LAST WEEK. I kind of mentioned it in my last post but this summer passed by really fast. Kerrel and I spent this last week in the office taking it easy. We took a Canadian news crew on a tour around the community on Tuesday and that was pretty interesting because we got to see Zug Island for the first time. Zug Island is a man-made island in the middle of the Rouge River. It’s a very industrialized island which results in heavy environmental impacts like extreme water pollution. It was a pretty fun tour though. We’ve been spending a lot of time preparing things to pass off to Rhonda when we leave. I really enjoyed my time here and learned a lot. When I get back to school I want to learn more about what’s going on in our local community because there’s so much that is happening outside of the college bubble. Working with the downriver communities was a great experience because I got to learn a lot from the residents like their pasts and passions.
One of my goals going back to Ann Arbor will be to try to raise more awareness among youth like me about the environmental issues going on in their local communities. People know there are environmental concerns at a national level but probably not so much at the local level. I believe Rhonda has taught me some really valuable “grassroots” methods when it comes to community work and I’d like to continue it in the future some how.
