The Way to Rainy Mountain1. In many ways, Momaday is writing .docx
Andrea Baumgartner article samples
1. The Million Dollar Mile
By Andrea Baumgartner
September 6, 2014
In the early morning hours before the sun peeks it’s golden crown above the horizon, before
the birds stir in their nests and the streets become speckled with hurried cars on their way to
work, Steve Cannon runs.
At 47, Cannon is lanky and limber, stretching 6 feet 3 inches tall. His hairless head juxtaposes
the full beard that camouflages his chin and cheeks, the perfect symbol of his rugged outdoor
life.
As his feet hit the pavement, his pace falls into a steady rhythm; this week, he’ll be running
close to 100 miles.
When you ask most people why they run, the response is typical: it’s good for your health, it
relieves stress, because it’s enjoyable… for Cannon, running has taken on a completely new
meaning. Beyond the obvious health benefits, Cannon is running for others — for those who
have fought cancer, for those who are in the middle of the battle, and for those who have lost.
Now, having ran across the state of Iowa, being the first to run the entire circumference of Lake
Michigan in consecutive days, and the brain and brawn behind the Coast to Coast for Cancer
initiative that took him and a team from Washington State to Delaware, Cannon has turned an
average activity into the extraordinary, all while raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for
Cancer.
In the Beginning…
The Burlington, Iowa native was not always a runner though. It was by complete accident that
he even fell into the hobby.
“I grew up in a small town, so I wasn’t exposed to any kind of adventure,” said Cannon. “But for
whatever reason, my uncle, who thought I was going to be a punk kid my whole life, took me to
the boundary waters when I was maybe 12 or 13, and that was the first time I had camped or
done anything… and I think it planted a seed.”
Despite the early exposure, Cannon fell into “small town ways.” After his parents got divorced
in high school, he began drinking and partying too much, making bad decisions and heading
down a troublesome road.
“I was lost,” he admitted.
2. In his twenties he got two drunken driving tickets and spent a week in jail.
“I had gotten myself in enough trouble that I decided that I would quit drinking because now I
had an excuse,” he said. “I didn’t have the guts to do it on my own, but now I could blame it on
how much trouble I had gotten myself into.”
It wasn’t until his late twenties that he really began to explore an alternative lifestyle. A friend
had asked him to go rock climbing at the University of Iowa gym, and that’s when he fell in love.
“I was hooked,” said Cannon. “We were going every night to the gym, and we ended up
planning a trip to Colorado to a place called Eldorado Canyon to climb real rock. It was your
classic late twenties trip. We had no money, a beat up old VW van and a dog. We just went out
there and climbed.”
The trip inspired Cannon to move to Colorado two months later, where he became immersed in
the local scene. He didn’t know anybody except his roommate, who worked at a nearby running
store. Within the first few months of living there, he began to recognize a trend in weekend
activities.
“There were 5ks and 10ks every freaking weekend,” laughed Cannon, rolling his eyes. “So I ran
my first 5K in Manitou Springs on St. Patrick’s Day… and I really just did it so I could meet
chicks!”
Despite feeling like he was going to die, and hating himself for doing it, he continued to run
anyways. Running on the daily became regular, and soon 5ks turned into 10ks, and 10ks into
half marathons, and eventually full marathons.
“I would hear about people doing the Pikes Peak marathon, or running 50 milers and even 100
milers, and I just became really interested in the potential of human beings and what we could
do and how far we could push ourselves… so that’s how it started.”
Cancer Sucks…
A little over 1.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer in the United States in 2013 — that’s
about 4,500 people every day, 190 every hour. The overall costs of cancer are nearly $201.5
billion, and with 50 million Americans uninsured, cancer detection and treatment can become a
challenge.
Cancer first became a significant part of Cannon’s life in his early 30s between his first and
second marathon. His grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer and within a day of visiting
the Mayo clinic, passed away.
3. “I ran the Chicago marathon that year in her honor,” said Cannon. “The American Cancer
Society had a thing where you could sign up and commit to raising 100 bucks and that was the
first time I ran for cancer. I didn’t have any plans to continue doing that beyond that, it just
seemed like a cool way to honor my grandmother.”
Nonetheless, the pieces began to fall into place. A few years later, Cannon met the first guy to
ever run across the state of Iowa, By that time, he had gotten into adventure racing and
participating in races that lasted 24 to 36 hours long. Distance became an addiction.
“I couldn’t get enough of it. When that guy talked to me, it just lit a fire in me and I was like ‘I
want to do that, I want to see if I can do that.’”
A year later, he finally got the courage to commit.
“We were all surprised and shocked,” said Cannon’s niece Sarah Ensminger. “I wasn’t the only
one wondering ‘why would someone want to do that?!”
Besides the challenge, Cannon figured it would be harder to quit if he was doing the run across
Iowa for something besides himself.
“I can’t really say I had any noble motives at first, I just figured it would be a really good way to
make it harder to quit.”
So he got involved with the Livestrong Foundation, and decided to do the run to raise money to
benefit their cause. Despite not knowing anything about the organization’s real mission,
through the course of that run, a switch was flipped inside him.
“It completely changed the whole course of my life,” said Cannon. “The people I met who were
in the cancer fight and the lessons they taught me about how valuable life is and the value of
friendships, the value of every moment and every day… I knew that that was what I was going
to spend the rest of my life doing: fundraising and doing runs and taking what I love and finding
a way to make that benefit other people.”
The run across Iowa was 11 days and raised $5,000. During that run, Cannon began to devise
other runs to raise money, including a run across the United States. He realized the potential
but also recognized that one person was not enough to move the needle. He calculated that if
you had 150 marathoners, running a relay from coast to coast, that $750,000 could be easily
raised.
“I thought he was crazy,” said his sister Kristan Ensminger. “This is always my initial reaction
when he tells me his plans. I can never wrap my head around what he is doing. And yet after
the fact, it seems like the most normal thing to me. It’s like he’s meant to do it.”
4. After the run across Iowa, Cannon’s obsession with pushing his limits brought him to a new
challenge. While spending a week at the Indiana Dunes, he began to realize how enormous
Lake Michigan was and wondered if it was possible to run around the entire thing, and if
anyone had done it in consecutive days.
“I divided 1,040 miles by 26 and basically came up with 40 marathons in 40 days and that
sounded awesome, so right then I knew that that was what I was going to do next,” said
Cannon.
So the following summer, Cannon made the daring trek around the circumference of Lake
Michigan, being the first to do so in consecutive days while also raising $33,500 for Cancer
research. It was also during this run that the devilish disease struck his family again. On the
23rd day of his run, his mom sent him a text reading “you’re running for uncle Mike now,” who
had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Seven days later, his uncle passed away.
“I kept asking my mom if I should go home and she kept saying ‘don’t you dare.’ This run was so
much more important now. And as I was approaching the last mile, my mom and 3 of her
brothers were there waiting for me to run the last mile with me, and it was an incredibly
poignant time in my life.”
For Cannon, it only seemed natural to turn his attention and energy to organizing the run across
the country. After succeeding in the Iowa and Lake Michigan runs, he had the confidence and
resources now to make something spectacular happen.
Cannon teamed up with Above and Beyond Cancer, a non profit in Des Moines, Iowa, and
began planning the run that would start in June, last 42 days, include over 150 runners and
would take him and his team from the shores of Washington to the shores of Delaware all while
raising over half a million dollars.
“Well over 300 people carried the baton at some point during the run,” explained Cannon. “It’s
amazing how the universe works.”
A New Motivation…
Just when it felt like the universe was working for Cannon, life threw down another speed
bump.
Not long before the run across America began, Cannon received the phone call he dreaded the
most. After having gone through losing a grandparent and an uncle to cancer, Cannon never
thought he would be hearing from his younger sister, Kristan.
5. “To have Kirstan diagnosed with breast cancer was a whole ‘nother ball game. I mean, she’s it
for me,” said Cannon, rubbing his beard and looking at the ceiling. “There’s nobody else in the
world that means more to me than that girl.”
When their parents had gotten divorced, Cannon was the one looking after her and keeping an
eye on her, becoming best friends in the process. Having someone so close to him be diagnosed
with cancer brought a new perspective to everything he was doing.
“Telling him was so tough,” said Ensminger. “Be he was so supportive and never wavered. He
told me that I’d beat it, he told me he was there for me, and he told me he loved me. That was
all I needed to hear.”
But with Cannon’s education on the cancer journey and all of inspirational stories he had to
share with her, he felt like he had something to offer and could understand what she was going
through. He also began to realize how important his fundraising through running was — it was
helping provide more material on educating the public, it was going toward research and it
dawned on him that it was actually going to help save lives.
“Her life was saved because she was educated, and because of early detection. What we’re
doing is helping to de-stigmatize cancer. Thank God she’s cancer free now and didn’t have to go
through a lot of what others have to go through.”
Since then, Cannon has also organized what he called the 550 relay. The event took place in
June 2014, and involved 11 marathon runners in all 50 states, running over a period of 5 days in
an attempt to raise $2.5 million.
Cannon is now the executive director of an organization he started called One Race Events. His
company is small — 3 fulltime employees — but their outreach is huge. They pair up with other
nonprofit organizations, most of them funding cancer research and support, to put on large
running events with the sole purpose of turning athletic endeavor into charitable profit.
“You get to be around even more people who have been affected and you see them come
through and survive and some don’t, but the more you’re around it, and the more you’re
involved…” he said, his eyes lighting up, “at least for me, there’s nothing I would rather do.”
6. Finding Faith
The first time I stepped into the auditorium at the Vineyard Church in Urbana, IL, I was
overwhelmed by the expansiveness of it all. There were easily over 300 movie theater style
chairs lined up in a perfect semi-circle, facing a stage that could host a Broadway production.
Five large tapestries on the wall read“share”, “grow”, “serve”, “connect”and “worship”. On
either side of the room, large drop-down screens displayed a digital countdown to the
beginning of the service.
As I made my way with my friend to find seats, everyone I passed flashed a warm smile at me,
easing my nerves. I think they could tell I was a first-timer. I had grown up with parents who
were Christian, and had attended church on a semi-regular basis, but had never really made
the faith a part of me. It was just there. I knew who God and Jesus were, but my relationship
with them was nonexistent.
It was ironic how I had ended up attending this Church service. My “plans” had gone array,
and through a wild chain of events, I was given the opportunity to get back on course — but in
a completely different direction.
I was beginning my second year of undergraduate study at the University of Illinois, coming
off of a rough start to my college experience. When I arrived on campus, I was glowing with
the excitement of starting a new chapter in my life. I had everything I thought I needed: a
boyfriend, an athletic scholarship to swim, a huge group of friends, and a major in journalism
that I knew without a doubt was what I wanted to do. I had it all figured out.
7. I was going to swim all 4 years, become a Big Ten Champion and NCAA qualifier; I would
graduate and set out on a new adventure. It was going to be easy and I was going to do it
without any help.
It’s funny, though, how invincible we feel when we are out our highest, the point at which we
have so much more to lose. The fall to the bottom is that much farther, your odds of losing it
all that much greater. I had a tight grip on every aspect of my life, I was organized and in
control. I was going to accomplish everything I had set out to do.
Yet here I was, in a community of people who believed that you couldn’t go through life
without leaning on the power of something greater than us. As I sat down, and looked around
me, I reflected on what had brought me here in the first place.
Remember, remember the 5th of November… 2010
That expression, commemorating Guy Fawkes’ Day, also had significance in my own life. It
was the start of my downward spiral.
The pain that ripped through my abdomen was like nothing I had felt before.
“Coach, I don’t know if I can get through practice.”
“Go see the trainer. She’ll know what to do.”
A quick examination and a few little red pills later, I was back in the water with the hopeful
thought that ibuprofen would cure me.
8. Half an hour of practice went by and the pain near my stomach only got worse.
“Baums, you don’t look so good. Why don’t you hop out and go see the doc at the stadium
before your gut explodes.”
Real funny coach.
My trainer and I walked to the stadium to have the athletic doctor examine me. Just lying
down on the firm, padded table was uncomfortable, and it was almost unbearable when the
doctor wiggled my hips from side to side.
“She needs to go to the E.R.” he said.
My eyes were tearing up as a new wave of pain ripped me in half.
“I’ll be alright doc,” I pleaded. Maybe if I forced myself to ignore the aching, it would magically
go away.
“No,” he replied. “You need to go now.”
As my trainer drove me to the E.R., I called my parents explaining what was going on. They
thought it was just cramps, my trainer thought it could be the food I ate at lunch, and as for
me, all I knew was that something was definitely wrong.
I had been at the hospital for 6 hours, drifting merrily in out and out of a morphine-induced
sleep, waiting for my CAT scans to be processed and analyzed.
9. A quiet knock came at the door and my doctor walked in. The harsh white walls, and my eyes
being blinded by the light, made it difficult to read the expression on his face. What did the
CAT scan show?
“Well Andrea, it looks like you’ve got a bit of appendicitis. We’re going to book you an O.R. and
we’ll get that right out of you. Hope you don’t mind staying a bit longer.”
Two months into my freshman season and it was already over.
The rest of the year I battled sickness and constant fatigue, and struggled to catch up to the
rest of my teammates. All of the plans I had made began to unravel. My boyfriend and I broke
up, my friends began to dwindle, and I had turned to alcohol and partying to fill my time. To
top it all off, that following summer, between my freshman and sophomore year, I had taken
a nasty spill down some stairs (no surprise, considering swimmers don’t function on land very
well), and ended up tearing a ligament in my right ankle; a debilitating injury to the most
valuable part of my stroke: my kick.
It was no coincidence that I ran into my friend on our front porch that first weekend back at
school the following year. When I had filled her in on everything I was dealing with, she was
quick to ask if I would want to accompany her to church that weekend, promising me a good
time and the encouragement I needed. Her question tugged at my heart and the answer was
easy; of course I would go, everything she had told me sounded promising; the community,
the love and the support that was I was seeking.
10. Now, sitting in the middle of a place I was familiar with but really knew nothing about, my
friend took my hand and turned to me. The countdown on the big screens reached zero and
the worship band struck up the first song.
“Are you ready for your life to be changed?”
“Yea, I think I am.”
***
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God You are higher than any other. Our God is Healer,
awesome and power, Our God, Our God… And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop
us, And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?
The entire church was on its feet, jumping up and down, arms raised, yelling out the lyrics to
the last song of the service. My heart swelled with the crescendo of the band, and my legs
shook underneath me at the power of what I was witnessing.
The senior pastor of the church, Happy Leman, had spoken that day, and it was almost as if he
had written the sermon specifically for me. The message was about putting your trust in God,
and believing that despite all of your struggles and sufferings, He had a plan for you, and it
was greater than anything you could imagine, and completely in His hands. If He brought you
to it, He could get you through it.
11. The music grew louder and the lyrics clearer, and with every word sung, the joy of the people
around me became contagious. I wanted what they had, I wanted to let go of all the troubles I
was holding on to, I wanted God, and I wanted to commit my life to Jesus.
Right then and there, in the middle of the song, I decided that I was going to live my life
differently; I was going to live it for God. Immediately, I fell to my knees and began to cry.
That was what I had needed all along — to give my life a purpose beyond my own desires and
goals, and to face my struggles with God on my team.
Had I not run into my friend, had she not asked me to go with her that weekend, had I said
no, had I not heard that message — I would not be where I am today.
Looking back at the last few years of college, having God as my rock has gotten me through
some of the toughest times of my life, and brought me blessings beyond what I could
imagine.
A few months after I committed my life to Christ, I was forced to retire from swimming
because of my surgery the year before and injury to my ankle. Where I had once put my
identity in my sport, I now recognized that I was not “Andrea the swimmer,” but “Andrea the
child of God.” It was by no means easy giving up what had been the primary focus for so
much of life, but without my faith, I don’t know if I would have been able to move forward.
I became involved with the organization Fellowship of Christian Athletes, where I made some
of my best friends, as well as developed an appetite for ministry and teaching.
12. I began writing for a student magazine called buzz, and quickly became the editor for the Arts
& Entertainment section. The same semester that I began writing, I also had the opportunity
to intern for a local nonprofit that was researching the power of music in developing
countries. One year later, I was on my way to New York City for an entire summer with a
dream internship that I thought I would never get.
It was incredible what God had done for me in such a short amount of time. I had given over
my life, and He had brought me to exactly where I needed to be.
One of my favorite analogies about our experiences in life is that it’s like a quilt. On one side,
you have the mess of all the thread and strings crisscrossing to tie all of the pieces together —
that’s all you can see when you’re in the thick of it. But when it’s finished, and you flip it over,
it all comes together to make something unique and beautiful, you just have to hand the
needle over to God, the master crafter.
More than all of this though, I have come to realize the power of transformation when you
choose to open yourself to new experiences. There is nothing wrong with having a plan, but
sometimes, that plan can cloud your vision and prevent you from discovering things that
might help you along the way. No matter where you are in your walk through life, you will
always need a place to go where you can “share” your struggles, “grow”into who you are and
who you are meant to be, “serve” others, “connect” the dots and “worship” with the
newfound joy you have discovered. All it takes is a little faith.
13. 28 October 2012
Shriveling Arts Funding Paints Ugly Picture
Champaign and Urbana nonprofits in arts education took a hard hit to funding in 2007 as the
great recession began.
For example, the Champaign-Urbana Schools Foundation saw its revenue drop from about
$310,000 to $295,000 from 2007 to 2008.
Similarly, the amount of total individual contributions to the Champaign-Urbana Schools
Foundation failed to increase as projected, remaining steady at $45,000.
Since then, the foundation has been rebounding, now topping off their revenue at around
$400,000. But, the foundation’s executive director Gail Rost says that they are still struggling for
donations.
“Unless you have your own private pot of money, you’re reliant on what we call soft income,
and you have to have a message that resonates with that donor,” Rost said. “If the message
isn’t the arts, you’re not going to get the gift.”
Rost said that nonprofits not only have problems receiving donations during recessions, but in
general they struggle to market the importance of the arts. She said part of the reason is it
seems ambiguous to what the money is going towards. In contrast, donations to organizations
like the Humane Society, where money is used for food or kitty litter.
Currently, there are 57 registered nonprofits in Champaign-Urbana according to Guidstar.org, a
nonprofit that collects financial data as well as other information on nonprofits nationwide.
Of these 57, only eight are arts related. Forty-three of these are located in Champaign, and 14
in Urbana. As of May 24th 2012, the United way of Champaign County reported that 37 of these
nonprofits totaled over $2.8 million in their community investment, with over $1 million in
donor directed funding.
Nationwide, the arts are a $135 billion industry, generating 4.1 million full-time jobs and $22.3
billion in revenue to local, state, and federal governments each year, according to Americans
for the Arts. This group collects data on the impact of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations
on the economy, released these figures.
14. Illinois:
Illinois is no stranger to such benefits, as the arts pump back $716,159,485 into our state
economy, or $78.46 per dollar invested. Nevertheless, the proposed budget for funding the arts
in Illinois has been reduced to $8.3 million—less than half of the invested $19.8 million in 2007,
and $.30 below the national average per person.
It is no shock that reductions in funding over the past five years have come as a result of the
2007 recession. Although nonprofits in big cities like Chicago contribute at least $2.2 billion
annually to the local economy, it is the nonprofits in small urban cities like Champaign-Urbana
that are still feeling the worst of the extended national economic downturn.
Champaign-Urbana’s Arts Nonprofits Funding:
Between 2007 and 2008, total revenues at the Champaign-Urbana Schools Foundation
fluctuated between $310,116 to $295,592. Despite this, grant money given increased from
about $25,000 to $45,000.
No arts education programs received funding in 2007, while only one program did in 2008,
accounting for just 5 percent of foundation funds.
In Urbana’s school district, unit 116, the arts budget is not logged, but elementary arts
coordinator Betty Allen said that the district is very supportive, Unit 116 is part of the 3 to 4
percent of schools in the country that provide a dance and theater curriculum, in addition to
the standard art and music.
Art teachers like the now-retired Shauna Carey also recognize the value of arts education, but
also know how difficult it is to keep it going.
“I worked really hard to get a budget of $3 per child,” said Carey. “So that $3 pays for all of the
supplies for a whole year. So if I have 300 students, I get $900. It’s hard to do exotic kinds of
things. That’s why teachers write a lot of grants.”
These nonprofits depend on the local community for its revenue. For example, if the
community doesn’t donate, there isn’t anything these nonprofits can do to make up for
budgets being cut in schools.
“If you don’t have a community that’s interested or strong supporters of K-12 arts,” said Rost,
“it’s not going to be there. So for the community to rely on nonprofits to pick up on the slack
because schools are cutting budgets—that isn’t a very good plan, because nonprofits are shaky
by nature. They never know where the money is coming from.”
15. Arts in the Schools
There are currently about 45 certified fine arts teachers in the Champaign school district,
working with a budget of $100,000 and 41 certified fine arts teachers in the Urbana school
district. In the past few years, the Unit 4 District has had to make cuts, and when 4th grade
strings and band came into the picture, the community made it clear where they stood.
“The board room was packed,” said superintendent Judy Wiegand. “This community, at least
the Champaign community, places a high value on the arts, and as a district, we respect that.
We’re here to serve our community.”
Carey recognizes that there is no shortage of appreciation for the arts in the Champaign-Urbana
community; however, she acknowledged that with state and national standards for core
curriculum classes getting tougher, along with stricter admissions into college, the arts are
faced with an even greater challenge of competing for a spot.
“It’s got to be about literacy and problem solving and cooperative learning skills,” said Carey.
“You can’t separate the arts out, it’s got to be how the arts connect to other things. And one
problem I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to overcome is that nobody knows how to
test it.”
A recent UCLA study reported that 10th and 12th graders involved in the arts had a clear
advantage over those less involved in the arts at all income levels, scoring 16 to 18 percentage
points better than students not involved in arts.
In addition to this, there has also been strong correlation between the positive impact that arts
education has on the involvement level of students in the classroom, as well as overall
enrollment in high schools.
In 2009, 8.1 percent of high school students were dropouts, with rates being higher in minority
races, according to the United States Department of Education. This correlated with the
percentage of students who received arts education as a child with 57.9 percent or Caucasians
receiving arts education, 28.1 percent of Hispanics, and 26.2 percent of African-Americans.
The impact of Arts-Education Programs:
Krannert Art Museum’s Director of Education Anne Sautman has seen the direct impact that
arts education has had on children - particularly those who might end up as dropouts - through
the recently implemented KAM-WAM initiative. The program brings local 5th grade students to
the museum for a week of learning that combines visual art, music, and dance with math,
science, literature and history.
16. “The teachers were saying that the students were interacting differently,” said Sautman. “They
were more supportive of each other, they were asking about when they were going to start
learning, because it was so engaging. They didn’t realize that they were actually learning while
they were here.”
Not only were the children engaging in the curriculum more actively and voluntarily, but there
were also significant changes in the behavior of the children, particularly those who have
previously had a history of negative classroomconduct.
“While there, some of these kids who don’t usually participate in class were totally engaged
and were treating the teachers with respect. These behaviors then continued back at school,”
said Sautman.
17. Do We Lay Down And Die, Or
Do We Get Up And Do Something?
2008 was one of the most historic election years in our nation's history. At the time of the
election, the country was on the brink of an economic depression, unemployment rates had the
highest numbers in more than a generation and war & terrorism were sitting on America's front
doorstep. All of this was surrounded by the excitement and anticipation of the United States
electing its first African-American president, Barack Obama.
According to a 2008 Barna report, during that election year, Christians consisted of
approximately 10% of the voter population. The year before, The Pew Forum conducted a
survey of more than thirty five thousand adults, being 18 years or older, and reported that
78.4% of United States adults considered themselves Christian. So where are the other 68.4% of
Christians who aren't voting?
Although there seems to be adamant attempts by many Christian and non-Christian groups
alike to keep the Church and State separated, this country was founded as "one nation under
God," and it is our Biblical and civil duty to be part of the process that determines who is going
to lead us and our fellow citizens either closer or farther away from Christ.
God blessed us with an opportunity to have an active role in our government, and wants us to
do so. In 1 Samuel 12:13-25 it says "behold the King whom you have chosen, for whom you
have asked; behold, the Lord has set a King over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve Him and
obey His voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the
King who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well." God promises us that if
we take part in choosing who is going to lead our country, it will be well. If we ask Him, and
pray for a leader who is going to solve our economic crisis, who will put jobs on the market and
end the war on the terror, He will provide that for us, and every four years, we as Christians and
members of a democracy, get to have a say in the decision.
Not only does choosing our president have an impact in and on our country, it has a global
relevance as well. The United States has always had a mission to spread democracy and human
rights across the world, just as it is our job as Christians to share the word of God with the
world. In Matthew 28: 18-20, Jesus tells us "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded
you. Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." We are the light of the world, a
city on a hill. The United States is one of the most powerful and recognized countries on Earth,
and we have fallen short recently. If we participate in the voting process, we as Christians can
have a say in the future direction of the United States of America.
18. So as we approach the election of 2012, I encourage you all to prayerfully consider who will
represent you in your city, state and federal arena. Same-sex marriage is an important issue,
but keep in mind it is your state's representatives that will have a huge impact on these votes.
Issues of life? Religious freedoms and liberties? Research the issues, ask God for direction, be
bold in your faith and trust the Lord's plans for us and our country. "Trust in the Lord with all
your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will
make your paths straight." -Proverbs 3:5-6
Andrea Baumgartner
19. April 26, 2012
The Mali Water Project
By Andrea Baumgartner
Women wearing long skirts covered in vibrant colors and patterns walk along a dusty dirt road.
With the balance of acrobatic tightrope walkers, they carry buckets on their heads. Their cheeks
glimmer with sweat reflecting the hot sun. They are on a mission to retrieve water from the
local well that supports many of the surrounding villages. The only way of retrieving this water
is with a rope and bucket pulley system. It’s not easy, but the trip must be made multiple times
a day.
This is the daily routine for the women of Konilo-Coura, a village in the West African country of
Mali. Now, solving this everyday struggle is a project for the students in UIUC’s Engineering 315
course. The class, offered through the LINC (learning in the community) initiative, is known as
The Mali Water Project and is open for students of all majors who are interested in issues such
as water access. Those enrolled are part of a team that develops a new water systemto be
implemented in Mali to relieve the Mali women of their burdens by making water more
accessible.
The class was started because of Dr. Osea Sanogo, a UIUC professor from Konilo-Coura, who
recognized the potential in harnessing the intelligence and creativity of the students at this
academically acclaimed university.
“There are about 19 public wells that women from across the village walk to and get their water
with a bucket numerous times a day,” said Keilin Deahl, a senior in general engineering and one
of the project managers. “Osea had the vision of alleviating the stress that it takes and the time
it takes to collect water everyday. That’s where we come in with our primary focus which is
water access and the quality and cleanliness of the water.” The class is divided into four
groups, each specializing in a different aspect of what is needed to create a new water system.
They include health and education, water access, water quality and marketing and finance.
“Water access pitches several ideas for water pump designs,” said Kevin Law, a junior in civil
and environmental engineering. “We also wanted to incorporate a windmill so it’d be a
windmill powered row pump. However, we realized it wasn’t feasible to complete that project
in a semester, so we’re making that our long-term goal. We’re considering working on a pedal
pump as well, but that’s more of a short-term goal. We have to consider the social aspects of it,
like that most of the women are the ones that get the water. For them, to pedal would be
difficult because most of them wear long dresses, so we’re trying to figure out a way that would
eliminate using a bucket and rope and design something that would allow them to have access
quicker and easier.”
20. Water quality is in charge of developing techniques to purify the water while health and
education distributes information about the pumps and the importance of clean water to the
village people. Marketing and finance is in charge of fundraising to support the group’s research
and data gathering as well as providing money for the actual development of the pumps.
“Some of the things we’ve used our money for in the past include buying textbooks for the
school in the village,” said senior John Kehealy, a civil and environmental engineering major and
one of the project managers. “We of course had to buy our fare to get there. We also buy
supplies so that we can try out with say, experimental reservoirs, or water pumps or water
filters. We’ve also been soliciting donations of other things like school supplies, t-shirts and
towels — things that we’ve been able to auction off for raising more money for the village. We
generally try to use the money for a variety of purposes that increase the quality of life in the
village.”
Freshman Chelsea Maguire, in charge of marketing and finance, explained that the initial goal
of the semester was to raise $1,000. “We’re just hoping to get as much as we can,” she said.
Most of the students took this class because of a desire to implement their education at the
University with a service project that had a positive impact around the world.
“I think the cool thing about this class and even other service learning classes on campus, as
well as their international projects, is that most of the time, you go into it and you leave
changed,” Deahl said. “Whether you want to pursue a career in an industry like this, or a
nonprofit organization, or just understanding your ability to really impact people and how a job
doesn’t have to be a job where you make money, but it can be a place where you make a
difference and you get the opportunity to affect people’s lives. It’s been a cool experience to
see people come into this world and see their full potential through it.”
This Friday, April 27, the Mali Water Project will be hosting their “Make it Rain: Mali Water
Wompfest Benefit Concert” at the Canopy Club. The event will be from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the
Canopy Club in Urbana and hosts an array of DJs who are donating their time to help in the
fundraising cause. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. There will also be $1 raffle
tickets for a chance to win gift cards to Fat Sandwich.
Kristina Jackson, also known by her DJ name, Miss Amphetamine, first heard of the event last
semester.
“I was asked to perform at the event. My buddies Mark & Joe of Positive Vibr8ions were also
playing, and they recommended me to the Mali Water Group,” Jackson said. “I’m not in the
Greek system, and [I am] relatively uninvolved with my school, so I feel like I miss out on things.
It’s really nice when DJing makes me feel like a useful part of the community.” For sophomore
Cooper Sartell, or Sooper Cartel in the DJ world, a chance to play for a big crowd couldn’t be
22. January 26, 2012
Redefining graphic design
UIUC PROFESSOR ERIC BENSON TAKES A GREEN APPROACH
By Andrea Baumgartner
Eric Benson was born into a family of science — both of his parents were chemists. Yet from the
time he was little, he was drawing comics. Today, however, he has been able to fuse science
and art together. Benson, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Art and Design,
teaches sustainability and graphic design.
“I’m really looking at how a particular profession — in this case, graphic design — can be
sustainable or exist now and into the future,” said Benson. “With keeping in mind that as we
use resources to do and make things, we want to make sure that those resources can still be
plentiful for those in the future and not be damaging to their health and our health as they
currently are.”
Benson graduated in 1998 from the University of Michigan. After changing his major six or
seven times, he said, he ended up in the art school, found his passion for design and graduated
with a degree in graphic and industrial design. It wasn’t until a few years after he graduated
that he realized the possibilities of sustainability.
“I started to question what happens to things that I make after people stop reading them or
stop looking at them,” he said. “It’s all thrown away, but even if some of it’s recycled, there are
going to be people who don’t recycle it, so that kind of got me interested in how I can do things
different so that doesn’t happen.”
Benson then pursued a graduate’s degree in design and social responsibility from the University
of Texas in Austin and graduated in 2006. At the same time, he developed a website called Re-
nourish (re-nourish.com) to fully launch his theories and research on sustainability and graphic
design.
“The main purpose of the site is to create awareness,” said Benson. “I want people to make
better, more responsible decisions.”
The site has definitions and resources where people can connect with more responsible
printers or where they can find greener paper and tips on how to design their projects and
waste less. Benson said the site will be having a mini re-launch in the spring with more
tools and resources.
Part of Benson’s campaign for a greener arts community includes traveling and speaking
23. at conferences.
“The long-term goal is to see if I can translate for educators,” Benson said. “It doesn’t seemlike
an approachable topic, so I am training professors that teach graphic design to address the
sustainability perspective. I have to educate the educators.”
His website has also helped him reach other countries that are interested in sustainability.
“There are people all across the world that have had me come and speak about Re-nourish and
my work here at U of I,” he said.
What he said he found funny was that his biggest audience is British design students — mostly
seniors working on final design projects — but it’s Re-nourish that draws the most attention.
Benson’s research focuses on the balance between people, profit and the planet.
“If you discover a material that could be substituted by something better, that new material
could be more expensive and more unattainable for some people,” he said.
His research also raises the question of how we should be looking at current events and
translating those to the future and focusing on how society is changing.
Benson questions, “What are we, as graphic designers, supposed to be making? What we’re
making should be in that realm of sustainable, socially responsible and ethical.”
On campus, Benson has been working towards creating a greener environment through
teaching his classes. Recently, he had a class examine a green product they owned and examine
it to see how they could improve it. They visually mapped out the entire systemof how it was
manufactured, sold and transported, and determined where it could be enhanced to truly make
it a sustainable product.
Benson has also been working with professor Steve Kostell on producing paper through raising
fibers on farmland that can be pulped and grown into a regional economy.
“We can use this paper to make a letterhead for the University,” Benson said, “in hopes of
creating a more responsible use of paper on campus.”
Part of this project includes investigating native grasses and prairie grasses that are being
grown on the student sustainability farm on Windsor.
“We’re collaborating with the farm manager to grow these grasses that are native here,” he
said. “We can use these grasses to make a blend of paper that can be used by art students to
25. January 5, 2012
Keeping the voice alive
SPEAK CAFE GIVES THE COMMUNITY A CHANCE TO SPEAK
By Andrea Baumgartner
The dimly lit Palette Cafe in the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois was standing
room only, with returning patrons and newcomers alike eager to hear the spoken word of local
poets and hip-hop artists. Majestic purple and sunflower gold walls were speckled with shelves
holding books and coffee bags. One wall of end-to-end windows looked onto Peabody Drive,
glistening from rain. Black, round tables anchored bodies looking toward the DJ and makeshift
stage for the performers. Creamy orange sweet potato pie was being passed around as the
audience sipped their coffee and waited for the night’s event to begin.
Carol Ammons, a lively woman with an infectious smile, stepped up to the microphone. “SPEAK
Café is not a place that we are in competition or judgment,” she said. “SPEAK Café is a place
where people can come and share whatever it is that is on their heart, whatever it comes from.
That’s what it’s about.”
SPEAK Café, named for its blend of song, poetry, expression, art and knowledge, was created 6
years ago by WilliamPatterson of the department of African American studies. Started as a
project in one of the classes he taught, SPEAK was based on the ideas of the Wu-Tang Clan, a
revolutionary rap group from the mid 90s that emphasized the ideology of hip-hop artistry and
money in urban America. SPEAK Café is now an open-mic public space for hip-hop, activismand
Black Power expression that has become a collaboration between the Krannert Art Museum
and department of African American studies to reach out to minority groups in Champaign-
Urbana. SPEAK Café has also become a tool to help struggling students in local high schools, and
to show the benefits of arts education.
“When I did the class,” Patterson said, “it was really to look at the whole notion of what are the
rules of engagement as it is related to money for [the] hip-hop generation.”
At the same time, Patterson was working with museum director Kathleen Harleman on
community and campus outreach.
“They were very excited when considering the idea of developing partners and relationships
between units on campus,” said Patterson. “And African American studies was one of the
departments that Kathleen wanted to connect with in terms of outreach in the community.”
SPEAK took off. Patterson brought together student poets who he had heard perform around
campus. Also, Aaron Ammons, the husband of Carol Ammons and a well-known local artist and
activist, initiated the first SPEAK Café events with other community members.
26. Anne Sautman, who runs education programs and public events for the museum, said she sees
SPEAK Café as a way to bring more minority people to the museum.
“Historically, museums cater to white, fairly educated, middle class to upper middle class
citizens,” she said. “So museums are always trying to diversify their audiences, and SPEAK Café
definitely pulls in more minorities.”
Aaron Ammons, the emcee at SPEAK Café, is expanding the program beyond the walls of the
museum in hopes of reaching a younger crowd.
“Aaron does a lot of things with the Independent Media Center in town,” said Sautman. “So he
has taken the success of SPEAK Café and found other venues in town to replicate more spoken
word events, and then he reaches out to local high schools and works with them, too.”
Krannert Art Museum also has an after school arts program with Rantoul Township High School
about 12 miles north of Champaign-Urbana. There, the museum works with the art and creative
writing teachers to help high school students become more eloquent in not only the spoken
word, but also their self expression through art.
After the Rantoul students present their works publicly, the teachers tell Sautman how much of
a positive impact the program has had.
“They’ve really seen some of these students change through this program,” she said. “They
used to not want to go to school and were really negative and not wanting to participate in
class, but after Art Speak, this program, they seemto be more open to trying things and are
more expressive and have the confidence and are more engaged and not dropping out.”
According to the United States Department of Education, 8.1 percent of high school students
were dropouts in 2009. More significantly, 5.2 percent of Caucasians drop out, while African
American and Hispanic dropout rates were 9.3 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively.
These higher dropout rates in the minority groups also correlate with lower arts education rates
of minority groups. E.C. Hedberg, a research scientist for the National Opinion Research Center
at the University of Chicago, found that 57.9 percent of whites between the ages of 18 and 24
reported receiving arts education as a child, compared to 28.1 percent of Hispanics and 26.2
percent of African-Americans.
The No Child Left Behind law, federal and state testing has driven schools — particularly inner-
city schools with heavy minority populations — to focus more exclusively on science, social
studies and literature. Arts and music are routinely shortchanged in many districts.
“I think the arts offer a lot, and it really helps you reflect,” said Sautman. “It helps you connect
27. with other people, broaden your horizon so you understand how you fit in this world. It helps
critical thinking, and many of the skills learned through art can be applied to other areas of
education. Teachers see the connection and see their students grow when they get exposed to
the arts. It’s not always tangible, and it can’t be tested, but it’s there.”
The arts improve cognitive skills of students and have major impact on test scores.
UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies reported that 10th and 12th
graders involved in the arts had a clear advantage over those less involved in the arts at all
income levels. In standardized testing, the students who were more involved with the arts
performed 16 to 18 percentage points better than their peers not involved. The study also
showed a positive correlation between music and proficiency in math, a widely noted
phenomenon.
Although $100 billion in federal stimulus money for education was given to help fund schooling,
the bulk of the total $814 billion provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
passed in 2009 went to save jobs of teachers and other school employees. As soon as this
money dries up within the next few years, there will be thousands of layoffs, and popular
school programs, including the arts, will be the first dropped.
To students at the U of I, like juniors Eboni Price and Tattiera Green, SPEAK Café has helped
opened their eyes.
“Even though I haven’t had experience with some of these issues, we all know someone who
has,” said Price.
Price has been to SPEAK Café before, but her friend Tattiera was a newcomer.
“I love the different forms of expression and how SPEAK Café has opened up the art world to
the spoken word,” said Green.
Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, a professor of African-American studies who spoke at SPEAK Café on
the socio-cultural aspects of African Americans in a white society, said it’s important to the
African American community.
“SPEAK Café is a place, on one hand, where people can affirm who they are,” he said. “They can
affirm positive things about appearance and culture—they can affirm their blackness—and
criticize their experiences of societies and grow in the community they are in.”
Patterson said he sees the potential for SPEAK Café to become a national program to help keep
the arts alive.
29. October 27, 2011
A look at the life and work of a local costume designer
By Andrea Baumgartner
Nicole Faurant was only four years old when she began knitting and creating clothes for her
dolls. Although her parents teasingly expressed fears that she could become a drug addict if she
got involved with art, her passion for costume design was not squelched.
Faurant is now director of costume rentals at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts.
Faurant’s office is within the costume shop in the basement of the Krannert Center, surrounded
by walls covered with design ideas sketched on printer paper, life-size mannequins, giant spools
of thread in every shade of every color imaginable and bolts of fabric in a spectrum of textures.
“I rent the costumes that have been built here for plays and for the opera and the musical,” she
said. “We have a very, very large stock, so in order to make good use of our stock, we rent it to
people who need it when we are not using it.”
Krannert owns around 50,000 pieces of costumes. Her job is to keep track of, rent, package,
ship and organize all costumes. The costumes are shipped via UPS or FedEx and cost $4 a pound
to dry-clean. The renter covers all expenses, including any damage done to the costumes.
Faurant also teaches in the theater department.
“I teach fabric design, and I also run the costume rentals,” she said. “I have to attend lots of
meetings for the theater department and the Krannert Center, and I also advise students,”
Faurant said. “So it is definitely interesting, and there are a variety of things that keep me
going.”
Linda Follmer, who has worked in the costume shop for seven years as a theatrical stitcher,
agrees that there is never a dull day.
While hand-sewing a mustard yellow pleated skirt for the upcoming show Cabaret, Follmer
smiled and pushed her salt and peppered wisps of hair from around her face and said, “I always
love working here because it’s such a challenge; there’s a great variety of students
coming in — dance, theater, opera — we work with great people, and you learn about such
great history.”
Although it would seemhard for her and the other theatrical stitchers to let go of the costumes
30. they spent hours of work on, Follmer said it’s better to rent them for others to use rather than
keeping the costumes in storage.
“After you’ve worked on something for a while, it’s hard to let it go; but when it’s done, it’s
done — like children — or else your heart gets broken,” Follmer said.
Where it all began: Faurant was born Sept. 19, 1955, on the Atlantic coast and grew up in the
bustling city of Angers, France, population 157,000. Her father, Germain, worked for the
Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer in France, and her mother, Gisele, stayed at home.
“My mother was very creative, actually,” said Faurant. “She was doing a lot of sewing and
knitting, so she was more crafty than artistic in the way that we think of artists nowadays. So I
grew up with art.”
Faurant was the only child in her family to pick up on her mother’s talent.
“My mother spent quite a bit of time with me to help me understand the craft and I wanted to
become involved,” she said. “But I was not interested in theater or costume at the time.”
Behind her wire-rimmed glasses, Faurant’s hazel eyes light up. “I had a very strong interest in
fashion, and this is connected to the fact that my mother was getting all of these fashion
magazines,” she said. “I was always saying when I grew up I would work in fashion and do
research in fashion — not knowing what that meant — but that’s what I was saying.”
Carol Symes, associate professor of history at the U of I, said that many who work in the
costume shop and do costume design at U of I also have an interest in fashion design.
“They are working, generally, with clothing, so there is always a huge amount of crossover
between theatrical costuming and pop fashion because a lot of people are drawn to both those
two kinds of clothing design,” Symes said.
Faurant’s mother made the clothing for her three daughters.
“We were definitely the best-dressed on the block,” Faurant said.
Faurant attended school at L’École Supérieure d’Économie Sociale et Familiale in her Angers,
and earned a bachelor’s degree in Economie Sociale et Familiale and still remembers a special
lab coat her mother made for her.
“My mom made my lab coat with a very neat design, and everybody was amazed. Even my
teacher said she’s never seen a student with a lab coat so stylized,” she said. “I would tell my
mother what I wanted — I had a very strong input — but she was able to execute it very well.”
31. Faurant’s academic strengths in math and science and her parents’ disapproval of her
infatuation with fashion pushed her toward biochemistry. But a broader interest in social issues
moved her in another direction.
“I started to meet a lot of people who were involved in social issues, so I decided to do my
bachelor’s in social work. I became a social worker and a specialized teacher for the deaf,” she
said. “At the same time, I was also meeting people in the theater, so I started to do costume
design on the side for fun.”
She found herself involved with theater and the National French TV school based in Paris, as
well as musicals and ensemble theater, a type of theater common in France.
“It was a hobby… and for me, what was interesting was when we were in a group of people
working with ensemble theater,” she said, “Here in the U.S., the costume designer is often
asked to have a vision and have no more than six weeks to make the vision be realized. But in
ensemble, everyone goes to rehearsal and reads the play altogether to see how the work
evolves. From that evolution, some design concepts start to emerge. We are all thinking
together.”
While in school, she met her husband, Steven Clough, an American doing research on plant
pathology in France. She followed him back to the U.S. and went to school — this time for an
advance degree in theater and costume design from the University of Georgia in Athens, with
regular trips to Atlanta.
Growing up only 90 minutes from Paris, one of the world’s centers for fashion, helped Faurant
once she became a costume designer. It gave her access to even more theatrical fabric, but she
also found a lot of inspiration in the U.S.
“I have also visited San Francisco, San Diego and New Orleans; and Chicago has always been a
city I love very much, but I have not been to New York, and that is something I’d like to do,” she
said.
Faurant said she dreams of one day going to Africa to study fabric technique.
“The African people create beautiful fabric. I would love to go to Japan and study more there,
too. This would be more for my own personal exploration,” she said.
She also hopes to one day craft a play’s look from the beginning.
“I would love to be involved with the playwright who has just created a play and be working
with a group of people who are the first group of artists to put this together and work
intimately with the playwright,” she said.
