Nov. 28/29, 2011 ~ This weekend 30 University students, faculty and staff travelled to East St. Louis for what might very well have been our last official ‘Outreach Weekend’ in East St. Louis. The group was comprised of students from three courses, Martin Wolske’s LIS 451 graduate students, Vicki Eddings’ FAA 291 group of undergrad students from across campus and Prof. Robert Hughes’ FAA 291 HCD group of Human and Community Development Freshmen students.

Upon arrival at Eagle’s Nest Martha Watts (founder and Executive Director) joined us and gave the students a wonderful overview of the Veterans shelter followed by a tour of the facility. Billie Turner soon joined us for her legendary ‘tour’ of East St. Louis where she treated the students to lots of stories and historical facts about her city.

After lunch the students were eager to begin their weekend projects at Pirtle's, Village Theatre and the Public Television Station. Patrick Hatch, ESLARP alum currently working as an auditor with HUD came to work with us for the weekend. It was fitting that he joined us this weekend as he has been with ESLARP almost since its inception.

Projects:

Village Theatre – Patrick and Bob Hughes took on the siding project which turned out to be much more than they bargained for. The two leaders, with assistance from Christina, and six undergrad students got right to work and before the weekend was over they had successfully accomplished their goal! The students learned new skills and made new friends – it was an excellent experience just to watch!

Pirtle’s – Pirtle’s is becoming a new favorite project spot for our students. The undergrad students worked with LIS grad students to install desks and vinyl flooring in both the new computer room and the ice cream store. They had a blast this weekend. Mr. Pirtle treated everyone to free ice cream and lots of positive feedback about their work.

Public Access Television Station – Friday, some of the FAA 291 students worked with LIS grads painting and preparing for a new computer lab. This project is a new venture and we’re looking forward to seeing the results of the LIS 451 students’ technical efforts.

ESLARP tool move – A few of the students volunteered (?) to help pack and clean up ESLARP’s tool shed in preparation for the move to Champaign. Although the work was dirty and sometimes heavy lifting was involved, they were great and hung in there with me as we went through all the tools and other things we had stockpiled over the years. By the end of Saturday the U-haul was packed with tools ready to be brought to their new home with Action Research.Illinois in Champaign . . . progress can be good but sad!


Many thanks to those who helped this weekend – you know who you are! I’m looking forward to all the new adventures in East Central Illinois.

Prosperity Garden

The second outreach weekend in Champaign was kicked off to a great start Saturday morning with a new group of students from both FAA and HDR classes working hard in the Prosperity Gardens on North First Street. Students began their morning by winterizing the vegetable garden, clearing the corn field, and trimming back the rain garden on the north side of the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance building. Maintaining the growth of the rain garden keeps the plants healthy and adds to the aesthetics of the neighborhood. Before breaking for lunch, students got a head start on various tasks to prepare for the North First Street Halloween Extravaganza event for neighborhood children on Monday afternoon.

During the lunchtime cookout, everyone had an opportunity interact and get to know one another over some great barbeque and sports time in the park. The best part was that community members and neighborhood kids came out to join us in playing games and they referred to the college students as “the cool big kids.” It was great to see as many smiles on the students’ faces as there were on the kids’!

After lunch, our team continued preparing for the Extravaganza and started decorating the site by turning the scarecrows into mummies and carving pumpkins to set out. When we finished up turning the garden into a scary graveyard, we set out to help another team rake leaves at the home of an elderly couple who have made a great contribution in the community. Thanks to our team’s extra effort, everyone’s yard was finished as scheduled. AR.I and all of our community partners made this a great outreach weekend and a huge success!!!

October 2011 Outreach Weekend

Saturday morning got off to a cold start, but quickly turned into a beautiful day. My team got started bright and early and Shadow Wood. Our project was to paint the community center that the Library and Information Science students are working on turning into a computer lab. While our group was small, we were eager and quickly had the first coat up on the walls.

Lunch came at a perfect time because we had worked up quite an appetite. The community cookout was so much fun! We got to eat GREAT barbecue and mingle with the other students. The best part however, was getting to meet some community members and play football and soccer with some of the neighborhood kids. Seeing their reaction and excitement to have us around was extremely inspiring. The cookout came to an end and we went back to Shadow Wood to finish up painting.

By the end of the day Saturday, we were tired and covered in paint, but felt accomplished and inspired by the community and the people who are working to make it a better place. We were all very excited to be back, working in the Champaign-Urbana community. Can't wait to see what the future holds for AR.I!!