Pictured above, the new 7,000 square-foot LEED-certified Blandford School sets a precedent for the Grand Rapids Public Schools. Not only does it feature the latest advancements in green building, Blandford also sets a new financing standard. With the lead $1.5 million gift from The Wege Foundation and other private donors added to GRPS’ funds, the $2.3 million school serves as a template for private-public funding in education.
The mosaic in the upper left corner was created by last year’s BEEPs, (Blandford students’ nickname) to honor Blandford Nature Center and School founder Mary Jane Dockery. In January, the Dockery mosaic welcomed this year’s 60 sixth graders as they left their leaky portable classrooms to enter the almost doubled space of their new school.
Shown in the center photo is Bert Bleke, a former GRPS superintendent and long-time supporter of Blandford School and Nature Center. He greets GRPS Superintendent Teresa Neal on the school’s opening day.
And the bottom picture is a classroom door that was hand carved out of basswood by BEEP teacher, Cheri McKay. Jeff Lende, the other BEEP teacher, carved his own door leading into his classroom.
If anyone else had announced one cold day in early 2004, “We have to save the Great Lakes,” The Wege Foundation staff would have gently nodded and gone about their business. But not when that “anyone” was Peter Wege. They knew him too well. Ellen Satterlee, now CEO of the Foundation, understood her boss was a man of huge vision devoted to the planet’s health. Terri McCarthy, now V.P. of Programming, knew Peter Wege never saw a challenge too big to take on if it meant leaving the Earth a better place for future generations.
That May of 2004, The Wege Foundation convened the first Healing Our Water conference by assembling over 70 leading environmental experts in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As Wege wrote in his invitational letter, “Our objective is to collaboratively reach consensus on a policy statement for restoring the Great Lakes ecosystem. We will focus not on the problems, but the solutions.”
In September 2012, some 600 state, federal, tribal, local, and community leaders and activists met in Cleveland, Ohio, for the 8th Annual Healing Our Waters conference. Peter Wege’s dream in 2004 has become reality. His focus on “solutions” has turned into $1 billion dollars spent since 2009 on specific environmental projects to “Heal” the Great Lakes.
That billion dollars is a direct result of Peter Wege’s directive to his guests at the original HOW gathering that they “reach consensus on a policy statement for restoring the Great Lakes ecosystem.” His guests did what they were charged to do. And their final collaborative statement ultimately became a $20 billion package of laws in the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation, now the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
The up-and-running GLRI projects completed and in progress are geared at the very problems Wege’s HOW 2004 conference defined. Stop the introduction of invasive species. Prevent sewage contamination and toxic pollution. Restore wildlife habitat.
It is true that the 100-plus organizations representing millions of people who are part of HOW refer to this successful federal legislation as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. But it started out with a different name. In his 2004 charge that his invited guests come up with a collaborative policy statement, Peter Wege told them, “I’m calling it the Magna Carta of the environmental movement for the Great Lakes.”
“GLRI” works fine. But “Magna Carta” does have a nice ring to it.
Peter Wege’s grandson Chris Carter, Jim and Mary Nelson (Peter’s daughter) enjoy a cruise on the now clean Cuyahoga River.When the Cuyahoga caught on fire in the late 1960s from toxic pollutants, the national news coverage turned into a wake-up call for the environmental movement. The Clean Water Act of 1972 was a direct result of the public’s outrage over seeing film of Lake Erie’s tributary river actually burning.
Very few people know that the word “gilda” is actually derived from the ancient Latin term for “volunteer.” And if you read that with any skepticism, it’s only because you’ve never been to the free cancer-support home called Gilda’s Club Grand Rapids. This 12-year old welcoming place for anyone dealing with cancer could not be there for all the 10,000 people it serves every year without Gilda’s volunteers.
The children, adults, family, and friends who come through Gilda’s distinct red door soon find themselves embraced, supported, and entertained by red-shirted men and women volunteers. They offer more than compassion; they also offer empathy because most of them have walked themselves or along side a loved one in the moccasins of cancer.
But it’s not enough that these devoted volunteers give their time at Gilda’s Club pouring coffee, playing with children, joining discussion groups, and simply holding a hand. When Gilda’s puts on an outside fundraiser to keep that red door wide open, the volunteers sign up in droves.
The late summer 2012 golf outing at Thousand Oaks Country Club was a case in point. Despite the 90-degree heat, Gilda’s volunteers spent a long afternoon happily greeting golfers at each hole with food, beverages, and gifts. They were smiling because they knew what they were doing. They were making sure other families like theirs will be able to walk through the open and free red door when one of their own is told, “You have cancer.”
It is true that Gilda Radner, the comic genius who died of cancer in 1989, was the inspiration for the Gilda’s support clubs around the country. But it’s also possible that her parents knew ancient Latin.
Two years before the historic 1972 Clean Water Act was passed to fight water pollution, a concerned group of Great Lakes residents were already working on it. In 1970, a grassroots movement of good citizens formed the Alliance for the Great Lakes, now the oldest independently formed organization in the nation created to protect the five Great Lakes.
Alliance members recently gathered in Grand Haven to hear former Michigan Governor James Blanchard (1983-1991) talk about Michigan’s early entry into environmental activism. Democrat Governor Blanchard succeeded Republican Governor William Milliken, and, despite their party differences, they shared a passion for the environment. And since the state they governed is surrounded by Great Lakes, protecting America’s largest fresh water resource was a top priority for both of them.
The 11,000 citizens who belong to the Alliance for the Great Lakes come from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Among many projects, they created the Adopt-a-Beach program where volunteers actively clean up 254 beaches in all six Great Lakes states. Last summer they cleared nearly 32,700 pounds of trash.
One of the Indiana volunteers, Susan MiHalo, said this about her seven years with Adopt-a-Beach at Ogden Dunes: “One of the biggest impacts I’ve seen is the ability to empower citizens. I’ve learned…even just the simplest things we can do, like putting a lid on a trash can at our beach, will help us overcome our beach health issues.”
Michelle Mullin, who volunteers at Chicago’s Ohio Street beach, spoke of her deepened commitment by “reaching out to people on the beach informing them of the tie among litter, seagulls on the beach, and swim bans.” The tie: litter attracts seagulls thus creating more waste (feces) that leads to higher e. coli counts in the water, hence swim bans. Find out more!
Thousands of volunteers — families, schools, businesses and community groups — participate in the Alliance’s Adopt-a-Beach™ Program. Volunteer to adopt a beach year round, or for just one day in September!Former Michigan Governor James Blanchard and Mark Van Putten, former president of the National Wildlife Federation and now The Wege Foundation’s environmental consultant, are pictured at an Alliance for the Great Lakes gathering in Grand Haven. The Alliance is a regional leader in environmental education having worked with The Wege Foundation to develop the “Great Lakes in My World” K-9 curriculum.
On a chilly May day in 2006, Peter Wege dedicated Lloyd and Kathleen Flanagan’s 145-acre farm as Kent County’s second permanently preserved farm. Tom Howard’s 106 acre farm (pictured above), preserved the year before, was the county’s first. Since that day, 15 more working farms – a total of 1,987 acres – have been saved from creeping urban sprawl.
The Howards, the Flanagans, and the other 15 farm owners can now pass their land on to their children to farm, lease to a farmer, or sell. But their land can never be used for anything but a farm or open space. Because of Peter Wege’s belief in economicology, early on he saw the ecological and economic win-wins for preserving farmland. Kent’s almost 2,000 acres now preserved as farms might otherwise have been sold for development – one lone house on a huge parcel of land.
But don’t these big rural homes provide new tax revenue for local governments, as developers say? Quite the opposite. The sprawler’s dream of “living in the country” forces taxpayers to pay for new infrastructure. For every dollar of property tax paid by a home owner “in the country,” the local government must spend $1.15 to provide roads, water, sewer, schools, and public safety.
Compare that to the same property-tax dollar coming from farm property: local government spends only 35 cents in farmland services, a gain of 65 cents. So why do homes “in the country” cost tax dollars while farms save them? Simple. Chickens don’t go to school and cows don’t call 911.
The truth is, however, that the farmers who go through the long process of preserving their farms think beyond their finances. In 2006, Lloyd Flanagan told Peter Wege, “This farm—well, it’s life for me. My eyesight’s not good enough to drive, but I can still walk out in my fields.”
In July, 2012, Tim Howard told a busload of people learning about farmland preservation: “All the new houses going up around me just didn’t sit right.” Wilson Kruithoff told the group why he and his wife Rose made the decision to preserve. They’d bought their farm from the Clark family, the original homesteaders of the land. “I wanted to preserve the Clark family’s heritage. We didn’t do it for profit. We did it because it was the best thing for the community.”
Shirley and Don Wollander raise corn, hay, and soybeans on their 77 newly preserved acres of farmland. “Don wanted this so badly,” Shirley told the bus visitors. “It took us ten years, but thank God it’s happened.”
At $91.4 billion last year, the farming economy is Michigan’s second biggest industry and closing in on cars. Twenty-two percent of all jobs in the state are in the farm industry. Preserving farmland now is vital to Michigan’s future.
Wilson Kruithoff, who holds an agronomy degree from the University and Chicago, and his wife Rose will put this sign in their yard naming their yard as one of the 18 permanently preserved farms in Kent County.Don and Shirlee Wollander hold the sign signifying their farm as permanently preserved through Kent County’s farmland preservation plan.The Bradford family has preserved a total of 135 acres of farmland in the Sparta Township area.
Saint Mary’s medical staff and friends participate in the Bishop’s blessing of Saint Mary’s new guest quarters for families of patients from out of town. Sophia’s House is named for Sophia Dubridge Wege, the mother of the lead sponsor Peter M. Wege. On the far left, Michelle Rabideau, Saint Mary’s Foundation executive in charge of fundraising for Sophia’s House, stands beside her associate Keri Kulala, who delivered her first child four days later, a healthy baby boy named William Briggs Kujala.
For more information on Sophia’s House please visit –Sophia’s House
The plaque reads – This Guest House is named for the woman Peter Melvin Wege referred to as “my sainted mother,” Sophia Louise Wege. Born December 8, 1884, Sophia Dubridge grew up on the west side of Grand Rapids in a fun-loving Catholic family. In 1916 the pretty, dark-haired woman caught the eye of widower Peter Martin Wege when his new company, Metal Office Furniture, was doing business with Macey’s where Sophia kept the books. They married in 1917, and on February 19, 1920, their life’s miracle happened at Saint Mary’s Hospital. Peter Melvin Wege, the child they never thought they would have, was born. Sophia Wege gave back to Saint Mary’s by becoming an active member of the hospital’s Mary Catherine Guild. In turn, Peter carried on his mother’s special affection for Saint Mary’s when he joined the hospital’s board in 1956, being the youngest member by 30 years. Peter’s commitment to Saint Mary’s has never flagged since.
Grand Rapids Public Schools City High/Middle School recently hosted an all-day seminar based on Peter Wege’s two books, ECONOMICOLOGY I and II. City’s Economicology Expo focused on Wege’s advocacy for balancing the “economy” with the “ecology.”
Forty-plus outside speakers gave programs in their particular areas of expertise. Their topics ranged from Pet Adoptions to Veganism; Window Insulation to Our Water; Hydrofacking to Feeding America.
All the presenters directed their talks to one or more of Peter Wege’s philosophy of the Six Es: Environment. Ethics. Empathy. Economics. Ecology. Education.
Vaughn Maatman, Executive Director of the Land Conservancy of West Michigan, spoke on, “Economicology and Ethics.” He challenged the students to examine their values when they make purchases. Working in small groups, students were asked to choose their first car based on Wege’s six Es. Maatman asked them to think about “a healthy relationship between the things you buy and the environment.”
Their choices ranged from a 1997 Stratus to smart cars to bikes to hybrids. Reviewing the results, the students discussed the complexity of their choices. A Volvo, for instance, is the safest car but it’s because their cars use more steel, which means they burn more fuel. Subaru leads the industry in that nothing from manufacturing their cars goes into the landfill.
Maatman asked students to think about their “dream car,” and then think about what car they’d buy in terms of Peter Wege’s Six Es philosophy.
**City High students Melanie Rothley and Mitchell Armstrong on the left stand beside their guest speaker from Steelcase, Melissa De Soto, with students Jason Do and Christian Nyugen on the right. Peter Wege’s Six Es philsophy is written on the board behind them.
City High substitute teacher Courtney Ridout (pictured above) stands with Terri McCarthy, V.P. of Programming from The Wege Foundation, on Eco Expo day. Terri McCarthy talked to the students about farmland preservation as an example of how the non-profit world supports ECONOMICOLOGY.City High seniors Megan Crawford and Haley Young wear their Economicology Center T-shirts during their school’s recent Eco Expo.
An historic groundbreaking took place in May marking the first public school in Grand Rapids to be built with 90% of the $2 million-plus cost coming from the private sector. The new Blandford School will open early in 2013 welcoming 60 GRPS sixth-graders to the nature school’s first permanent home.
The Wege Foundation spearheaded the campaign with a lead-off $1.5 million joined by the Steelcase Foundation, $150,000, and the Meijer and Frey foundations each giving $100,000. The only tax dollars spent were the $250,000 that came out of the GRPS’s food service money.
As with every capital project Peter Wege has supported for the past decade, the new Blandford School will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. With solar panels, wind turbines, and eight geo-thermal wells providing the heat and cooling, Blandford hopes to earn a Gold Leed rating when it’s done.
Blandford will be the 9th GRPS LEED-certified school. As Senita Lenear, president of the Board of Education told the audience, children getting educated in Grand Rapids’ LEED schools are “the sustainable leaders of the future.”
The 7,000 square-foot school will be used by Blandford’s two classes of 6th-graders during school hours while the Blandford Nature Center next door and the community will have access to it year around.
Ellen Satterlee, CEO of The Wege Foundation said Blandford “carries on Mr. Wege’s passion for education and for the environment.”
***Above picture – The current sixth graders at Blandford School were all part of the ground breaking ceremony. By Jeffrey Cunningham
Blandford BEEP Mackenzie Schliem shows her chicken to the legendary Mary Jane Dockeray who is the founder and moving spirit behind both Blandford Nature Center and Blandford School. A mural in the new school will pay tribute to Mary Jane for her forty-plus years of leadership and commitment to both the Center and the School.The current Blandford School has been using this portable building since 1990. By Jeffrey CunninghamArtist rendering of the new Blandford School. By Jeffrey Cunningham
Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design held a dual celebration in May when the doors opened to its $31 million renovation of the old Federal Building. In addition to taking tours of the former courthouse and post office, guests welcomed Kendall’s new president and said goodbye to its current chief.
Retiring after 18 years, Kendall’s President Dr. Oliver Evans, on the left (above photo), introduced his successor, Dr. David Rosen, on the right with Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell in between. Under President Evans’ leadership, in 2001 Kendall joined forces with Ferris expanding the art school to 1400 students and multiplying its offerings. New this fall, for example, will be a course on medical illustration.
The Federal Building’s last tenant before Kendall was the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Having outgrown its Fulton Street facility, in 1981, GRAM moved into the then vacant Federal Building. By 2000, GRAM again needed to move and Peter Wege spearheaded a drive to build the art museum in 2007. As with his GRAM vision to be the world’s first green museum, Wege’s gift to Kendall reflects his commitment to economicology and LEED certification.
The new cornerstone of Kendall’s environmental education is the Wege Center for Sustainable Design where students will learn the whole-systems approach to sustainability in art and design.
Kendall’s incoming president Dr. David Rosen came to Grand Rapids from California where he was Senior Vice President of Woodbury University, a private college specializing in the arts and architecture.
Under Rosen’s leadership, the National Education Trust named Woodbury the nation’s best small masters university in advancing Hispanic, low-income, and minority students. Dr. Rosen also directs plays and writes rock music.
Pictured in the Wege Center for Sustainable Design at Kendall are tour guide Shana Curtis and Ellen Satterlee, CEO of The Wege Foundation.Pictured here is the original judge’s desk and stand from the 1911 opening of the U.S. District Court for the Western District. The courthouse building by architect James Knox also served as a U.S. post office.
