One Colorado: January 8,9

Well, after the (relatively short compared to other Alt Breakers) drive we finally arrived in Denver. Sunday we had a day off to roam the city and we had a blast getting to know each other better and exploring downtown Denver. The Denver Art Museum helped us connect with historic art and, most importantly, our childhood. We’re bringing dress-up back.

We also got to explore some cute local coffee shops (since we luckily are all caffeine addicts), and catch the tail end of the Denver Broncos win at a downtown restaurant. According to our waitress, Denver is excited because they are going to win “a big, silver trophy of a football,” so we are all on the edge of our seats with anticipation for the upcoming matches.

Today was our first day meeting with our volunteer organization, One Colorado, and I feel exhausted and inspired and 100 times more educated than at 10 this morning. Technically we didn’t do any hands on volunteering today—instead we focused on the mission, vision, and logistics of the organization. I learned that it is actually three different organizations: One Colorado, One Colorado Education Fund, and One Colorado PAC. The reason they have to separate into three organizations is so that they can file taxes as 501c3, 501c4 and as a PAC which gives them flexibility to spend their money to actually influence public policy and then endorse candidates in the legislative branch, which a 501c3 non-profit organization cannot do.

Anyways, on to the vision: Working together for a fair and just Colorado focusing on four key areas: relationship recognition, health, safe schools, and inclusivity. From the get-go I could tell that the discussions we would be having would expand far beyond the LGBT community… and I was right. Shannon Masden, who works for One CO and led our discussion, immediately launched into different types of oppression and had us do various exercises to confront racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, nationalism, classism, and religious oppression. Obviously pretty heavy discussions took place but it was so great because it allowed our group to bond on a level far beyond what I would have expected within the first few days together.

Shannon also spent a fair amount of time explaining why the organization is focusing on civil unions rather than marriage and what exactly that means. From these conversations I discovered how the process of passing a bill in Colorado actually works. She discussed how the civil union bill failed last year in the house judiciary committee since the committee voted along party lines (6 republican and 5 democrat). This year they are starting in the Senate and hope to have better results. The politics behind passing their bill seemed like it could become so frustrating, yet the work they were doing to learn about every single legislator and to try to rally support from every constituent they could was inspiring.

One Colorado has several specific programs that we will be working on to help them with their various initiatives and advancements for LGBT rights. Those include gathering postcards from constituents to send to each representative, a “Chain of Love,” (little cutout people with signatures on them that will hopefully connect around the capitol building), and ‘baseball cards’ that have basic information about each legislator spanning from their affiliated party to everyday activities they enjoy. The Adopt a Legislator program made me realize that I hardly know anything about my representatives in Kansas or about the specific process of getting a bill passed here and I am excited to take the time to actually learn this information and be more educated about our local government.

"I believe in commitment, responsibility, and taking care of the ones you love."

Basically I am so, so pumped to start work and can already tell that I am going to learn and challenge myself here everyday. Also, I would like to end with this statement: MY GROUP IS THE BOMB!

Anna Hurst

Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary Day Two.

Day Two.

I’m never offering any one my hormone, antibiotic free organic milk ever again, because no one appreciates it and wants to drink hormone milk. FINE. I’m NOT sorry we had to stop by Whole Foods after Amy’s Ice Cream to get it. Speaking of Amy’s, I was able to eat “cop-stop time,” which is coffee ice cream enriched with doughnuts. GET IT? Katie, Jake, Phillip, Jana and I were all able to get Amy’s after Katie made us a delicious spaghetti dinner. I cooked the vegetables, which is obviously the most challenging part if you had seen our microwave. Phillip and I washed dishes, and Jake was the designated dish drying elf. He really is a great drying elf.

Today our job was to clear an acre of brush. Which doesn’t sound too terrible when you just hear about it. But it actually wasn’t just “brush,” it was pretty much an acre of really large trees that were cut down. We had to drag the trees about 100 feet to the wood chipper, where the trees were turned into mulch. The Zoo is going to use the mulch in the gardens and around a lot of the already standing trees. Erica and I discovered our inner strength when we drug about a 35 foot tall tree out of the entanglement by our selves! We are super women, if you will.

When we first arrived at the area we were clearing, I expected it to be a two day task. We were literally surrounded by brush and cut down trees all around us. By noon, between six of us, a board member and another maintenance fix it all man at the zoo, we were 95% finished by noon. I was really impressed with all of the hard work everyone put in. Even the President of the Executive board of the Zoo, Patti. Patti not only bribed us with doughnuts and kolachis when we first arrived, but she also was out in the field with us, working extremely hard. Now that the area is cleared, the Zoo was able to save money by not needing to hire an outside company. The money saved can now be used to buy fencing to enclose the space, which allows the Zoo to take in more animals.

The Zoo turns down 50-60 animals a month, including exotic animals. By clearing this space, we as volunteers, are really making an actual difference in the lives of the animals who don’t have a space yet. Because the Zoo takes only rescued or surrendered animals, it is a one of a kind place where these animals can live out their life in peace. I don’t know a lot about tigers and weight, but the ponies there aren’t missing any meals. Every animal is treated with such gratitude and respect, and I could only wish that people could treat each other the same way. We are really having a great time growing closer as a group and learning the silly things about each other, but also sharing our love, compassion and respect for animals together.

At the end of the day, Jana and I were able to walk a few equine pals. I walked a Shetland pony named Toucan, who is my new best friend. I feel like I’m back in the homeland with my own ponies. It was very relaxing, and pretty great to bond with a new critter.

Tom Update: Tom the Turkey was standing up on his own today and doing very well. Very exciting.

Cheers.

Kait Perry


Post Script: Before and After Pictures of the Acre.


BEFORE

AFTER

ground? roads?

                                                                        WOW

kittie stites admiring our work. 

 so much room for activities.

TFA Chicago Days 1-2

Hey everyone,

The first couple of days in Chicago have been phenomenal. In reality, today was my first workday because the school I am at, Urban Prep, is an all boys academy that did not have school yesterday. Instead of waking up early, I eased my way into the day at a coffee shop downtown and worked on a Powerpoint presentation for my teacher’s seminar class over HIV/AIDS facts, misconceptions, treatments and resources in the community. After completing it and sending it off to my teacher, I explored the city for a while and found my bearings before reconnecting with the group at the church for a relaxing evening.

Today was a different story. The unstructured nature of yesterday was replaced by experiencing a school with a striking amount of structure and regimen. A little before 7:30 AM, I arrived at the school with another member of our group, Grant Berning. The teachers and administrators who met us inside the doors of Urban Prep were remarkably welcoming and were quick to offer handshakes with smiles on their faces. The students were the same-outgoing, polite and friendly. Rather unfairly, I subconsciously expected commotion and disarray. Instead, the students and staff convened at 7:59 sharp in the gymnasium for assembly. Students stood in straight lines and listened to an address from multiple administrators. Although there was a little chatter amongst the students, I can imagine my high school class would’ve been much more disruptive if asked to stand in straight lines and be quiet for the first part of the day on the first day back from winter break. At the end of the assembly, the administrators and students bellowed the Urban Prep creed together

“ We believe. We are the young men of Urban Prep. We are college bound. We are exceptional-not because we say it, but because we work hard at it… We are our brothers’ keepers. We believe in ourselves. We believe in each other. We believe in Urban Prep. We believe”

echoed off the walls of the gymnasium. The solidarity of this group of students was palpable. They were all selected in a lottery to attend this school. They were the students responsible for the extraordinary 95% attendance rate. I could tell it was a special place from the get-go.

After the assembly, Grant and I followed our teacher, former KU student Alex Rock, up to his room where he teaches junior chemistry. While today was their equivalent of the tedious syllabus day, it was still enjoyable and educational to interact with the students and watch them interact. A specific thing that both Grant and I noticed was how many conversations among kids were about college and how to bring their GPA’s up. Even the ones that obviously struggled didn’t dodge the idea of talking about school indicating that they genuinely cared about it. The structure didn’t allow much time for Grant and I to talk to students during Mr. Rock’s chemistry classes. However, Urban Prep builds a period into the students’ schedule called PRIDE, which acts as a home-room period where students interact and work on building skills that make them better men. Being the first day of the semester, it was a great time for us to meet the students during this period. They were outgoing and fun to talk to. During this period it also became evident that many of these students look at Mr. Rock as much more than a teacher. They seemed much happier to see him than the typical interaction a student has with a teacher after a break. It was as if they missed their friend, their mentor. This showed a new side of TFA to me that I hadn’t really thought about before. Many teachers have to do more than succeed in the difficult task of educating young men and women with a lackluster foundation in academics. To be as effective as possible, they also are leaders, role models and friends.

Until Tomorrow,

Jason

ONE Colorado: Days 1, 2, + 3

Hi, kitties.

Thus far, our trip to Denver has been inspiring, educational, and an overall bonding experience for our group as a whole.

I'd like to begin by giving a shout out to our fearless navigator of the open road, Anna. This lady drove our incredibly large vehicle for the entire journey, and couldn't even see out of the back window (see image 1.1). My hero.

We arrived at our church around 5:30/6:00pm on Saturday night, and spent our time arranging our sleeping bags and voicing fears about "the homeless people that may bang on the door and ask for money." After an extensive trip to King Soopers (the fraternal twin to our Dillons), we made a fancy frozen pizza dinner and went to sleepy town. Our free day, Sunday, was spent visiting the Denver Museum of Art, exploring the city, and becoming besties/gal pals. The townspeople were enthralled with a football game that none of us knew anything about, so we freely painted to town red and made a special trip to Pink Berry where all of our wildest dreams came true.

This morning, Monday, our group was feeling very excited and also a little bit anxiety-ridden about our first day with One Colorado. When we arrived, I think we were all equally relieved to meet our "leader," Shannon. She shared her background in non-profit work, and her personal connections to the issues that One Colorado advocates for. We spent the majority of our time in the office learning about what the organization as a whole is working towards achieving, and their reasons for pursuing the legalization of civil-unions in Colorado.

Fun Facts:
- One Colorado focuses on relationship recognition, health, safety in schools, and what they call "inclusivity," a sort of umbrella term for related LGBT issues.
- Most importantly, they're focussed on spreading more awareness and relationship recognition, in hopes of changes beliefs and stigmas surrounding the idea of union and marriage within our culture.

Personally, I felt that I had a pretty strong understanding of issues within the LGBT community before making the trip to Denver, but after today realized that there are endless angles and details to every situation, and the amount of information that was presented to us was fairly overwhelming. We completed several group exercises to try and organize all of these ideas about lifestyle and oppression surrounding multiple groups and demographics. We explored several different "isms" other than those directly applying to the LGBT community, including classism, racism, and sexism.

After all of the #learning, we found our way to a local coffeeshop, and later made spaghetti for dinner. Awe.

I think what I enjoyed most about our first day with the organization is getting the opportunity to discuss things that aren't normally adressed and discussed in everyday situations. I feel like everyone in our group stepped away feeling much more informed, and even inspired, about the things happening outside of our comfort zones, and are excited to learn even more about ways to educate ourselves and those around us.

Our group is the cutest. Bye.
_____

The above photo illustrates the vehicle situation for our journey to denver...None of us slept on the drive, and we sang along to power ballads by artists like ADELE, Lady Gaga, and the late Amy Winehouse.

KING'S- where we purchased our food for the week, got morning coffee, and forced a cart boy (man) to take a touristy group photo. We later learned that the King Sooper's in the same neighborhood as One Colorado is referred to by locals as "Queen Sooper's." lolz.

Artsy Denver photo from a museum window.

Learning about culture in the museum.

More culture.

The mountains that we all have a crush on.

Sunday night exploring.

Lots of romance happening in the dreamy Gypsy House, post first day at One Colorado.

Spaghetti night. Proud mom.

One Colorado Day One

This trip has already been amazing.  It snowed on our way into Denver (I felt like a five-year old I was so excited to have my first snow of this winter season!) and quotes and crazy pictures are accumulating in mass from each of our adventures around the city.  After our first day at the site, I feel that I have become a more informed individual.  And that is probably one of the best feelings in the entire world. 

         The one thing that stuck with me from all of our Alternative Breaks classes was how important it was to have a true understanding and appreciation for every community we volunteer in.  All the information presented in articles and by speakers and panels certainly expanded my views and broadened my perspective on volunteerism in a way I had not expected. Today, we spent the entire day with the head of our organization, Shannon, learning about the organization itself, aspects of the LGBTQ community, the community in relation to politics, and forms and aspects of oppression.

         Their was an initial thrill that came from listening to Shannon discuss One Colorado’s mission, their plans for legalizing civil unions and eventually same-sex marriage, and other aspects of their work for equal rights.  I found it truly inspiring.  But our conversation then we shifted to a discussion of forms of oppression.  We had to begin to think about the societal structures and practices in place that make it necessary to engender change to establish equality.  The dialogue and information was overwhelming.  Not only is discrimination present in so many different forms in our society—racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism—they are all interconnected and fully ingrained in societal practices. 

         One of the activities we completed was called the “web of oppression.”  In this, we listed eight types of oppression and which parties were the superior or the inferior.  After doing so, we discussed how oppression will continue in all of these areas until the entire web is irradiated and can no longer be repaired.  But even more daunting than this, each from of discrimination itself will only end when they are no longer present in our ideologies, institutions, interpersonal interactions, or internalized by members of society. 

To say the least, attacking these societal systems and norms is not a simple task.  It’s a fight that most likely won’t even be finished in our lifetimes; changing these unfair and unequal practices will require revolutionary change.  It’s a depressing thought to realize how heavily influenced and dictated our society is by discrimination.  Even more unsettling is that by simply not realizing my privilege, I unconsciously maintain some of the ideas that leave these practices in place.  I can hold hands with my boyfriend in public without fear of judgment.  And I had never considered the fact that I perpetuate the need for LGBTQ members to “come out” by making the assumption that everyone I meet is straight until told otherwise. 

The information I gained today and the realizations it caused me to make have reinforced my growing awareness that education is vital to inspiring true change to our detrimental, discriminatory practices in society.  Because if you aren’t aware or can’t understand of the problem, how can you work to fix it?

 Micah Melia

Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary Day One.

Day One.

Everyone was a little unsettled about the showers run by the heating system. Also known as turn the showers on an hour before you take one so you can have water above 50 degrees. Then we all decided we were grateful to at least have showers! Otherwise, Austin is a great city. On Sunday, we were able to walk around and enjoy South Austin with out a lot of foot traffic. Katie Stites and I have decided to go to Grad School in Austin and live with Jordan and Julia. Our free day was very relaxing, and it really allowed our group to grow closer and more comfortable with each other. We have a great group dynamic.

The drive from our housing in South Austin, to our Site, which is, I don't know, somewhere else in Austin, was a very interesting drive. In about 20 minutes of highway, we traveled from the homeless Mecca of Texas, through Hipster Village Paradise, to a highway, with low income housing right next to upper middle class residences. It is very obvious that Austin is very segregated as far as monetary class is concerned, and also geographically. It is very interesting the difference twenty miles can make.

The Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary is on what seems to be back roads, and fairly unmarked. The 501 c3 Non-For Profit organization used to be “Happy Day Ranch,” a goat farm. When approaching, we saw one building painted lime green with neon blue trim, and were greeted by a one eyed cat named tangerine and a peacock on the front porch. It was a pretty eventful greeting. We were met by two women, Toni and Kris. Toni proceeded to give us a long-winded tour including about 1000 facts about every animal at the zoo (all 300), including every rooster, chicken, and guinea hen. All of the animals are affectionately named, and Toni knows all of them. Even Shiva the Tarantula. Toni then passed us off to Kris, and the work began.

We ate our lunch in the D.C., or the reptile house, where it was warm. We were unfortunately plagued with chilly weather and rain, however were fortunate enough to escape the conditions for lunch and to wash animal dishes. We started the day off as expected, scooping horse and donkey poop. We also put hay bedding down for most of the out door animals and farm animals, because they aren’t used to the cold in Austin. My encounter with an Emu was strange, and I’m not looking forward to my next one. Emu’s are the closest things to dinosaurs I’ve ever met/seen, and they make this noise that sounds like a thunderstorm with out opening their mouths. Let me spend time with big cats before I pluck an Emu’s feather. But that is beside the point, except for the point about Emu’s being really terrifying.

Through out the day Toni and Kris had been receiving updates over their high-tech walkie talkies regarding a creature named Tom. Tom, whatever he was, wasn’t doing so well. Everyone was very concerned about Tom and his well being, and I was beginning to wonder if Tom was a human or something. Turns out Tom is a turkey. All of the peacocks and farm birds roam around the Zoo, and Tom was a left over from the goat farm and the previous owners. When I was finally able to meet Tom, I was so touched. In any normal farm situation, Tom would probably have been long gone, or taken to the butcher. But not at this Zoo. Tom was inside the heated building, with his own corner section, blocked off from the rest of the creatures in the Education Building, which is actually just a building to store random animals and birds in when it gets cold. Tom had a gaggle of caretakers, and I didn’t even care when they asked me to wipe the turkey poop off of the wall and mop it off the floor. Tom even wore turkey socks to keep the lesions in his feet from becoming infected. Tom had a saline solution drip to stay hydrated, and was given medication about once an hour. I had seen tigers, bears, lions, emu, fox, wolf/dog hybrids, ponies, donkeys and spider monkeys, among others, all day long, and Tom the turkey made the biggest impression on me of the day. I was astounded at how much care was being given to this old turkey, who had a name and a story and people who loved and cared about him just as much as the tigers and black bears. Everyone made sure Tom was comfortable, with a pillow to lie on, and towels lining the floor to keep him warm and clean. Every creature at this Zoo is an equal, no matter the shape, the size, or the color. The people who work and volunteer here care for the animals in such a genuine way, I cannot explain it in words. Tom the turkey touched my heart today, and I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.

My friend, Tom.

Over and Out.

Kait Perry

Welcome to Winter Breaks 2012!

Hello, all!

We are really excited that you have chosen to live-blog your break. It allows us to see how your trip is going and we love to hear your reflections in real time.

Have fun and work hard!

Julia, Stephanie, Hannah, and Max!