Happy New Year!

Hard to believe it's already 2013! I wanted to share a quick update on where we are at with the scholarship fund. Thanks to all of you, the fund currently sits at $6910.66! We received every last dollar of the $1000 matching money. . . . what a great way to kick off the new year! Now if you do the math, we still have a long way to go. $23,089.34 to be exact. And approximately 6 months to do it in. Certainly sounds like a lot but we are on the right path and heading in the right direction. 

With the new year comes all sorts of new projects, goals, resolutions, and WGVU's 40th Anniversary! We have some great things coming your way and some amazing opportunities to get involved. Along with a lot more on my personal journey to run a 25K, get healthy, and raise $30,000, I'll also be sharing with you everything else the Engage Committee is working on. There's a lot more to us than just this scholarship, even though that is my personal focus and the reason I'm writing the blog. 

If you ever have questions for us or want to be involved please let us know! The point of our committee is to engage with the community so we love it when you talk back. Send a message here, go to the website (http://wgvu.org/), chat with us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/WGVUEngage), whatever you feel like! As I share more about myself, I welcome you to share your stories with me, ask me questions, give me advice, ask me for advice (at your own risk), anything you want. 

Personally, I am super excited for the new year; for new challenges, for new opportunities, and new experiences. I know there is a lot of uncertainty in people's lives right now, but we can choose to focus on the positive and choose to do the best we can with what we've got. I happen to think we've all got a lot more going for us than we give ourselves credit for.

I'd like to leave you with a video clip kicking off WGVU's 40th Anniversary. We can't wait to spend 2013 celebrating with YOU!


Watch the Video Here!

If you are interested in supporting the scholarship you can go online here to make a tax deductible donation: https://secure.publicbroadcasting.net/wgvu/LZMichigan/form.pledgemain

If your business is interested in being a sponsor please contact us at  veterans@wgvu.org

We Can Do This!

While I have clearly been slacking on the blogging, rest assured I have not been slacking on the running! The blog posts will probably be fewer this month with the holidays coming up, but once January hits I will be back to posting once a week. And in the true spirit of giving this time of year, I am going to be asking for money in the following post (fair warning) :) 

I have talked about why I'm running and there will be more of that to come but I wanted to touch on the basics here. We need money. Right now the endowment fund sits at $2,225.66. We need to raise $30,000 by June 30th, 2013. That means we have $27,774.34 to raise. That is a HUGE undertaking. I'm not backing down from running 15.5 miles and we're not backing down from raising that money. I can't learn how to run that far without help and we certainly can't raise that amount of money without your help. 

I mentioned in a earlier post that financially my family isn't in a position to donate large sums of money and we aren't asking you to either. Yes, we will need some big donors to make this happen, but I truly believe in the power of individuals coming together to make something bigger than their individual parts. If you can only afford $5 but feel this is a worthy cause, then donate $5. It means something and it will help. If you can't afford that then don't donate anything but share this post with your friends. It truly is that easy to make a difference in someone's life. 

Right now we have a gracious individual who has stepped up and offered to match all donations made through December 13th up to $1000! I think this is the perfect way to kick off our fundraising efforts. It goes to show how important $5 can be when, through others, it can turn into $10 or $10 can turn into $20. That's the power of a community coming together to do something good. 

My goal, other than raising the money and running the race (you would think I'd stop there), is really to spread awareness. I want people to be aware of the sacrifices our Military men and women make and I want people to understand how important it is we support them and take care of them. It's not a political statement and has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with our government. It's about people and about being a community that our Veterans can be proud to come home to. We need them and they need us, simple as that.



If you are interested in donating you can  CLICK HERE to donate online. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for the race or have an idea on how you or your business would like to get involved please contact WGVU directly at 616-331-6666 and ask for Tim!

Another Reason to Run

I'm a little late posting this week but I have a good excuse. . .I've been running! I even ran in the snow the other evening!! Never in a million years would I think I would be the crazy person outside running in the snow. Surprisingly it really wasn't that bad. Guess we'll see how I feel when there is real snow and ice on the ground!

In my last post I talked about LZ Michigan and I will come back to that in future posts but I wanted to share the second big reason I'm doing this run. Like I mentioned before, the Engage Committee has 5 areas of focus and this run really impacts all 5 areas. One of our focuses is Health and it really is the second half of why I'm running. Now to learn more about me than you ever wanted to know. . . . .

For the most part, I have always been overweight. I was the fat kid in school who couldn't run a mile. It wasn't that I was completely unhealthy, we always ate well at home, I just didn't love physical activity and was naturally larger then the average kid. Unfortunately when you're a an overweight kid, other kids like to make fun of you. I can remember wanting to lose weight as early as 2nd grade and not a single day has gone by since then that I haven't thought about my weight. It's been an up and down struggle my whole life. I've tried every diet, program, and even some pills and nothing ever seemed to work. I learned not to take everything other people said to heart, but adults are often crueler than kids and it's really hard to not let them get to you. 

I managed to lose a decent amount of weight in college and keep most of it off for a few years. About 6 years ago it started creeping back on and a laundry list of other health issues starting popping up too. It wasn't all at once so it took a while before I realized there was something really wrong with me. I was working out and actually training to run my first 5K but I kept gaining weight. Along with that, I was constantly exhausted and had some very severe stomach issues. Looking back I can definitely say I was suffering from some sort of mild depression as well, and I think any of my close friends and family would agree with that. After a few years, a lot of doctors appointments, and what felt like hundreds of little tubes of blood being drawn I was finally diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Celiac is an auto-immune disorder which affects your intestine. There's no cure, and not a lot of solid information on why it can suddenly appear when you've had no previous symptoms, but it's easily manageable by eliminating gluten from your diet. Now I'm not sharing this with you because I'm promoting a gluten free diet, in fact it's not an effective diet if you're simply trying to lose weight, but because this is when I realized how important healthy eating is and when I decided I wanted to change my life around. Once you stop eating chips and fast food, you start realizing how amazing a salad or piece of fruit can taste and how much better you can feel. And once you start feeling better on the inside, you want your outside to match.

As I started feeling better I got back into working out and lost a small amount of weight. Somewhere along the way I had an epiphany that I really don't need to lose the weight. I am healthy according to every cholesterol and blood pressure test there is, but I think losing the weight would be a big step in my journey. It's something I have wanted to do for over 20 years, the only difference is this time I want to do it for myself.  I knew signing up for the 25K would force me to incorporate exercise into my every day life and that's what I want. I no longer want to lose weight and be done. I want to live a healthy, active life style until the day I die. When I have kids, I want them to learn early on how to be healthy and active and happy. I want to be a role model for others like me who have never been able to get away from that inner fat kid and don't think they can do it. If you are healthy, I promise that you will live a happier, more fulfilling life. You will want to, and be able to, participate in life instead of sitting on the sidelines. You don't need to be thin to be healthy but you need to feel good about yourself and take care of your body. We only get one chance at this, why waste it? 

With obesity, particularly in children, becoming such an epidemic now is the time to start having these conversations and getting out there to set an example. The goal of our Health Committee is to educate people and provide opportunities for families to learn how to eat well and get active. I'm letting the community in to follow my training for this run because I want people to see anyone can do it. I don't want praise, I don't want to be called an inspiration, in fact I absolutely hate being in the lime light. BUT, I want you to see that if this fat kid can do it, so can you.

What is LZ Michigan?

Week 2 already?? Yikes, this run is going to come up quicker than I would like to think! I had the privilege of meeting two wonderful women from Gazelle Sports this evening who have graciously volunteered to help me out with training and learning the ropes of how to be a runner. We started chatting and one of the first questions they asked was what is the Engage Committee and what was LZ Michigan? I've been so excited about the number of people who have volunteered to help with this undertaking that it never occurred to me that some of these people might not even know who we are or why we're doing what we're doing! So here are the basics:

The mission of the WGVU Engage Committee is to extend the outreach of WGVU through local events and programs in an effort to better serve the community. You can learn more at our website (http://www.wgvu.org/engage/) but more or less we look for ways to be actively involved in the community through a variety of events.

LZ Michigan was an event that actually took place prior to the creation of the Engage Committee. Not an easy event to describe but directly from the LZ Michigan website: 

This summer, WGVU TV will broadcast Vietnam War Stories, a 3-part documentary produced by Wisconsin Public Television. While recording more than 100 interviews for the series, producers kept hearing the same comment from many of the veterans: they weren't welcomed home after grueling tours of duty 40 years ago in Southeast Asia.

On Saturday, July 3, 2010, they finally got that "Welcome Home," when WGVU, Grand Valley State University, and the West Michigan Whitecaps, in conjunction with the broadcast of Vietnam War Stories, presented LZ Michigan. (LZ is an abbreviation for "Landing Zone," military slang for a helicopter clearing where supplies or troops are landed.)

The LZ Michigan event at Fifth Third Ballpark honored and welcomed home Michigan's Vietnam War Veterans. This statewide effort culminated in a day of recognition and celebration of their service and sacrifice, for veterans, their families and the public. The event was not political or military. It was the community's expression of thanks, support and welcome for the men and women who served in Vietnam.

The July 3, 2010 event, LZ Michigan, featured a special evening celebration inside Grand Rapids Fifth Third Ballpark, which honored and thanked our community's Vietnam Veterans.

The ceremony honored those who were killed in action, those still missing and unaccounted for and the surviving vets, many of whom continue to suffer from injuries incurred in Southeast Asia.

The event featured speakers, recognition, musical entertainment and videos from the premiere of the Vietnam War Stories documentary, and closed with fireworks.

Any profits from LZ Michigan were to go into an endowment fund that would provide a scholarship to a Veteran or Veteran's dependent to assist with the cost of attending Grand Valley State University. Like I mentioned in the last post, we were far from making enough money to start this endowment fund. 

Now the fun part, where do I come into all this??

I learned of the LZ Michigan event because a family member worked for Fifth Third Ballpark at the time. My dad is a Vietnam Veteran so it seemed like a fitting event for me to volunteer to help with. I went to a few committee meetings and was completely blown away by the passion these people had for this event and for supporting our Veterans in general. I really didn't know anything about WGVU. I knew what PBS was (who doesn't love Sesame Street?!) and that they had something to do with radio but that really was it. I wasn't too concerned with any of that anyways, I was here to help with LZ Michigan. I'm really not even sure how to put in words how amazing the planning of LZ Michigan was, let alone the actual event. As time went on, our volunteer committee grew and grew. I truly couldn't believe how many people were willing to give of their time and resources to make this happen and they were doing it for families like mine. 

The day of the event came and it was mind blowing. We had the big map out where Veterans could write their name of where they served in Vietnam,. We had the traveling wall where they could find the names of fallen comrades. We had the Patriot Guard Riders. We had military vehicles, food, music, fireworks, and we had hundreds of Veterans who finally got the Welcome Home they were denied so many years ago. It's really hard to explain an event like this but to see men in their 50's, 60's and older in tears because they had been waiting for a moment like this their whole lives is something you will never forget. 

The war was not something we ever really talked about in my family. My dad fought in Vietnam but that's pretty much all I knew. I knew there were plenty of emotional scars from that time but like so many others it was something that was buried away and easier to not deal with. LZ Michigan offered these men and women a day to talk freely to one another and to their families and to realize that none of them are alone. It allowed conversations to take place and wounds to be heeled. It was something that you really can't completely grasp if you weren't witness to it, but trust me when I say it was life changing for a lot of people and it's something that, as a community, we can not let die. 

This is why I am running. We need to keep this event alive, and as a committee we want to expand LZ Michigan to include all Veterans. We want to continue to put on events and find ways to reach out to our Veterans and give something back to them. This weekend is Veterans Day and I would encourage you to do something to say thanks. The Grand Rapids parade is Saturday morning starting at 10am downtown. It's the perfect opportunity to show appreciation and respect for our soldiers. My personal challenge to you is to find a Veteran or active member of the Military and have a conversation. You would be amazed at the impact a complete stranger can have on your life if you take the time to listen.

Welcome Back - The Journey Ahead

Hello, and welcome back to the WGVU Engage Blog! It has been a while since we've done much with this blog but it’s time to change that. As a committee, we just celebrated our 2nd year anniversary and couldn't be happier with how far we've come! From 12 original members to well over 300 people (and counting), we have a lot more we want to do and have some REALLY exciting things coming up in our 3rd year. One of those REALLY exciting things directly involves me, as well as our five Engage Initiatives; Inclusion, Health, Arts, Veterans, and Education (which can cleverly be remembered by the acronym I HAVE). Because of that, I get to be your resident blogger for at least the next 7 months, but hopefully long past that as well. I am going to attempt to post once a week, and I promise the posts will be something to look forward to. I don’t think we did ourselves justice with the previous blog posts and it’s high time we shared with the world what our committee is doing and why it’s important. So with that being said, lets go!!

If I’m going to be talking at you (although my hopes are I’m ENGAGING you), you should probably know the basics of who on earth I am. I do not work for WGVU, I cannot afford to financially support WGVU, I’m not being paid to write this blog, and to be honest, until 2 years ago I knew nothing about WGVU. I am a member of the community who happened to volunteer for an event WGVU was putting on, and that event just happen to change my life. My name is Alison and I don’t give my support to anything I don’t 100% believe in. I have been a community member in West Michigan all my life and am a proud Grand Rapidian to the core. I’ve started on a long, personal journey because of WGVU Engage and I think it is something that needs to be archived and shared. Lucky for me they like me over at WGVU and entrusted me with the password the this blog :)

With so many weeks of writing ahead I’m not going to get too in depth now but here are the basics. The event that changed my life was LZ Michigan back on July 3, 2010. Long story short, any proceeds from LZ Michigan were to be put into an Endowment Fund as a scholarship for Veterans or Veterans’ dependents. (I will explain the event and scholarship in more detail later). Unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of proceeds and there are rules on how long you can take to fund an Endowment. Like I said, I don’t work at WGVU so I don’t know the ins and outs, I just know if we don’t get this thing funded by next July it goes bye bye. I am the dependent of a Veteran who was blessed to be able to go to college and I am not OK with this scholarship “going bye bye”. It needs upwards of $20,000 to be established which is no small undertaking. I can’t financially do much to help, but that doesn't mean I can’t do anything, so I volunteered to run a 25K race in order to raise the funds. Sounds simple enough: get people to sponsor a mile, run the race, raise a few grand. Biggest problem. . .running the race. I am not a runner. I am not an athlete. I have been overweight my entire life and get winded walking up a flight of stairs, so logically I would volunteer to run 1400 miles (and yes 25K feels like 1400 miles). This scholarship is that important to me. LZ Michigan changed my life and this is my way of saying thanks.  

I have a long journey ahead, but have so many countless people helping me out, it’s truly humbling. What’s even more humbling are the people who have said I've inspired them to want to do something in the community themselves. This is what WGVU Engage is all about. It’s so easy to sit back and complain about the problems in our community but we are standing up and doing something about it. I am standing up and doing something that is absolutely terrifying, overwhelming, and intimidating. The running part is going to be hard enough but the sharing with you why I’m doing this and letting you into this very personal journey is what’s even scarier. My hopes are I do inspire you to get up and do something. Even if it’s not with Engage, do something to improve our community, or to improve yourself. The minute we all start living up to our full potential is the minute the world around us becomes that much brighter and this whole “getting up and doing something” becomes that much more contagious.  

So that's the basics of where we're heading. I hope you will enjoy reading as much as I enjoying writing and if you're really enjoying it, the biggest compliment I could get would be for you to share this with your friends. Until next week. . . .I guess I'm off to run!

Women & Girls Lead

WGVU Engage is very excited to be partnering with ITVS and the Women and Girls Lead national committee to focus on educating and connecting women, girls and their allies to address the challenges of this century. The first of many upcoming events focused on this is on Wednesday, November 16th where we will view a recap screening of the program Women, War & Peace which will be followed by a panel discussion starting at 7pm. The event will take place in the Loosemore Auditorium on GVSU's Pew Campus. To learn more about this initiative you can visit wgvu.org/wgl or find us on facebook!

Growing Hope Against Hunger

The Engage Committee has decided on a variety of topics to focus on and one very important one that affects more people than we can imagine is children's hunger. Tomorrow night starting at 7 be sure to join us at Celebration Cinema North for a screening and panel discussion about Children's Food Insecurities in West Michigan. This is going to be a great event bringing people together who are affected by hunger and those who are looking to help. The WGVU van will be on site all day to collect items for Kids' Food Basket. Some much needed items include:

-Peanut Butter
-Fruit/pudding cups
-100% fruit juice boxes
-Cracker packs
-Sandwich bags

We hope to see you there!

Food, Wine, and All That Jazz

If you enjoy good food and good drinks, please consider joining us for this fabulous event coming up on October 28th! WGVU and D&W Fresh Market will be filling the Grand Rapids Public Museum with over 300 different wines and beers to sample, as well as an assortment of gourmet food. You will want to come hungry as "samples" doesn't really do the food assortment justice. This event really, truly is one of a kind. My husband and I attended last year for the first time and were beyond impressed. We consider ourselves "foodies" and I have been called a "wino" more than once in my life and we couldn't have asked for a better selection of food and wines to sample. Along with the huge variety, everyone working the event was very knowledgeable about the products they were serving and were overly accommodating to my food sensitivities. I've attended many events similar in nature and this was by far the most enjoyable. . . and since I first attended the event prior to being involved with WGVU I would say that's NOT a biased opinion :)

The event will feature live music by The Steve Hilger Jazz Quintet and runs from 7:30-10pm on Friday the 28th. Tickets are $60 and you must be 21 years of age with a valid photo ID. I should also point out that your ticket is all inclusive. Once you are in the event, you do NOT need to pay any extra or purchase tickets to sample. Tickets are available at all D&W Fresh Market stores or through WGVU at 1-800-442-2771. Hope to see you there. . .I promise you will not be disappointed!

PBS Fall Arts Festival Starts Tonight!

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 for the kick off of the PBS Fall Arts Festival! Tonight's feature is "Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2011". Every Friday at 9pm through December, PBS will be showing a performance ranging anywhere from women rock-and-rollers to banjo pickers. The programs will include full length performances with behind the scenes interviews, profiles of the artists, and short documentaries. Check out tonight's show and let us know what you think! And while you are in the artsy mood, don't forget about all the amazing art that is right here in our own backyard. This is the last weekend for ArtPrize and the weather couldn't be more perfect for a stroll through downtown Grand Rapids!

Stay tuned for another post this weekend with an update on what our committee is working on and some more information about the PBS Fall Arts Festival! And in the mean time. . .you've got 15 minutes to grab some popcorn and claim your spot on the couch!

Have fun this fall with WGVU!

It may have been a while since our last post but don't worry we didn't forget about you out there in the blog-o-sphere! Now that the kids are back to school and we are settling into our fall routines it's time to give you an update on what we've been working on as a committee and what great events we are looking forward to!

Nothing says fall quite like football and we've got a fun evening coming up this weekend for the whole family.

Also rounding out this month are a few opportunities to attend a free preview screening of Ken Burns' Prohibition. "Discover the true story of America’s “Great Experiment.” Go beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum-runners, flappers and speakeasies to experience the rise, rule and fall of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s PROHIBITION. "  There was a very interesting article in the Grand Rapids Press about Prohibition that I highly recommend checking out. Who knew my favorite bar played a role in such an iconic time in our country's history! The article can be read at http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/09/grand_rapid_embraced_both_side.html
The times and places of the preview screenings are:
• Thursday, Sept 22, Celebration Cinema North, East Beltline Avenue NW
• Tuesday, Sept. 27, Celebration Cinema Crossroads in Portage.
• Thursday, Sept. 29, at Celebration Cinema Carousel in Muskegon.
You can reserve your tickets at http://wgvu.org/prohibition/

Finally, we are excited to announce that WGVU is a media partner with the Arts Council of Grand Rapids, Civic Theatre, and GRAM for Art Prize. We are not only excited, but honored to be a part of this one of a kind event that has made Grand Rapids a destination for artists around the world. You can't drive through town without spotting a unique piece of art somewhere but we encourage everyone to take some time and become involved with the event. ArtPrize is a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to the wide world of art and to participate in conversations about art and the beauty of it all. PBS Arts Fall Festival will be starting up right as ArtPrize is winding down so be sure to stay tuned for some more information on that!

Now you will have to allow us to brag for a moment on behalf of one of our Engage Committee members who has an entry in the competition. Abigail Bradley had a piece entitled "A Flower With No Name" located at the Devos Place. If you have a chance, be sure to check her piece out and let us know what you think!

Now that you are up to speed with what we've been doing, we would love to hear from YOU! Leave us a comment or find us on facebook and let us know what ways you've been involved with your community and what you would like to see us do next. There is a lot we are working on right now but are always looking for input from the community we serve!

Kid's Day Pictures and PBS LearningMedia

We all had a blast at Kids Day at the Zoo and we hope you did too!! Between getting their faces painted, spending time with the Cat in the Hat, and exploring the wonderful exhibits John Ball Zoo has to offer we're sure your kiddos were in bed nice and early that night :) You can see pictures from the day here:

Kid's Day Photos!

(Pictures can be downloaded right to your computer so be sure to save a copy of the ones you love!)

So what else have we been working on you ask?? Well, we've got a pretty exciting new website to share with you. We all know how beneficial PBS programming is for children and adults alike. You always come away knowing more than you did when the program began and now we are bringing over 14,000 high-quality resources straight to YOU for free! PBS LearningMedia is a dynamic platform offering the best of public media content produced and intended for use in the classroom. Through http://wgvu.pbslearningmedia.org/ teachers can download, save, and share exactly what they need for a dynamic and interactive classroom experience. And don't feel like you have to be a teacher to sign up! PBS LearningMedia is available for anyone who wants to LEARN and can be a great source for working with children at home. Give the website a try and let us know what you think!!

While WGVU Engage is always excited to bring you family friendly events and learning experiences, we are working on a number of more adult oriented projects as well. Currently our focus areas include Diversity, Education, Veterans, Children's Health, and the Arts. You can check out our webpage at http://www.wgvu.org/engage to see a list of what we are working on and, as always, check back here for more details, updates, and pictures!

Your Source for Family Fun!

Welcome to our new WGVU Engage blog; your source for finding out what we are doing in the community and how you can get involved! We will keep you updated on everything the Engage Committee is working on, including a new arts initiative coming this fall, and any upcoming events, like WGVU Kids Day at the Zoo. We will share photos and stories after events and are always looking for new ideas or suggestions for what YOU want to see and do. Our community is what we make of it, and we hope WGVU can become your source for some great family fun!

So now that we are thinking family fun, lets jump right into it with a wonderful event we have coming up that your children are not going to want to miss! WGVU Kids Day at the Zoo presented by Meijer is the perfect opportunity to not only explore John Ball Zoo, but to view performances from members of the Arts Council, meet The Cat in the Hat, and tons more for ONLY A DOLLAR! It’s not often you get to entertain the whole family, for a whole day, for only a dollar per person. All this fun will take place on August 5th from 9am-5pm. Tickets can be purchased at WGVU, the West Michigan Whitecaps Box Office, and participating Meijer and Wendy’s locations.

Be sure to check back for pictures after the event, and news on what’s up next! In the meantime, enjoy some photos from our recent Oldies at the Ballpark Concert featuring Peter Rivera. The day was complete with great music, a Classic Car Show, and 293 beach balls! Your's truly even got to judge a hula hoop contest and vacuuming contest; certainly not something I get to do every day! Photos can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgvu/sets/72157626934650717/