The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More

Happy Tuesday everyone! I'm a little Blog happy these days-3 posts in a row?! I guess I'm just making up for lost time. I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day! Mine was spent hanging out with the roommates, reading Dracula (a fabulous book for any avid readers out there), going grocery shopping, and cooking a real meal instead of something from a can. It was relaxing and left my rejuvenated for the week!

I got this article from Liza-it is a little long but it is very interesting and it really is a quick read. I would highly recommend reading it when you have a few minutes-if you don't want to read it all, at least read part of it to catch the gist of it. It talks about ways that the economic/financial systems force those living in poverty to pay more for their services and goods. It is an unfortunate situation and really leads to people having an even more difficult time working their way out of poverty. Check it out.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051702053.html?g=0

Indy 500

After living in Indianapolis for 4 years, I had the chance to go to the infamous Indy 500 with my roommate, Liz, and her dad. I won't lie to you-I'm not a huge racing fan and my knowledge before yesterday was extremely limited and consisted more or less of the fact that Danica Patrick is a girl, Sarah Fischer went to Butler, and the Indy 500 takes place in Indianapolis. Thankfully, Liz's dad provided us each with radios and I learned a ton while experiencing an amazing sporting event! I had no idea there was the equivalent of a small city in the middle of the track and that you can't see one side from the other while you were in the middle. There is a museum, shops, all of the garages, a gas station, RV parking, regular parking, and more in the middle. I was amazed and just how big the facility was and would highly encourage you to go check it out if you ever get the chance! We saw 8 caution flags, a couple of cars catch on fire (but no injuries), a car literally ride along the wall as if that were the track for about 400 yards, and Danica Patrick finish in the top 3 for the first time at the Indy 500. Here are some of my pictures from the day:

They released balloons during the opening-it took forever for them to all disappear!

The view from our seat towards Turn 4.

The view in front of our seats-it was amazing! We were right by the start/finish line and we had a great view of all of the introductory activity including Florence Henderson singing God Bless America :)

The drivers picture before the race

Danica Patrick's pit stop was right across from us

Another picture of Danica's pit stop...

This is the moment when Castroneves crossed the finish line-please notice the checkered flag waving as he's right on the finish line...how's that for photography?! (minus all of the people in front of me, of course)

The Helio Castroneves team climbing the fence after their 3rd win at the Indy 500

Mr. Castroneves himself cheering right in front of us :)

Kissing the bricks from the original track at the finish line

Here is a video of just how fast the cars go and how loud it is! The average speed was over 200 mph with the top speeds of the day around 220 mph.

In light of my recent involvement with environmental issues, I thought it would be interesting to learn about the environmental impact of an event such as the Indy 500. I noticed the garbage cans spilling over with beer cans, pop cans, and other items that could very easily be recycled. I also noticed the few houses on the walks back to the car that had trash cans marked as recycling sitting in their front yards. I googled it and immediately came upon the following article: http://green.indy.com/posts/speedway-s-environmentally-friendly-efforts

So, that is my Indy 500 experience. I am happy that I was able to experience it and hope to be able to go again someday! It was an awesome atmosphere and made me appreciate a sport that I didn't appreciate very much a whole lot more. After spending the day with over 300,000 people yesterday I am looking forward to a stormy afternoon on the couch reading :)

Happy Memorial Day!

Soccer Mom (minus the mini van)

Last week I got to play Soccer Mom and take Carson to his soccer game while Crissy and Brian went to a concert. It was great weather and he played so well :) I got some cute pictures that I wanted to share:

The team hanging out inside the goal after the game

Inside the goal again...I think this picture is adorable-they are all so busy with their ice cream sandwiches and conversations that they didn't even notice I was there!

Go Soccer Stars!

This video shows a great defensive play by Carson that almost ended in a goal!

The Mayor's Bike Ride

My friends Katie, Andrea, Christina and I participated in the Mayor's Bike Ride this weekend. It was to celebrate the new bike lanes that have been put in around the downtown area and to increase awareness about the benefits of using your bike as a mode of transportation for both the environment and for your own personal health. We took a 10 mile ride around downtown Indy and it was really fun! It rained for the first 5 miles and was pretty windy for the 2nd 5 miles but it was nice that it wasn't really hot. Below are a few of my pictures from the day:

This shows the number of people behind us-we were probably about 1/4 of the way back from the front, so there were a lot of people in front of us, too! It was a little nerve-wracking until the group got spread out since there were so many bikers so close together. It was cool though because police had all of the major intersections blocked so we just rode through red lights and everything :)

Katie and me with Mayor Ballard who successfully completed the 10 miles as well! We finished about 5 minutes before he did but we were still proud of him for finishing! haha

Andrea, Christina, me, Katie before the ride began (and the rain started)

Bikers and the Veterans Memorial in downtown Indy

The rest of the retreat!

Here are pictures (and details) from the rest of the retreat! Woo! My biggest complaint with this site: it loads the pictures in reverse order and never works for me when I try to switch them around. So, sorry it's kind of backwards.

We stayed in the Peace House for the week- a 3 story renovated house from the 1880's that is gorgeous. We got to make all of our own meals and we had a pancake feast for breakfast on the final morning. There were some fabulous chefs in the group :)

The group on Thursday after working in Filege Hiywot Community Garden. This Community Garden works with 1st and 2nd generation immigrant children from Ethiopia. It is used as an educational program to teach the children about environmental issues, how to garden and other biology topics. The lady that runs it, Aster, is a researcher for Eli Lilly, so a lot of Lilly employees volunteer their time to work with the kids and while it is still small, it is a growing program and very cool!

Our work at the garden was to "till" the soil by turning over the grass to kill it. The Lilly Day of Service is next week- over 8,000 volunteers will be working across the city and a group of them will be coming to plant flowers and mulch the area that we tilled. This will be such a great addition to the garden and Aster is extremely excited about it!

The garden-the area that is tilled on the left side of the picture, and the planted area were the garden last year. Due to the success of last year, this year it is expanding to almost the entire rest of the area inside the fence!

Lindsay and me outside Goose the Market- a former gas station that has been renovated and is now a cafe with awesome fresh food

A brownfield site that we stopped at on the bicycle tour. A brownfield is a site that was once a factory, gas station, dry cleaner, or something of the sort that once they moved out the building/land was contaminated and has to have serious cleaning before another business can utilize the area. There are a ton of brownfields around Indianapolis (and every city) and Chris works in the Economic Development Dept for Indianapolis to clean up brownfield sites and make them useful again. Goose the Market is a brownfield redevelopment project.

The Project School

This is on the other side of the building from the picture above. This was a former factory that the left half of it has been completely cleaned out and is now functioning as a charter school. The school is very hands-on and is currently 5th and 6th grade students. Next year they will be adding 7th grade and the year after will be 8th grade. The 2nd floor is still in the planning stages and some of the student projects include what they would like to see happen with the space. Other projects include designing/planning a playground that will hopefully be built in the next year across the street, plans for an outdoor classroom, and an edible playground (basically a garden that they students would learn about while maintaining it). The Project School is very community based and is environmentally friendly.

We had the chance to tour a local recycling center. All of the "trash" that you see will be moved through the plant and sent on to the next phase of the recycling process within 4 days. They move millions of tons of paper, plastic, aluminum, cardboard, etc. through every year and are part of a nation-wide operation under Rock Tenn. A lot of what they recycle goes back into packaging food products that are sold in WalMarts. It was fascinating to learn so much about the process of recycling and so many facts that I never knew. Only 52% of the paper used in the US gets recycled...which is better than I would have guessed but that means that a lot of paper is just getting thrown away. This is my plug to encourage you to recycle if you don't already!

Squished up milk cartons, detergent bottles, etc. ready to be shipped to the next plant and be melted down.

I think these cubes of squished up plastic containers look like the cubes on Wall-E.

Two of our students carrying trees. We worked with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (the organization we worked with for the tree planting a few weeks ago) to relocate and water 500 trees that will be planted this week for the Lilly Day of Service in a local park. We worked with local AmeriCorps members as well as ICC staff members for 3 hours to sort and unload the trees.

This is the Peace House! It is a beautiful house that has been renovated and is absolutely gorgeous both inside and out.

So, thats the majority of what happened on the retreat. The group was awesome-everyone got along so well and was really into the retreat. I think most of them knew more than me going into the week but I feel like we all learned so much. We had the chance to do the recycling tour, a tour of the KIB headquarters that is a gold-certified LEED building (meaning it's super green), talk with a couple of gentleman who work with local and federal legislation regarding environmental issues, work with KIB, the Project School, and the Community Garden, and the chance to learn about what students are doing on campuses around the state. We had 11 students representing 8 different colleges from Indiana and it was so inspiring to hear about all of the work they are doing!

Retreat #1=a success.

Day 1 of the Retreat

Hey all! Today has been a very long day but very good day :) I got up this morning and went to pick up a couple more donations, came and worked from the Peace House for a bit, then went grocery shopping, to part of the VISTA forum, then to the Peace House again for the retreat!

The VISTA forum was cool-it was a documentary about Robert Shiver and how much he influenced National Service. It was sad to see what a great man he was but how much he was always overshadowed by the Kennedy Family-he was a son-in-law and when he had his chance to be on the presidential ticket as teh VP, the Kennedy's said no because they didnt want it to ruin Bobby's chances in the following election since Shiver was so popular. It was very interesting!

The retreat is off to a great start! We had a cookout when everybody got here and ate some burgers/hot dogs and spent some time in the backyard. It was beautiful out so it was nice to have a chance to enjoy the weather! Most of the ICC staff was able to make it so that was fun as well :) We did a fun get to know you activity where everybody drew a tree then wrote the following things: as the dirt you write reasons why you came to the retreat, on the roots you put things that influence you such as people, values, etc.; on teh trunk you write causes and issues that you are passionate about; on the branches you write steps you can take to act on your causes. It was a neat way for people to do a little self-reflection before kicking off the week and a great way for people to tell the group about themselves. I feel like I learned a lot about everyone really early on, which is definitely a good thing!

The group has bonded a lot over a game called "2 ball" played on the pool table. You play with the cue ball and hte 8 ball-you use your hands to roll the cue ball and keep the 8 ball moving. If it goes in or stops rolling on your turn, you get a point. When you get 3 points, you are out. We just played for almost 2 hours... who knew playing pool could be such a workout?!

This house is absolutely gorgeous-I don't want to move out :) I will be sure to take some pictures over the next couple days so I can show you just how pretty it is!

Tomorrow is going to be a super busy day so I am going to try and get some sleep. Pray for good weather the next 2 days, please!!! If it can not rain between the hours of 9-12 tomorrow and 9:30-3 on Thursday, that would be very helpful for our service projects... Thanks :)

Graduation!

Here are some graduation pictures!

Full house in Hinkle

Baby B showing some BU spirit

Families and graduates

All the roomies

Katie, Jess and me

Carson and me

Parents :)

Sisters :)

Roomies

Round 2 of graduation was very fun :) Granny, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Crissy, Brian, Therese, and the kids helped celebrate! Jarod, Beth and Becca hung out with the kids during the ceremony and all of us went to a late lunch at Brew Pub afterwards. It was a great way to celebrate and I really enjoy that everyone was able to make it. That evening I went over to Jess and Katie's to hang out with friends and play some corn hole. Again, a great way to celebrate! Thanks to everyone who has been such a big part of my life over the last 4 years!!!!

I apologize...

I haven't updated in awhile. A lot has happened!

Exactly 4 months ago today, I started my year as a VISTA. I can't believe it's 1/3 of the way over, and I hate that there is an exact date that it will end. At the same time, thinking about all that I have had the chance to learn and do in the first 4 months makes me really excited for the next 8 months, and whatever will come after that!

My big VISTA news of the week- my supervisor got a different job. She will be leaving at the end of August to go to New York for a few months, then overseas for 3 years! While I am sad that she is leaving, I'm glad that she's getting the chance to do something she's always wanted to do and I know that she will love every day of it. I found out earlier this week that Maggie will be my supervisor after Lindsay leaves! I think that it will be a good opportunity for me to learn more from Maggie and to also experience another supervision style.

The Environmental Leadership Retreat starts on Tuesday! I can't believe it's here already...
the last few days and leading up to Tuesday will be extremely hectic at work. I feel like I'm in good shape but there is still a lot of things to wrap up and not a lot of time to do it. I've done the majority of the planning, getting donations, scheduling, paperwork, etc. on my own and it's really making me appreciate all of the work that others on exec boards for alternative breaks did. I knew from experience that it was a lot of work but I guess I didn't realize just how much it was until it was so concentrated. I think it's going to be a great experience though and I'm really looking forward to it!

I know this is really short but I need to go find some dinner... I will try to update again this weekend sometime-around graduation activities that is! :)