Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Cookies, Quotes and Conversations!

Well, the election has come and gone, and though I perhaps shouldn't reveal who I supported for President on this blog, as a resident of Barack Obama's neighborhood I think you can probably guess for yourself. :P

Now that a member of our community is the President-elect of the United States, the youth of our program can reflect on their role in the election. Last week we decorated cookies and brought them to a local nursing home. The kids really enjoyed their time visiting with residents, sharing the cookies they made, and discussing the upcoming election. We've got pictures from the cookie decorating, and I'll post them as soon as I am able.

This week we continued in the spirit of cookies and conversations by having an event at Meadville Lombard Theological school. Members of the University of Chicago and Meadville Lombard communities came to hear what the kids had to say about the election and to share in making (and eating) cookies. We all began to hand out cookies and quotes on the sidewalk outside the school with the kids encouraging people to vote with creative rhymes and sayings, and we soon learned that CSPAN was just down the street. We were invited to come on their bus, where the kids got to learn about the election and sing the song they had come up with for the CSPAN cameras. If we find footage of this I will post it here.

Meadville Lombard did a really great story on the event, with some excellent photos and quotes from people involved. You can find it here.

All in all we had a really great time! We'll have some reflections from the youth next week.

Until then,
Chris