March – Feed the Hungry Update

The day of the event is finally set in stone; we will be making and serving breakfast for the Family Center at City Union Mission on Saturday the 28th of March. We expect to have around 100 client and we are all very excited.

The menu includes:

• Breakfast Burritos
• Krispy Kreme Donuts
• La Mars Donuts
• Bagels
• Sweet Rolls
• Cheese Rolls
• Bread
• Orange Juice

We will be getting donations from:

1. Krispy Kreme - 10 dozen fresh donuts
2. LaMars -10 dozen fresh donuts
3. Panera – Bagels, sweet rolls, chesse rolls, bread
4. Mendolia Sausage – 15lbs of breakfast sausage\
5. Silva Foods – 2 gallons of salsa, 150 10” tortillas, 5lbs of chips
6. Target - $50 in gift cards
7. B&M – Cups
8. Spaces – Info cards

We are VERY excited to get these donations and there might be one or two more before the date of the event.
During the event as each client is getting their breakfast we will also be handing out an informational card, which will have the same information that the blankets did.

The important dates for the Feed the Hungry Project are as follows:

Thursday 3/19/09 – Tentative deadline to volunteer
Wednesday 3/25/09 – Volunteer meeting
Saturday 3/28/09 – Day of the event

On the 28th of March our day will begin at 6:30AM when we will meet in the kitchen of the Family Center located at: 13th and Wabash. From there we will separate into people who want to set –up and those who want to cook. Breakfast will be served at 8AM and they will have 30min. to eat. We should be able to be done by around 9:30AM.

We need a total of 22 volunteers to cook, serve, set-up and clean-up. So far we have a few volunteers (mainly from Spaces) so if you are interested on helping that day please contact me (Laura Torres) at ltorres@burnsmcd.com) or Dave Sharpe at dsharpe@burnsmcd.com by March 19th. In the e-mail please put Feed the Hungry as a subject and let us know if you can be there for the whole three hours or if you would like to be a back-up. We will be meeting the 25th of March for a meeting to go over details of the day of. The meeting will be at noon and hosted by Spaces Inc.

We hope to see a lot of you there!
Laura, Dave and the Feed the Hungry Team.

Blanket Distribution

The team gathered outside Hope Faith Ministries downtown

Organizing all 80 blankets by size!

Melissa McGee (Burns & McDonnell) handing out a blanket

Caitlin Boies and two new blanket owners!

Sewing Day Photos

Volunteers from two Olathe junior high schools helped our team complete almost 80 blankets!

It took several Saturdays...

...and lots of hard work!



Friends from Knoll turned out to help.

Amy Pierce (Spaces) and Melissa McGee (Burns & McDonnell)

Warming the Homeless Event

On a Saturday morning in February the Burns & McDonnell/Spaces team gathered downtown at Hope Faith Ministries, their mission underscored by the heavy snowstorm that had blanketed the ground and continued to fall. The team was here to distribute 80 handmade blankets, lovingly sewn by area school children and church groups from donated commercial fabrics. Bearing in mind the needs of those displaced by misfortune and fate, these blankets folded compactly into pillows that could be easily transported, and which bore a list of area homeless services and bus routes. Over a thousand needy Kansas Citians shuffled through the shelter that morning, looking for a hot meal, some warm clothes and a break from the cold. It is our hope that they found much more: a unique and beautiful item for them to own and cherish, stitched with the care of a community that surrounds and supports them.

Save the Planet Sub Committee Meeting and Update

The group has been working hard on brainstorming ideas for the Outdoor Classrooms. This past week, a design charrette was held at Operation Breakthrough which included nearly nine Operation Breakthrough staff members. The charrette covered the staff member’s vision of the outdoor classroom, areas of improvement, ideas, four top priorities, and sketches of the proposed site. Input from Operation Breakthrough staff was essential in moving forward with a design. The following are ideas that everyone has come up with for different activities for the children to engage in and bring the site together.

Fence – Vegetation – Native Plants – Focal Classroom Stage – Set Entrance - Rain Garden – Educational Displays – Sound Garden – Art Wall – Climbing Wall – Vegetable Garden – Composting / Recycling – Toddler Area – Bird House and Feeder Area – Rain Barrel – Willow Structures – Worm Farm – Yellow Brick Road – Tree House – Stumps – Benches – Fossil Area – Developing a Curriculum – Butterfly Garden – Naming Contest


There are so many great ideas that will give the children an amazing experience in their outdoor classroom. Although out group won’t be able to do all of them, we can sure begin to turn the space into an educational urban oasis. The Save the Planet Sub-Committee will be working on preparing three different designs of the Outdoor Classroom in the next couple weeks. We are looking for anyone and everyone to participate in our own design session from 12:00 - 1:00 PM Thursday February 12, 2009 in CR 298 of the 9400 Building at Burns & McDonnell. There will be a lot of trace paper and markers for everyone to help sketch how they envision the outdoor classroom.

Everyone is welcome to come and let their creativity run loose, so I hope to see many of you at 12:00 on February 12th in CR 298.

Nature Deficit Disorder…

This is a quote by Aileen Murphy-Swift, a director at Operation Breakthrough. She is using Richard Louv's book:

Last Child in the Woods

"Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder"

People need nature - really need nature, not merely enjoy nature or benefit from nature. Children need experiences with nature just as they need sleep or healthy food. Why? Richard Louv spends much of his book Last Child in the Woods explaining exactly what nature offers children:

• Emotional well being
• Spiritual sense of perspective
• Observation skills
• Cognitive abilities
• Creativity
• Healthy risk taking
• Observation skills
• Balanced sense of humility
• Stress management
• Increased attention
• Lowered depression

How can nature offer all of these advantages? Primarily because it involves all of the senses. He contrasts it with television and computers which are mainly dual-sensory, appealing only to the eyes and ears. And what if we lack this time with nature? Louv calls the result nature deficit disorder. Unfortunately, our culture has created this disorder with a criminalization of natural play. An irrational fear of the woods and the things that go on there, a general mistrust of strangers, a sense of panic over crime, and a fear of litigation all work against children's delight in the outdoors. Parents simply are afraid to let their children play, unfettered in nature which is exactly what Louv says they need. Free, unstructured time to explore, pretend, and create outdoors is the antidote to nature deficit disorder. And today's families are far too fearful, too busy or are lacking access to spaces in which to provide this freedom.

The remedy? Read Louv's book, and you will realize that we truly need nature as we need water and shelter. When it is no longer a leisure pastime but a life's necessity, most parents will make time to enjoy nature alongside their children. There is no substitute for direct experiences in nature. No books, online course, website, or lecture can take the place of touching, seeing, smelling for yourself. Those indirect methods of learning about nature, versus experiencing nature, lead to a "know it all" state of mind. But time spent entranced by nature's spell generates a sense of wonder, awe, and humble perspective.

Call for Volunteers!

The Warming the Homeless team has two SEWING EVENTS coming up! Two Olathe middle schools have opened their sewing rooms to us, and volunteered the help of their Family & Consumer Sciences (FACS) students. We can use your help, even if you can't sew! There will be cutting, pinning, ironing and other general tasks to perform. Please email me at jjecker@burnsmcd.com for the Outlook invite with more details.

Saturday, January 31st at Prairie Trails

Saturday, February 7th at Frontier Trail