Nonprofit Focus: Civic Education Project

This is the third in a series of 12 posts, each highlighting a nonprofit organization that I care about and want to raise awareness of and money for. The first can be found here, and the second here. Enjoy!

Way back when (I can say that now that I'm approaching 30, right?) in my junior year of high school, a teacher randomly grabbed my arm as I was walking through the hallway on my way to lunch and told me to come check out a presentation from group at Northwestern University that was talking about doing a service-learning spring break trip to Washington D.C. focused on hunger and homelessness. I ended up signing up and having one of the most awesome learning experiences of all of my high school years - I learned about myself, living in community, asset-based community development, government, and some of the awesome nonprofits working to end hunger and homelessness in the D.C. area. And that's what the Civic Education Project (CEP) at Northwestern University has done for over 2000 students in the past 15 years - they provide immersive experiences designed to engage students in civic involvement and service learning, and to prepare the next generation of leaders in social justice work.

That's me on the bottom right, rockin' the
backwards Nike hat. :)

I became a bit of a CEP junkie, one might say. I loved traveling to new places, I loved learning about different issues, and most of all I loved the deep relationships/friendships that form when you are with people 24 hours a day doing intense volunteering and learning. I went on five more CEP week-long trips: to Kentucky to study rural poverty, to Boston, MA to study the support available for people living with HIV/AIDS, to Cincinnati, OH to study race relations, to Detroit, MI to study violence and crime among youth, and to Tahlequah, OK to study Native American issues. It was the Tahlequah trip that truly changed my life, because on that trip I met my husband Savva! On the last night of the trip, at ages 16 and 15, Savva and I snuck away from the group to sit under a tree and actually take that scary first step of saying "I like you." And the rest is history! Less than one week from today, on April 2nd, Savva and I will celebrate the 13th anniversary of that evening. :) :) :)

This photo was taken less than 3 hours after we first met!
Clearly, we were made for each other. And for donuts. 

So here's why you should donate to the Civic Education Project: while not everyone will find their life's love on a CEP trip, they most certainly will have a passion ignited in their soul for social justice. High school students, on the brink of becoming adults, will learn new things about our society, about themselves, and about how to effectively work for positive social change. CEP's programs aren't cheap; for a week, the cost is just over $1,000. Totally worth it, but outside the reach of many families, which is why they aim to provide scholarship funds to families who qualify. Your donation will go straight to their scholarship fund!

You can give at http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/cep/support/, or mail a check to
Civic Education Project, Center for Talent Development, 617 Dartmouth Place, Evanston IL 60208. If you do, please let me know via email so I can include the amount in my fundraising total!

Race Recap: The Shamrock Shuffle!

It was a beautiful morning for an 8K! (That's 4.97 miles, for those of you not metrically minded.) I dashed out the door at 8:05 am, making it down to the start corrals on Columbus Drive in Grant Park at 9:01 am...exactly one minute after they closed the entrance to my start corral. So I pulled a little street-artist-evading-the-5-0 chainlink fence hopping action and managed to join the group of folks planning to finish in 50 to 55 minutes. I am so excited to report that I finished in 48 minutes and 16 seconds - a personal record for me for this course, and better than a 10 minute mile (9:43, to be exact)!

A small fraction of the crowd of runners
just before the start!

I know there are lots of runners who don't like really crowded races like this one (they had 40,000 people registered, and the results website says that 34,301 folks actually both started and finished). But the thing I really like is that races with lots of people bring out lots of spectators, and there are always a small subset of people that take their spectating duty very seriously. I love seeing folks with costumes, crazy noisemakers, and hilarious signs. The three signs that really made me grin (of which only one is, shall we say, appropriate) said "RUN, (total stranger), RUN!", "You look like you have stamina. Call me!", and "DO EPIC SHIT!"

Another fun thing about races is finding out what sort of snacks you get for free at the end of the race. Bananas are pretty much standard, but sometimes there are bagels, or chips, or pretzels - just depends on the race. Here is a handy graphic to help you understand today's options:

Yes, those are McDonaldland Cookies on the top right...I am sure I haven't had them for 20 years, but their lemony flavor instantly transported me to being a small child sitting on a hard plastic chair, doing the activities on the side of my Happy Meal box and waiting to go play in the ball pool in the Play Place. Good memories!

Almost the entire time I was running I was thinking about the Chicago Marathon (which is sponsored by the same company, has almost the same number of runners and finishes in the same spot) and getting nervous and excited about it, and imagining how I'll feel at the end of that race. Please, save the date: October 7, 2012! You've got to come out and cheer me and the other 44,999 runners on!

Feeling good at the finish!

Late nights, weights, and CHEESE

A number of friendly folks have asked how I'm managing to do all this training and racing with a baby - and first and foremost I have to give a shout out to my amazing husband and family who are so supportive and care for Elly when I'm out doing a longer run or at a race. And I'm only working about 10 hours a week, in the evenings doing math tutoring, so I certainly have much more time than a mother who is also working full-time. Many days, I can bring her to the "Kids Club" at the gym - - - but the last two weeks she's had a cold off and on (that I'm pretty sure she caught AT the gym) so I didn't want to bring her and infect the other kids, so I've been going to the gym after my tutoring sessions in the evenings. And that's why this evening I arrived at the gym at 9:10 pm, and left (just 10 minutes before closing time) at 10:50 pm - and why I'm still sitting here in my sweaty workout clothes typing this at 11:30 pm. I need to get to the shower so Savva doesn't kick my stinky self out of bed when I try to get in. I am going to be SO TIRED tomorrow.

So the Friday before last I did something that I never really thought I'd do - I met with a personal trainer at my gym for a one hour personal training session. Brian is a very cool guy who also does stand-up comedy and is a magician - seriously! He taught me a dynamic warm-up (a bunch of movement exercises that challenge flexibility, strength, mobility and stability all at once) and a sequence of strength training exercises using some of the free weights and some of the weight machines scattered all over the gym. I was SO SORE the next two days, and that was with only doing two sets of the exercises he taught me, when he told me that normally I should do three sets. So it was with quite a lot of trepidation that I began my first solo strength training workout EVER on the next Monday - I've always been intimidated by the large grunting men in the weight room, and the Evanston Athletic Club has them just like anywhere else. But the second time around it was actually a lot easier, and I wasn't sore at all the next day. Yay! Getting stronger, hopefully...

Last but not least, there's a big change in my diet happening right now, and I am curious how it will affect my physical fitness - well, okay, really I'm wondering how it will affect my weight! See, when Eliana was just 3 months old she was diagnosed with a cow's milk protein intolerance, which meant that since I was breastfeeding her (definitely the healthiest and best way for her to get her nutrition), I needed to cut all diary out of my diet. No sour cream. No cheese. No yogurt. No cream in my coffee in the morning. No milkshakes or chocolate ice cream. It was ROUGH. But I think it really helped me lose the pregnancy weight - I gained a nice healthy 32 pounds in those 9 months, and when I weighed myself at 6 weeks postpartum I was still 15 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight. Without really trying too hard (but weighing myself regularly to make sure I was on track) I lost those pounds in the next 9 months, and I attribute the ease with which they came off to the lack of diary in my diet. But most kids outgrow this protein intolerance by 1 year, so Elly's pediatrician told me to start dairy now and we'll see how she's doing in two weeks at her 1 year appointment. Today my dad came over and made me a croque monsieur for lunch - basically an amazing grilled ham & cheese sandwich with an extra cheese sauce on top - yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Did I mention that Dad is graduating from culinary school in two weeks? Yum yum yum yum yum.

No Words Necessary - Just, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The (AMAZINGLY AWESOME) 10 day forecast for Chicago

February Training Recap

February 2012 Stats:

• 15 days working out 
• 9 miles walking outside (I count any walk over 2 miles as being a workout!)
• 19.62 miles running
• 509 floors of stairs climbed
• 95 minutes on the elliptical
• 2 laps in the pool
• One climb to the top of the climbing wall at the gym

Well, I worked out more days than not, so that's a big change for me! And there's more variety, which is good. I'm also thankful that two days in February were nice enough for walks outside; I can't wait for the true arrival of spring. Winter is my least favorite season, and every year during March I yearn for the freedom to go outside without hat & gloves & coat & shoes - I love just being able to walk out the front door with no prep time, so the first day that I can wear flip flops is a celebratory day for sure. And now that I'm responsible for putting warm clothes on two people, one of whom is very squirmy, I'm even more psyched about t-shirt weather. (Yes, fellow Chicagoans, you do not need to remind me that we regularly have snowstorms in April, just let me dream that winter is almost over.)


Some goals for March - I've been reading about the importance of creating a good base weekly mileage of running before really starting to train for a marathon, with many websites suggesting anywhere between 15 to 30 miles a week...and this is one recommendation that I definitely did NOT follow my first time around with marathon training. In January and February I only averaged about 5 miles a week, so I need to step that up starting now. My goal is to run at least 4 times a week. My second goal is to begin incorporating some strength training into my workouts - I always just get on the treadmill or elliptical after very minimal stretching, and all the weights and weight machines intimidate me. So I've signed up for 3 personal training sessions at EAC (there was a deal for over 50% off, otherwise it is too expensive!) and my first one is tomorrow. We'll see how it goes!