Joann Podkul and Kevin Murphy are not fully certified (technically, because they still have one class to complete in October) but they are already busy on something.
Their project is the beautification of 100th Street between Avenues G and J on the Far South Side down the street from where they live. It is the north end of a wooded patch angled between a railroad line and a road leading to a power plant along the lake. It is the 100th Street entrance to Calumet Park. Here is a recent report on their progress:
We have been working with neighbors on a block yard sale, a block party and other events this summer and hoped to enlist their aid in this environmental project.
Meanwhile, we contacted the elementary school across the street and found that the principal supported the project and that a teacher in the building had long hoped to do what we were proposing at 100th Street. So add 7th and 8th grade classes to the mix, since that teacher enlisted another one to help. Overlay the above with the Field Museum’s Calumet Environmental Education Program, which the first teacher has been working with for a few years.
Field staff made an attempt to determine the owner of the land and get the owner to work with us. Those attempts were not successful but now the 10th Ward alderman’s office is ready to make the contact for us. The Field Museum will try to get a botanical evaluation (native vs. invasive species on the property), and all this before we have pulled out a single weed.
So, to date, we are in planning stage but our prospects look good for clearing space for a sidewalk and some spring bulbs, if nothing else.
We look forward to another report when they finish their last class in mid-October.
