It was an absolutely beautiful day to be outside, and regardless of how friendly the weather felt, I had planned on doing some good things today. I have to thank the Internet, mostly. Here's how I ended up sandbagging.
Barack Obama's CRM system emailed me, based on my profile in his own social network,
The next day, I experienced warm feelings about Senator Obama, not remembering why, and visited his website,
The first banner greeting me on his website reminded me that sandbagging was more important than what I was doing just then,
I left BarackObama.com and referred back to my email, where I was directed to an online resource with a local focus: MyFoxStl.com,
I tweeted and posted a link on Facebook to invite people to come along (yes, I had company, thank you!),
I used Google Maps to make sure I knew how to get to the site.
Christian and I worked at the Winfield high school and I'm pretty sure we bagged a couple of tons of sand. Work went very fast, and there were plenty of interesting people to talk with, including Shelley Powers, who told and photographed her story today as well.
Sadly, I just read that there was a major breach in Winfield tonight. I sincerely hope all of those people who were trying to get to their houses in Winfield today were able to get what they needed and get out. I also hope the amazing National Guard staff are all safe and sound. We can work very hard, and we can help each other out in tremendous ways, but sometimes nature just gets to claim ownership of the land.
Everyone affected by the flooding is in my thoughts and prayers tonight. I wish them all peace, rest, and comfort, as soon as naturally possible. If there is still a need after I've finished working tomorrow, I believe I'll be heading back out.
Dan Schesch, Democratic candidate for Treasurer of the City of St. Louis will be speaking at Mokabes on June 21 at 2PM. Please stop in to see what he's talking about.
Left Brain has been keeping me active for the past few weeks, serving as a production liaison for a fairly complex web utility and social network.
In between activities there, I've been reading, spending time with family, swimming, giving things away on Craigslist, successfully catching up with some awesome people, doing some campaigning for Dan Schesch, who's seeking the Democratic nomination for Treasurer in the City of St. Louis this year, working to develop a web strategy with The Lawler Organization, and of course, taking lots of photos.
The season is starting off unique and full of creative energy. Within seven days, I need to book a flight to anywhere Southwest flies or lose my freebie.
Yesterday in the office, I met Dan Schesch, who is running for the City of St. Louis Treasurer position in August. Linda Tatum and I were talking about him after he left and she was asking if I knew who Gregory Freeman was. Dan and Greg had together founded Bridges Across Racial Polorization ® in 1993. Funny enough, since FOCUS St. Louis has been a client for a few years now, I've indirectly helped out with the Bridges project a little myself. I was proud to tell Linda that I had co-produced a documentary for Metropolis St. Louis and the Forest Park Southeast community a few years back, and we were fortunate enough to work with the late Greg Freeman, who narrated the video for us.
I couldn't find the video anymore on the new Metropolis website navigation, but an archive of their old site still had a link under the media section. We watched the video and it brought back some great memories of the days Dave and I spent on the project. I uploaded it to YouTube, but it was 1:24 too long. Fortunately Google Video still exists. Here it is:
This project started out as a request for a PowerPoint presentation for a community open house at the Adams Park Community Center. It evolved to include some great interviews, photos, and video, and presents a nice snapshot of the Forest Park Southeast community of St. Louis, MO around the turn of the 21st century.
