GREEN TEAM BLOG: WEEK 7
It’s the final installment of the Green Team Blog 2021. Thanks for following along! We had a lot of fun working with this crew and will miss them as they head back to school. Follow the link to see how they spent there last week at Groundwork.
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021
On Tuesday, August 3rd, we went to McGovern Senior Center. One group worked on last weeks blog while the other group weeded, mowed, and weedwacked. In the morning, we played scattergories. In the afternoon we went to Aldi’s for lunch where Da’Janique and Marii bought 24 ice cream sandwiches. Then we went to Havenwoods State Park and talked about SMART goals, physical activity, and created a goal for our team. Afterwards, we went for a hike where we saw butterflies. One of them looked burnt. Then we danced on the deck. We saw a frog, too!
Wednesday, August 4th, 2021
On Wednesday, August 4th, we went to Florence Lambert Community Garden. We cleaned out the gutter on the rainwater harvesting system, fixed garden beds, weeded the pathway, and moved out rotting wood. Marii tried to sell his phone at lunch and bought a lot of stuff at Pick n’ Save. Then we went back to the office, and Damien led a resume and cover letter workshop. Elias and Todd won the first round of resumes, but everyone got a Groundwork Milwaukee tote bag and water bottle.
Thursday, August 5th, 2021
On Thursday, August 5th, we were at the office all day. In the morning, we finished working on blogs for the last two weeks. Then an artist came to talk to us! Afterwards, we saw before and after satellite images of places and played a map game. During our NASA meeting, we accidentally kept unmuting ourselves, and everyone could hear us. We accidentally deleted everyone’s stuff from the Jam Board, too. Ooops!
Friday, August 6th, 2021
It’s our last day! In the morning, we went to play basketball at Reservoir Park and found a stray dog. Then we went to Crossroads Collective and Mad Chicken for lunch. Afterwards, we went to the beach. We took photos by a Lamborghini and then the guy let us take photos inside! Later we found a wallet on the beach and recognized the guy on the ID. He gave us a football. Then we looked all around the beach for him but couldn’t find him. Right before we left we found him, gave it back, and he gave us $20!
GREEN TEAM BLOG: WEEK 6
In this edition of the Groundwork Milwaukee Green Team Blog, the team focuses on water! They cleaned an adopt-a-river section, conducted water quality monitoring and visited MMSD to learn about waste water treatment. Follow the link for the details!
Tuesday, July 27th, 2021
On Tuesday, we weeded to clear a space for a future reading nook at Scooters Garden of Hope. It will be called “Reading Thyme”. Ahmed used the weed whacker and the rest of us used loppers. Matt came after we were done, and we all went to the office to paint the benches and finish our designs.
Wednesday, July 28th, 2021
On Wednesday, in the morning, we went to our adopted river section from Milwaukee Riverkeeper between Sherman and Hopkins along Congress on Lincoln Creek. We played a game we created, called “bendo”. We had to pick a color and the color we chose was blue. For every blue piece of trash we earned two points and for every other piece of trash we earned one point. We split into two teams and whoever had the most points were the winners. Our end results were 734-721. Da’Janique, Nia, and Ahmed were the winners and they each received a prize the next day. After we finished the game, we walked on the bridge above the river and took pictures. Later on in the afternoon, we went to Estabrook Park. We measured water temperatures and captured insects to identify them. We skipped rocks. Ahmed had a high score of ten. We found crawfish, snakes, water penny’s, mayfly larvae, stonefly larvae, pouch snails, and shells.
Thursday, July 29th, 2021
On Thursday, we weeded and picked tomatoes at Maglio. We even got to try some tasty cherry tomatoes. Elias and Ahmed put tomatoes in a basket for a story TMJ4 was recording about Maglio. We put up the equipment, ate lunch and had a NASA training. During the NASA training, we talked about red lining in the city. We looked over a map of the city and looked over each part of the city that had red lining. The parts of the city that had the red lining were mostly in the inner city. The places that weren’t redlined were mostly in the suburbs. This led to places in the city having less funding and resources. Neighborhoods that were redlined are hotter and have fewer trees than other parts of the city.
Friday, July 30th, 2021
Photo from mmsd.com.
We brought a bench that we built and painted to the Nia ‘Purpose’ Garden. Shanece showed us how to identify girl and boy plants. We got water from a fire hydrant and from the water barrel to water the beds. We also picked up trash. Then we went on a field trip to the MMSD waste water treatment plant. We learned about where our pee and poo goes. It smelled really bad. We also learned that the pay starts at $35 an hour.
GREEN TEAM BLOG: WEEK 5
The latest edition of Groundwork Milwaukee’s Green Team Blog 2021 is here. This edition features a photo shoot with local nature photographer, Eddee Daniel. It’s definitely worth a look. Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 20th, 2021
On Tuesday, we made stamps out of cardboard and foam window seal. We talked about elevator speeches which are a minute long speech to give info fast. Like your name, organization, mission, and what we learned and gained from the experience for our future. We presented them to each other. Later we painted and worked on our blog.
Wednesday, July 21st, 2021
On Wednesday we started off at Peace Place Park and identified plants, planted marigolds, and had pizza. Then we went to the Urban Ecology Center for a nature walk with photographer, Eddee Daniel. We learned how to take nature photos. It was fun.
Thursday, July 22nd, 2021
On Thursday we went to Kilbourn and mowed the lawn, built a garden bed, numbered beds, and pulled weeds. Da’Janique and Elias learned how to use the circular saw to cut wood. Afterwards, we went to the office. We learned about NASA remote sensing programs and watched videos. Then we went on a video call and got to meet NASA scientists and Green Team members from Groundwork ORV in Cincinnati.
Friday, July 23rd, 2021
We weeded a pathway on Friday at Florence Lambert in the morning. Then we went back to the office to paint and line up benches. After we touched up the benches, we got frosties!
GREEN TEAM BLOG: WEEK 4
Check out the latest installment of Groundwork Milwaukee’s Green Team Blog 2021, written by the crew. We’re proud of the work this group has put in and excited to see what they’ll do next. Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 13th, 2021
On Tuesday, July 13, 2021, we were at the office and learned about nutrition. We read the back of food products and looked at the nutrition facts.
Wednesday, July 14th, 2021
On Wednesday, Jul 14, 2021, we went to Scooters Garden of Hope and Hilltop Community Farm and Garden. At Scooters we played the ‘Ah uhm’ game. Later that day we walked to Hilltop and dug out strawberries to transplant to Scooters.
Thursday, July 15th, 2021
In the morning, we were at West Care Orchard. We didn’t have much work to do so we had a group activity called “gift seats” where we talked about our opinions about working with each other. After that our intentions were to go help the community by picking up trash. There was no trash in the gardens, so we ended up continuing gift seats and talking amongst each other. Later in the afternoon we went to Victory Garden Initiative. There, we got to try fresh cherries, which were very sweet. Marii and Jacelia fell in love with the cat and named it Milo. Later we got to meet some kids from Detroit. Todd and Marii danced for them and we introduced ourselves and so did they.
Friday, July 16th, 2021
On Friday, we went to Alice’s Garden and weeded around the fence. After that we went to Walnut Way and harvested cherries and currants.
GREEN TEAM BLOG: WEEK 3
Check out the latest installment of Groundwork Milwaukee’s Green Team Blog 2021. We’re having a great time getting to know our team. Here’s your opportunity to learn a bit more about them.
Tuesday, July 6th, 2021
Tuesday, July 6th, we worked at Hilltop Community Garden. We started off identifying every plant in each garden bed. We then picked mint and chives. Since it was too hot, later on that day we went to the office and spent the rest of the day there. At the office we worked on edging and painting our benches.
Wednesday, July 7th, 2021
Wednesday, July 7th, we were located at the office. We started off talking about nutrients, healthy and unhealthy fats, fiber, protein, and whole grains. Then, we got more active and prepared and cooked. We made two healthy recipes which were chicken fajita and peanut chicken skewers. The recipes included elements of the different healthy food groups that we had learned about in the beginning of the day.
Thursday, July 8th, 2021
Thursday, July 8th we were at the Thurston Woods Community Garden. We started off filling each bed with soil, and one group flipped soil. We then walked to the New Beginnings are Possible Community center, and Kimberly told us about the center. Afterwards, we went back to the garden to play charades. Todd and Jacelia broke down a shed. We also made a wood chip trail between garden beds!
Friday, July 9th, 2021
On Friday, July 9th, we were at Florence Lambert Community Garden. We started off weeding the garden beds and the pathway. After that we split up into groups. One group cut unwanted branches down. The other team worked on building a garden bed. At the end of the day we did some journaling.
GREEN TEAM BLOG: WEEK 2
The 2021 edition of Groundwork Milwaukee’s Green Team is well underway. The team has been getting to know one another, learning about Groundwork’s mission while supporting our projects. Check out this summary the crew provided from their second week.
Tuesday, June 29th, 2021
On Tuesday June 29th, 2021, we started the day weeding at Golda Meir Garden, just outside the office. We weeded for a while then switched activities. The next activity that we ended up doing was called “The Teaching Game''. This game is where you split into a group of two or three and teach the people in your group something that you know. After teaching, you have to share with the rest of the team what you have learned. Then, we painted benches and listened to music. While painting we mainly focused on edging. To edge a bench is to clean up the parts of a bench that a roller can’t get. Afterwards, we took another break. While on the break we did another group activity which is called '' The Eye Contact Game ''. This game is about getting to know your team better. The game indicates you have to lock eyes with a person. You and the person you locked eyes with have to share something about yourselves that nobody already knows. While playing the game, we got to learn a lot about other people that we didn’t know. Another group activity that we did was two truths and a lie. Each person told two facts about themselves and one lie, then everyone had to guess which one was the lie.
Wednesday, June 30th, 2021
On Wednesday, June 30th, we went to McGovern Park Community Garden and weeded. We weeded each garden bed. We then played a picking up trash game that helped us clean the park. In the game we picked two colors (red and pink). Those colors were worth 2 points. While picking up the trash if we found a pink or red colored piece of trash your team would get two points. Regular pieces of trash would give your team 1 point. After the picking up trash game we went on a walk to look at the apple trees. Another activity that we did was the ‘uh um’ game. In the ‘uh um’ game everyone separates into groups of about three or four. A person must talk to their group about a certain topic for one full minute without saying the following taboo words: “Ah”,”Um”,”Like”, or “You Know”. If the person does not say the taboo words in the round, then the person can move to the second round. If they do say the words, it's the next person's turn.
Thursday, July 1st, 2021
On Thursday July 1st, 2021 we started off at Maskani Place on Center St. where we weeded and flipped the soil. We did an activity called ‘Would you rather' where we had to choose between dying in the heat or in the cold or if we would rather have our dream house or dream car. Then we saw a dead rodent in the alley way. We then walked to Killbourn where we had to weed. One group weeded. One group built pollinator garden beds.
Friday, July 2nd, 2021
On Friday July 2nd, we started the day off at the Maglio Farm. While being at Maglio, we harvested cauliflower, radish, broccoli, kale, and chard. We also talked about food problems and came up with solutions to them. We also talked about economics. In my opinion this experience was good. Later on in the day we ended up heading to Estabrook Park where we tested the temperature of the water and looked for different types of bugs. The last thing that we did was dissolve oxygen. This is where you put water in a little bottle and put different types of chemicals inside to see how long and how many packages it takes to become clear and clean water. After water monitoring, we received our work shirts.
WEEK 5: DISCOVERING THE LAKEFRONT & THE FARM
Journalist Liandro Gamez and photographer, Jayla Johson share their 5th week of experiences on Groundwork’s Green Team (after a week off due to COVID-19 related precautions).
Note: Week 4 of Green Team programming was suspended due to precautions regarding COVID-19. Groundwork is deeply committed to keeping our community partners and staff (including Green Team and their families!) healthy during this pandemic. The week off allowed everyone to get tested and receive results, without putting anyone at risk. We came back perfectly clear and ready to finish out the rest of our summer programming.
Beginning of a New Project - Tuesday, July 28th, 2020
This Tuesday, we went to our office to work on one of our projects: making recycled paper from paper waste. We worked on breaking down old paper and cardboard, as our first step of creating new resourceful paper. We also did a fun team building activity where two teams had to compete against each other to see who could figure out the order of a story about a boy who turned into an owl. Afterwards, we continued working with Lawrence to inventory and explore more Groundwork gardens around Milwaukee. We visited and checked a few gardens, documenting any damage to be fixed in the near future.
Exploring Discovery World - Wednesday, July 29th, 2020
Wednesday, we went to Discovery World where we started off by cleaning out any animal waste and plastic we found on the aquatic plants. Once we were done with that, we did a fun activity where two teams competed with each other to see who could build the best structure that could protect an egg from a fall. For our lunch break, we went to shake shack, one of Groundwork’s partners. We ate some delicious food. We finished the day off weeding the garden boxes in front of Discovery World. All of the food grown in those beds is free to take for anyone walking by!
Making Paper - Thursday, July 30th, 2020
Thursday, we went to the office again where we met up with Elena. Elena is Groundwork’s Volunteer & Community Programs Specialist. She’s also an expert at creating recycled paper from used cardboard, old papers, and even using fruits as dye. Throughout the day, Elena taught us the ins and outs of creating paper, and how we can do it ourselves at home. It’s a bit labor intensive, but the results are amazing. We also did a group activity called the “The Best Game Ever” where each member has a chance to show off their qualities to everyone else.
Going to the Maglio Farm - Friday, July 31st, 2020
Finally, it was Friday. We started by splitting into two teams. One team planted asian greens and another team planted carrots in a hoophouse at the Maglio Farm. After that, we had a professional, named Samson (Groundwork’s Volunteer & Food Systems Specialist), teach us about different farms and their objectives. He taught us how some farms stay organic and don’t use pesticides or chemicals and how other farms only focus on making one type of vegetable or fruit. He also explained to us what GMO means: genetically modified organisms. At the end of the day, we did a three-legged race between two teams. It was difficult getting through the obstacles but extremely fun.
WEEK 3: MORE GROWING
Journalist Liandro Gamez and photographer, Jayla Johson share their experiences on Groundwork’s Green Team - week three.
Mapping and Fixing - Tuesday, July 14th, 2020
This Tuesday, we went to a variety of different gardens to record data that could be beneficial in the future. Such as checking the condition of the garden beds and recording data of the surrounding area. We also got rid of all the garbage we found along the way. Through all of our efforts we made each garden look better than when we arrived. We also went to We Got This where we continued to work on the greenhouse, and repainted some old benches. When we were done, they looked brand new!
Todd collects Mapillary imagery to create a virtual walk-through of the A Fresh Look garden (Image by Lawrence Hoffman). See the final product below.
Rainy Office Day - Wednesday, July 15th, 2020
For Wednesday we went to our office because we had a rainy day! We began the day by learning about black history, philosophy, and modern day conceptions of racism. Afterwards we decided to split up into two teams. One team worked on building benches. The other focused on painting those benches and little lending libraries. During our break, we had fun by playing a quick game of musical chairs. The victor of the match was Jaylah!
Restoring Grow and Play - Thursday, July 16th, 2020
On Thursday, we went to Grow and Play where we continued our mission of restoring this precious garden. We started by repairing some of the garden beds, adding new wooden boards where they were needed. We also removed the few remaining weeds in the garden beds so they could be used later. After all this was done and our job was finished, we decided to have a friendly basketball match while waiting for our rides to pick us up.
WEEK 2: ALL OVER THE MAP
Journalist, Liandro Gamez, and photographer, Jaylah Johnson, recount their second week on Groundwork’s Green Team.
Journalist, Liandro Gamez, and photographer, Jaylah Johnson, recount their second week on Groundwork’s Green Team.
We Got This GIS Thing Down - Tuesday, July 7th, 2020
Tuesday we went through various Groundwork gardens using a GIS app called Collector to record data that could potentially be used in future efforts to repair our gardens and maintain them. We also used an app called Mapillary that is similar to Google Street View (see below example). It allows anyone to view the gardens we work on virtually. Next, we went to a garden called We Got This, where we helped the community build the foundations of a new greenhouse. This garden has been well kept and taken care of by many of the locals as they continue to innovate and show love to their neighborhood.
It’s a Hot Day to be a Gardener - Wednesday, July 8th, 2020
On Wednesday, we were able to begin completely revamping the garden, Grow & Play. We worked on weeding and repairing the crumbling garden beds. Weed wacking the area surrounding the garden beds, and trimming the bushes opened the garden back up. Our supervisor sure did give us a lot of breaks as it was sweltering hot! During some of these breaks we did some fun activities such as having a friendly race. The victor of the race was Christian. In 2nd place was Todd, and in 3rd place was Jaylah. It sure was hot, but we got the work done together as a team.
Working Closer to the Community - Thursday, July 9th, 2020
Thursday, we went to an amazing garden called Walnut hill. It is an extraordinary garden with a great backstory. Walnut Hill was opened 7 years ago by local community members in order to provide young kids and families with healthy free food. They believed that everyone should be able to have easy access to healthy fresh food. They continue to follow their beliefs while adding and growing new things in their garden. They have recently installed a water system that collects rainwater, increasing the locals access to free water for their garden beds.
A Cool Day at Cold Spring Park - Friday, July 10th, 2020
This Friday, we went to Cold Spring Park. Cold Spring Park used to be a spring with a horse track in the mid 1900s. They even held the Wisconsin State Fair here at one point. There was a fire in the area that destroyed much of the surrounding infrastructure, so the community decided to do something with the damaged area. It was turned into a neighborhood with a small community park. Today we came to clean up the area by removing many of the weeds that built up over time. Ensuring to leave the precious plants so they can continue to grow. We also placed mulch around the plants to prevent weeds from taking their resources.
WEEK 1: GETTING TO KNOW GROUNDWORK
Journalist, Jhamar James, and photographer, Jayson Johnson, recount their first week working with Groundwork.
Journalist, Jhamar James, and photographer, Jayson Johnson, recount their first week working with Groundwork Milwaukee.
Tuesday, June 30th, 2020
Today was a slow day for us but an air conditioned comfortable day in the office. We learned how to use a mapping app, how to build bases for a 500 gallon rainwater container, a wheelchair accessible garden bed and found out where our own personal items were made. Although the day was going well, we did unfortunately come to an upset. One of our garden sites was now a construction site. Luckily, we have over 100 garden sites all across Milwaukee!
Wednesday, July 1st, 2020
Today was another good but long day at "Village Roots". We as a team accomplished a lot and even got two young local volunteers to help. We weeded, repaired, and painted garden beds with some lovely colors. Volunteers came to assist, praise, and encourage us as we worked through the blazing sun. Despite the sun, we managed to pull through as a team. During lunch we had a lovely picnic and shared some laughter and tall tales.
Thursday, July 2nd, 2020
We came back to Florence Lambert Community Garden and started off very strong and finished stronger. As a team we made a lot of progress. We painted a lot, spray painted, put down mulch and topsoil, and repaired a broken garden bed. When we arrived at Florence Lambert it needed some love. When we saw the before and after photos, you could tell there was a lot of hard work, sweat, and dedication. Looking back at Florence, we are only proud of our work.
Friday, July 3rd, 2020
Today was a very fun day. We came to Maglio and got a tour of the greenhouses, held team bonding activities, and had a cookout. We weeded some of the greenhouses, picked diseased tomatoes, and weeded some pointy weeds. We played "This or That" where we practiced debating, and a game where there was a sponge in a bucket and we had to be a team and transport a sponge full of water to the other bucket. We grilled some burgers, hot dogs, ate watermelon, chips, and BANANA BREAD!
GREEN TEAM BLOG SUMMER 2020!
This is the Green Team Blog where you can meet our crew and hear directly from them about their experiences working on Groundwork projects around Milwaukee. Each week, our Journalist and Photographer work together as a Media Team to create this blog. We’ll be publishing their collections of thoughts and images weekly. Enjoy! We sure did!
It’s that time of year again. Groundwork Milwaukee has begun its Green Team training program. Each summer, high school-aged teens work with Groundwork developing technical skills in green infrastructure construction, urban agriculture, and geospatial data collection. Green Team participants learn valuable employment, leadership and technical skills all while supporting Groundwork’s important mission of fostering healthy communities through the transformation of urban space.
This is the Green Team Blog where you can meet our crew and hear directly from them about their experiences working on Groundwork projects around Milwaukee. Each week, our Journalist and Photographer work together as a Media Team to create this blog. We’ll be publishing their collections of thoughts and images weekly. Enjoy! We sure did!