Tuesday in Chicago

Hey Everyone-

This post is brought to you by Rayna and Kelly in Chicago. We had a great day yesterday and started off our morning a the Little Black Pearl (http://www.blackpearl.org/). The LBP fuses art and entrepreneurship to teach high school students how to create art and turn it into a sell-able product. The $10 million facilities at LBP are beautiful and include: glassblowing studio, a painting studio, a ceramic studio, a woodworking studio, as well as a cafe that showcases the student and staff's art.

All of our volunteer projects differed yesterday; some of us helped plan the LBP annual summer festival, "Pearl Fest," while others painted walls. Two of our trip members created a program focusing on health and nutrition for the children to participate in. One of members even wrote a small statement why community monetary support is important for the success of the LPB, which will be posted on the organization's website. As you can see, much of this work was office related, although at 4:00pm, we were able to serve food to the kids and interact with them. The variety of tasks, from administrative to hands-on serving, helped us understand everything that goes into running a non-profit organization.

We thank LBP for their hospitality and kindness and for everything they've done to make this trip worthwhile.

After our time at the LBP we explored Chicago and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for our group dinner out on the town. We ate dinner at the House of Blues, a blues club in downtown. The food and music was fantastic.

After dinner we came back to the hostel and had a great reflection where we talked about how our own identities (race, class, etc.) have shaped how we've perceived our experiences in Chicago.