Author: Staff

MPS combines recreation and community at Run Back to School fundraiser

Milwaukee Public Schools will host its 10th Annual Run Back to School event on August 26 at Wick Play field. Participants can enjoy a 5K run or 1.5 mile walk through Washington Park, in what has become a pre-school year kick-off activity. The goal has been to promote the importance of regular exercise while raising funds for MPS youth recreation programs. In addition to the run/walk, the event will feature a school mascot race, exhibit booths, activities for kids, and a live DJ. “The Run Back to School is a great opportunity for students, staff, and the community to...

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Abraham Lincoln’s 1859 Speech at the Wisconsin State Fair

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln lost a contested election to Stephen A. Douglas for Senator in Illinois. But he won accolades and respect for his clever and shrewd campaign. The nation knew him as a rising politician. As a result, he was invited the following year to speak at the Wisconsin State Fair. At that time in 1859, the event was held on the Brockway ground at 12th Street and Grand Avenue. Today, that location is the Marquette University campus. A marker commemorating his address can be found at the corner of 13th Street and Wells Street. A year later,...

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Girl Scout troop honors legacy of Meta Schlichting Berger with monument

The transformative political activist Meta Schlichting Berger was remembered by a new generation of young girls, who memorialized the prominent educator’s lasting influence with a new memorial at Forest Home Cemetery on June 24. The members of Cudahy Girl Scout Troop 8617 worked over the past two years to raise the $800 needed to install a stone marker at Berger’s gave site. Buried alongside her husband and socialist politician Victor, she was documented by historians as expressly forbidding any memorials to her as “a frivolous expense.” But to the girls who were in the fourth grade at the time,...

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Alexis Twito: Chaplains on the frontline of healing

Standing as a bridge between police who struggle to express compassion while applying enforcement of the law and a grieving community raw with pain and limited resources to cope are the 51 Chaplains of The Salvation Army, and the program’s coordinator Pastor Alexis Twito.

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Audio: Youth learn trade skills at Westlawn sports complex build

YouthBuild is an alternative education program that provides job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youth ages 16 to 24. Participants learn construction skills while constructing or rehabilitating affordable housing for low-income or homeless families in their own neighborhoods. Members of the Milwaukee YouthBuild program, coordinated by the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, were invited to earn hands on construction training at the location of the $150,000 multi-sport complex in Milwaukee’s Westlawn Neighborhood. These two audio interviews took place at that development site, with Tracey Underwood, a YouthBuild program member, and Evans Gant, the Section 3 Coordinator...

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Video: Steve Schaffer navigates yesteryear by kayak

This video segment features scenes from a recent exploration of the Milwaukee River by kayak, guided by Steve Schaffer, Assistant Archivist for the Milwaukee County Historical Society (MCHS). In its second year, the Milwaukee River History Tour offers a unique view of the city from the waterway that allowed a small fur trading post to become a metropolis. “By imaging this old Milwaukee River, I think it is easier for people to understand that we now have a wonderful natural resource for recreation that has been vastly improved with regard to the pollution, unsightliness, and odor that plagued its...

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