago CRED at an event in the Englewood neighborhood where Arne Duncan, CRED’s founder and a former U.S. secretary of education, was speaking. Duncan talked about growing up on the South Side and losing friends to gun violence in his teenage years. He talked about the pain of returning to Chicago after serving in Washington only to experience heartbreak at the level of gun violence. And he vowed to do something about it.
CRED works with young people at the highest risk of being gun violence victims or offenders. They get a lot of help from CRED, but the one thing CRED can’t provide is a job.
That’s where we come in.
Over the years, we’ve hired more than a dozen Chicago CRED graduates. We are one of more than 40 companies in 17 industries that have hired CRED grads, and we will keep hiring them because they are hardworking, talented and hungry to succeed. They are desperate to do something with their lives.
Blommer’s original and oldest operating factory is in downtown Chicago. Since it is not as fully automated or modernized as our other factories around the world, we can recruit and develop many of the young men coming out of Chicago CRED. On average, they earn $20 to $24 per hour, not including overtime.
One of them is Brendan Taylor, who is among the first graduates of Chicago CRED. Brendan began working in the mailroom at Deloitte in 2018. He was a model employee and was training to become a paralegal when he was shot and wounded in a drive-by incident near his South Side home.
Brendan Taylor, among the first graduates of Chicago CRED, at his job at the Blommer Chocolate factory
on July 20, 2023. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Brendan’s co-workers supported him through his recovery, visited him in the hospital and extended the kind of love and support any one of us would need in a similar crisis. We got to know Brendan and offered him a job. Today, he’s an environmental health specialist earning a respectable salary, plus health and retirement benefits.
Some employers may justifiably ask why they would take on the challenge of hiring young people with limited work experience and troubled backgrounds. My answer is this
This is our community. This is our city. Pretending that young men like Brendan don’t exist will not make them go away. Just because most of the gun violence happens away from our homes or businesses does not mean we don’t have a responsibility to help address it. We can all be part of the solution. To read the entire article, click on this link: Op-ed: Hiring workers from the South and West Sides is a win-win for Chicago (chicagotribune.com)
The US has tons of leftover food. Upcycling turns would-be trash into ice cream and pizza.
HAVEN DALEY Associated Press Jun 23, 2023 Updated Jun 23, 2023
LOS GATOS, Calif. — At Tyler Malek's ice cream parlors, one cook's trash is another chef's frosty treat.
The head ice cream maker at the Portland, Oregon-based Salt & Straw uses the whey leftover from yogurt makers in upstate New York to make his lemon curd flavor. For chocolate barley milk, he mixes in the remnants of rice and grains from beer brewing to give it a light and creamy taste.
"Instead of calling this food waste, we need to call it wasted food and start decreasing how much wasting we're doing," Malek said.
Founder Salt & Straw Ice Cream Tyler Malek scoops "Day-Old Bread Pudding" upcycled ice cream at the franchise's newest location in Los Gatos, Calif., on June 2 (Haven Daley, Associated Press)
Malek's ice cream chain is among those at the forefront of the upcycling movement, the process of creating high-quality products from leftover food. Malek's shops from the Pacific Northwest to Miami now feature flavors like "Cacao Pulp & Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato," which is made from leftover cacao pulp from chocolate production that otherwise would have gone to waste.
It's a trend gaining ground as consumers spend more time reading packaging labels and menu ingredients to learn where their food comes from and how it affects the environment. More than 35 million tons of food are wasted every year in the U.S. — about 40% of the country's food production — costing the national economy more than $200 billion, according to the Upcycled Food Association.
Upcycled food is becoming increasingly common in cake mixes and veggie chips at natural grocery stores. Ingredients include fruits and vegetables from farms nationwide that are perfectly edible but often rejected by restaurants and grocery stores because of their shape or color, like white strawberries, wilted greens and ugly mushrooms.
The Upcycled Food Association, which will celebrate World Upcycling Day on Saturday, issues an official "Upcycling Certified" seal to qualifying products. These seals, which adorn the new Salt & Straw upcycled flavors, raise awareness with consumers that the company makes the food using such ingredients.
The association initially certified about 30 products in 2021 and now has 450 carrying the label.
"A lot of the food that is uneaten or thrown away in our supply chain is actually due to archaic cosmetic standards or sort of perceptions that what we think is edible or quality food," said Angie Crone, the association's chief executive. "So, this is a mark that you can see on the products wherever you go shopping, to be able to understand how that company is reducing food waste in their supply chain. To learn more click on this link: The US has tons of leftover food. Upcycling turns would-be trash into ice cream and pizza. (journaltimes.com)
Faces of volunteers: They provide more than donations and shelter to migrants in Chicago. They give love
Story by Laura Rodríguez Presa, Nell Salzman, Chicago Tribune • Thursday, June 1, 2023
Susie Moya, right, a licensed clinical social worker and mental health therapist, speaks with a migrant woman about a support group for women she offers in a Pilsen shelter on May 26, 2023. © E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS
CHICAGO -- The buses had just begun to arrive at Union Station that hot and sticky night in August when Ricky Flores heard from an activist friend that a group of asylum-seekers had nowhere to go.
Flores sped to the station in his black and red Rammer truck, with speakers blaring music, followed by friends in other trucks, all ready to help transport the migrants to the first shelter that the city had quickly assembled.
As they waited, they shared phone numbers, laughter and cigarettes with the migrants. And over a single puff, the group forgot the uncertainty of their future on their first night in Chicago after crossing several borders, mostly all the way from Venezuela.
Flores stood by their side until the migrants were picked up. And he is still by their side.
Flores is one of the countless Chicagoans who have stepped up since August 2022 to help the migrants, going beyond assisting them with basic needs such as shelter, food and clothes — also making them feel welcome. The volunteers have celebrated birthdays, organized cookouts, provided free therapy services, driven migrants to doctor appointments and job interviews and helped them access showers.
Volunteer Ricky Flores, left, uses a rope to control the pinata as Sobrino Luciano, 8, attempts to hit it during a group birthday celebration in a temporary migrant shelter in Pilsen on May 21, 2023. © Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/TNS
To read more, click on this link: Faces of volunteers: They provide more than donations and shelter to migrants in Chicago. They give love (msn.com)
Golden Apple Award winners full of emotion receiving cheers from students: ‘My heart cannot hold all the love’
By Zareen Syed Chicago Tribune, May 10, 2023 at 5:53 pm
Helen Chan Rick Coppola
Immediately after being “surprise bombed” with a Golden Apple Award on Wednesday, South Loop Elementary School fourth grade teacher Helen Chan, tried her hardest not to get choked up.
“I really don’t want to start crying,” Chan said, with tears halfway down her face. “I want to thank you for all the support that I have received, especially from my students. I feel like you guys give me 100% every single day and you’re like my little cheerleaders every day.”
Chan and her co-worker Rick Coppola, a seventh grade teacher at South Loop Elementary, were among the 10 Illinois recipients of the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Alan Mather, president of the Golden Apple Foundation, said it was a first for the foundation to have two teachers from the same school win the same year. The winners were awarded $5,000 and a free spring sabbatical provided by Northwestern University.
Coppola said when he switched to a career in teaching, one of his mentors was a past winner.
“I was like, oh, seems like a good goal. Maybe one day — I’ll set that as a star to reach,” Coppola said.
Since 1985, the Golden Apple Award has been given to educators who have shown dedication to their students and school communities. This year, more than 570 fourth- to eighth-grade teachers were nominated for the prize, according to the Golden Apple Foundation. At the surprise school visits, the foundation gathers the winners’ friends, families and colleagues to share in the celebration.
To read more about these two teachers and the Golden Apple awards, please click on this link: Golden Apple Award winners full of emotion receiving cheers from students: ‘My heart cannot hold all the love’ – Chicago Tribune
Inspired by lessons his mom taught
Probation officer hits 50 states in superhero guises for sick kids, homeless
Chicago Tribune, 28 May 2023, By Hunter Lee
Yuri Williams, wearing his Mandalorian costume, is a deputy juvenile correctional officer in Orange County, California. Williams dresses in superhero costumes when visiting sick children and homeless adults.
When Yuri Williams was 8 years old, his mother sometimes took him with her to work at the Los Angeles County’s Central Juvenile Hall when she couldn’t find a sitter. Lynda C. Hubbard worked there, with troubled children and young adults as a juvenile correctional officer, for more than three decades.
“There was this one big guy banging on the walls in his room,” Williams recalled, who is now 46 and lives in Signal Hill.
“My mom walked in and asked him what was going on and he just started crying and she was holding this much bigger person in her arms.
Williams ended up following in his mother’s footsteps, becoming a deputy juvenile correctional officer for the Orange County Probation Department. Over the years, he sought guidance from his mother, who told him how to speak with those in custody, how to help the boys and girls.
When Hubbard died of cancer in 2009, Williams fell into a deep depression for five years.
“One day I was just sitting there and tried calling her phone and just started crying,” Williams said.
But his mom’s lessons inspired him.
In 2017, Williams began donning the costumes of superheroes and other iconic figures to raise the spirits of others who are fighting their own battles. A year later he launched his nonprofit, A Future Superhero and Friends, to try and cover the costs of such things as donations and his travel. If he lassos big donors, he wants to create an after-school program of some sort.
“My mom always told me when you do something, try to do it different from others,” Williams said. “I figured by wearing a costume it could be a distraction, because it was rare that people see others in costume coming out to help.”
His started off locally, visiting families and children’s hospitals in Southern California, dressed as characters such as SpiderMan, Deadpool and the Mandalorian.
In February, Williams rolled in three large bins of plush toys — Santa Clauses, unicorns and others — through the doors of the Cherese Mari Laulhere Children’s Village in the Long Beach Medical Center. Because of the coronavirus, he was in street clothes — not able to visit the children in costume as in previous years.
“Yuri has been amazing,” said Rita Goshert, director of the center’s Child Life Program. “He’s been partnering and collaborating with us for several years. He just surprises us with these donations and it just makes all the difference in the world.
“It brightens their day, makes them forget they’re in the hospital and keeps their minds busy,” she said.
To read more, click on this link: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/chicago-tribune-sunday/20230528/282522957844132 To watch a 3 and ½ minute video, click on this link: https://afuturesuperhero.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/177-LBPOST.mp4
An act of kindness, a sign of hope
A recent spring walk took me past a park where a group of children were playing a game of kick ball.
The children of varying ages, genders, and abilities took turns kicking, pitching, and fielding the ball.
Noticing that the younger kids didn't know when or where to run, an older boy took himself out of the line up and named himself "first base coach." He spent the rest of the game teaching the younger children how to play the game
This boy inspires me to invest in the common good, to rise above individualism, and to be a witness to hope.
How can you bring the spirit of this boy into our world today
Hope to see you soon at Siena!
Claire Anderson
Claire is the Executive Director of the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, WI https://www.sienaretreatcenter.org/
Last year in the June 2022 Hope Newsletter ( https://hopefromthebottomup.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/NewsletterJune2022.pdf ) we ran a story about Christiana and Nic Trapani, owners of Door County Candle Company, holding a check for over 1/2 million dollars that represented the amount of money they had raised in a little over two months to help the people of Ukraine. Here is the story update.
Wisconsin candle company hits $1 million in donations to Ukraine
Wisconsin State Journal, Barry Adams, Apr 20, 2023
"That one candle, plus another one candle, plus another one candle is what got us to our goal, and it just shows that one person should never think they can't make a difference." Christiana Trapani.
Door County Candle Company has sold more than 100,000 candles and has donated more than $1 million over the past 14 months to benefit Ukraine.
Christiana Trapani knew within a week or so how popular the sale was of her candles to benefit the people of Ukraine
But on Wednesday, she received further confirmation.
Her Door County Candle Company has surpassed $1 million in donations with the sale of more than 100,000 blue and yellow candles in 16 ounce jars since the start of the war in February 2022.
Trapani initially thought it would be a weekend project and a few weeks later thought maybe 5,000 candles would be a modest goal. Now she says the candle will be a mainstay and even after the war's conclusion, will continue to be sold to help the country rebuild.
"It's such a huge milestone and we're obviously really proud of that," Trapani said Monday by phone. "I never, ever, in my wildest dreams ever thought this would happen."
Trapani, whose maiden name is Gorchynski and who has family and friends in Ukraine, will be in Madison on Tuesday when she meets with the legislators and speaks at the State Capitol. To read more, click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/state-and-regional/wisconsin-candle-company-hits-1-million-in-donations-to-ukraine/article_d0f079e4-8612-5636-ae28-e4eff16b0928.html
To view a 4 ½ minute video about this story, click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYaSGWH7_Z0
Easter backpack project unites helpers across generations to ‘bring joy’ to homeless kids
By Jeff Vorva, Daily Southtown, Apr 04, 2023
Queen of Martyrs seventh grader Mia McGreal holds up a backpack she and her classmates
helped fill Thursday at Mercy Circle in Chicago. The backpacks were set to be distributed
to children staying in a homeless shelter. (Jeff Vorva / Daily Southtown
Easter has always been a pleasant holiday for seventh grader Mia McGreal.
“My Easters have been nice,” she said. “I’ve been appreciative of everything I have gotten.”
But McGreal, a student at Queen of Martyrs in Evergreen Park, doesn’t have to travel far to hear stories of those less fortunate.
Her mother, Margaret, for example, went through a tough childhood but later rose through the ranks to lieutenant colonel with the Illinois State Police.
“They couldn’t afford much and when they went to the grocery store, they couldn’t afford a box of cereal,” Mia said. “My mom had to get a job when she was 7. She would go on her bike and deliver newspapers.
“She really knows what’s going on.”
What was going on for McGreal on Thursday morning was a gathering at Mercy Circle in Chicago to help those who are down on their luck.
That’s where Mercy Circle residents — many who are retired nuns — tag teamed with Queen of Martyrs seventh graders, including McGreal, to put together backpack care packages for homeless children and teenagers. To read more, click on this link: Easter backpack project unites helpers across generations to ‘bring joy’ to homeless kids – Chicago Tribune
Parkside professor receives teaching excellence award
By Ryan Patterson, Racine Journal Times. April 22, 2023
Jonathan Shailor leads a discussion in 2018 about the Shakespeare Prison Project he directs at the Racine Correctional Institution in Sturtevant. Photo by Bill Siel, Lee Newspapers
SOMERS — Jonathan Shailor thought of his parents when he heard the news.
Last month, Shailor received a teaching award and felt grateful to his mother and father. They are both deceased, but Shailor envisioned how wonderful it would be to inform his parents of the recognition.
Growing up in Massachusetts, Shailor said his mother was an artist and performer, and his father was service-oriented and involved in community organizations.
As a communication professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside for the past 28 years, Shailor’s work has combined creativity and service.
Shailor was one of three recipients of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents 31st annual Teaching Excellence Awards, which are the UW System’s highest recognition for faculty members.
“These UW educators and programs are inspiring students to develop invaluable life skills,” Regent Cris Peterson, chair of the selection committee, said in a news release. “With this award, we recognize the innovative, collaborative approaches to teaching that are equipping students to reach their full potential.”
Each recipient is awarded $7,500 to spend on work-related items.
Shailor plans to purchase books and is considering hiring a film crew to make a documentary about the Shakespeare Prison Project that he leads.
Shailor started the Shakespeare Prison Project in 2004 as a way to bring artistic instruction and performance to people incarcerated at the Racine Correctional Institution, an all-male medium-security prison in Sturtevant. To read more, click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/education/parkside-professor-receives-teaching-excellence-award/article_303636dc-da44-11ed-ac24-f76d6048f657.html?utm_source=journaltimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fnews-alert&utm_medium=PostUp&lctg=1387062&tn_email_eh1=01bd8f4bbd87b1b8e02791bc07ac6336d5dd61a8
Spreading the love | Racine Police Department's COP unit
surprises, honors RUSD employees for Love Week
Rachel Kubik, Racine Journal Times, Feb 5, 2023
S.C. Johnson Elementary educational assistant Donnell Taggart, third from left, poses with fellow school staff, members of the Racine Police Department and Hope City Church on Friday at the school, 2420 Kentucky St.
RACINE — Donnell Taggart, an educational assistant at S.C. Johnson Elementary, is known to be the “all-around SCJ kid whisperer.”
Taggart has been with the Racine Unified School District for seven years and runs the after school buses, works with any student who comes her way and offers love and support to staff members.
She’s known to have an “amazing” sense of humor, to be quick with a smile, a hug and a positive solution. She is someone people can count on.
And on Friday morning, she was recognized by the Racine Police Department.
The Community Oriented Policing unit honored RUSD employees who embody the definition of love.
The RPD visited 19 schools Thursday and Friday, working to build positive relationships with schools, students, families and staff, during the COP unit’s inaugural “Love Week,” understandably taking place during the first week in February, the month of Valentine’s Day. To read and see more, click on this link: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/spreading-the-love-racine-police-departments-cop-unit-surprises-honors-rusd-employees-for-love-week/article_ed4eab44-a3f5-11ed-92af-8b2344ee019c.html?utm_source=journaltimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fnews-alert&utm_medium=PostUp&lctg=1387062&tn_email_eh1=01bd8f4bbd87b1b8e02791bc07ac6336d5dd61a8
Managing Stress - Sustaining the Human Spirit in Farm Country
Created with SARE support by Raylene Nickel 2022
A course in skills-based suicide alertness prepared Ruth Linkenmeyer-Meirick for a desperate call from a friend. “She was going through a divorce, and she was so overcome by grief and sadness it was hard to talk with her,” says Meirick. “Had I not taken the course, I wouldn’t have known what to do.” Meirick was able to ask her friend a difficult but important question: “You’re not thinking about death by suicide, are you?” Her friend replied that she was not, and from there, Meirick listened and offered crisis-intervention suggestions.
Meirick understood how to help her friend because she had recently attended the skills-based suicide-prevention training called safeTALK. The training sessions were adapted to address the unique characteristics of agricultural communities. Through her work as the foundation director of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, Meirick has helped to make similar workshops available to Farm Bureau agents and others throughout the state.
The adapted trainings, called safeTALK: Preventing Suicide in Agricultural Communities, resulted from a multi-pronged Minnesota project titled Trying Times: Tools to Understand and Alleviate Farm Stress. The USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program funded the two-year project. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) managed the grant, which involved multiple partners in the public sector and nonprofit community.
The project developed materials and delivered workshop and online training about several farm stress and mental health topics to federal agency staff, state regulatory staff, Extension staff, lenders, clergy, social organizations, business people and others.
Meg Moynihan received support from SARE for her ongoing efforts to train agriculture advisors to respond to the stress they encounter on farms and in rural communities.
To read more, click on this link: https://www.sare.org/publications/managing-stress/sustaining-the-human-spirit-in-farm-country/?utm_source=USDA+SARE&utm_campaign=8a8cc66f91-Organic+Transition+bulletin_COPY_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ea09c80bba-8a8cc66f91-355680241
Miss America 2023 Grace Stanke appears at UW-P
to inspire middle schoolers to go into STEM
By Alex Rodriquez, January 13, 2023
Grace Stanke, Miss America 2023, center, sits with a group of girls attending the Girls in Engineering and Math Conference (GEMS) at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Thursday. Around 450 middle school-aged girls from Racine Unified schools attended a keynote speech by Stanke and several STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) workshops Thursday.
A total of 450 girls from Racine Unified School District middle schools attended the 10th annual Girls Empowered by Math and Science conference Thursday and were joined by Stanke, in her first appearance since winning the title.
The girls, students from Gifford School, Walden III, Gilmore Fine Arts, Jersted-Agerholm school, Mitchell School, Starbuck Middle School and The R.E.A.L School — spent the day living like college students at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 900 Wood Road, and attended a keynote speech by Stanke as well as a panel discussion moderated by her, and were assigned to attend different workshops that all focused on different STEM disciplines.
“Science isn’t limited to just one thing,” Stanke said. “For me, I focus on nuclear energy, but there are so many ways it can affect society and continue to improve.”
In her speech, Stanke, 20, told a story of how she was first attracted to STEM, specifically engineering, and started competing in Miss America scholarship events as a necessity for financing after her father was diagnosed with cancer.
Stanke is from Wausau and will be graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s in nuclear engineering this spring. To read more, click on this link: Miss America 2023 Grace Stanke appears at UW-P to inspire middle schoolers to go into STEM (journaltimes.com)
A librarian’s dream helps turn a waiting area at Cook County Jail into an educational nook for children who visit the incarcerated
By Laura Rodriquez Presa, Chicago Tribune, Jan 04, 2023
Before visiting his incarcerated father, 2-year-old K.D. stacks blocks in the early literacy play space inside a Cook County Jail waiting area on Dec. 15, 2022. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
When 2-year-old K.D. walked with his aunt inside the waiting area of the Maximum Security Division at Cook County Jail to visit his father, he smiled.
Unlike all the other times his aunt had brought him to the jail, this time, colorful furniture, dozens of books, toys and a vivid mural adorned the space where he typically — and anxiously — waits until an officer escorts him to see his father, who is incarcerated and awaiting trial.
His smile was thanks to the memory of Becca Ruidl, a librarian with the Chicago Public Library who died of COVID-19 in March at age 30. Her dream was to provide a literacy space for children of the incarcerated at the jail, where many children of color tend to spend time while visiting their loved ones, said Elizabeth McChesney, Ruidl’s friend and former boss.
On Dec. 13, an early literacy play space was inaugurated at the jail’s Maximum Security Division thanks to McChesney’s commitment to honor Ruidl’s legacy. McChesney galvanized other leaders who supported the vision to change the narrative of children experiencing trauma and providing them with learning opportunities.
“When you walk into the lobby of visitation, it no longer signals hopelessness; it signals connection, and the impact of that is not just for the children, but also for the individuals who are incarcerated,” said Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia, a clinical psychologist and managing director of justice initiatives at Chicago Beyond. To read more, click on this link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/people/ct-cook-county-jail-adds-child-friendly-center-fights-stigma-incarcerated-20230104-o2pdctt5rje3dhtzxf33jeqmrq-story.html
This organization has been highlighted before on the Hope From the Bottom Up website at https://hopefromthebottomup.com/hope-filled-organizations#map They are very actively working with young political leaders in many states, bringing together Democrat and Republican elected officials to lessen the political polarization in our country. Below is a story of one of their efforts.