Day 1 with Learn to Beat the Odds (Baltimore, MD)

Learn to Beat the Odds is traveling this week to Baltimore, MD to work with Living Classrooms, an educational organization dedicated to providing hands-on enrichment to its students, young adults, and families. We'll be following along through the perspective of one of their participants, Ashley.


Day 1 with Learn to Beat the Odds
Author: Ashley G.

The first two days of our journey have been off to a slow, yet impactful start. We headed to Baltimore on Sunday afternoon and arrived at Lovely Lane Methodist Church, where we are staying. The church manager gave us a tour of the breathtaking, historic church. We then headed to stores to get food for the week. We quickly learned that getting lost is part of the journey while navigating the city. As a group, we shared our diverse interests, and funny stories, along the way. 

During the second day, we worked with an organization called Audubon, which is an organization centered around the sustainability of birds and their migrational patterns. We met with our community partner, Philip, who led us in a project to restore a bird garden in the community park. We started to shovel mulch, lay fresh mulch in the bird garden, remove broken fencing, and clean up some litter within the area. While completing these tasks, our community partner was consistently engaged in our efforts and explained the significance of these seemingly small tasks, reminding us of the larger picture of our work and the long-term outcomes our work will elicit, such as maintaining a healthy ecosystem for the animals, while inspiring more community involvement and utilization of their parks. While cleaning up the park area some of our group members had a eye opening experience. Abha described her experience while cleaning up litter around the bird park, “I saw that there were some cardboard boxes set up under the trees, used as a sleeping area. It was pretty shocking to see that some people who do not have the basic needs such as shelter, have to risk living under a tree in such harsh conditions. We take it as a privilege of having heat and a warm bed to sleep in.” 

One thing Philip was very excited and motivated for was an upcoming project he will be holding in the spring with 3rd graders in the Baltimore community who will come out to the bird garden to plant beautiful flowers and food sources for birds and butterflies. To know we were a part of laying that groundwork (literally, with mulch), to continue a domino effect of others taking part to develop their community felt very rewarding to all of us.

The rest of the day’s activities were postponed due to an ice storm that was hitting Baltimore, which resulted in school closures. We spent the rest of our day together discussing mindfulness, language and how to make a lasting impact when we arrive at the Living Classroom tomorrow to assist with the after school program. We are all super excited to head there tomorrow morning.