I went through a phase as a kid, making friendship bracelets out of different colors of yarn. They would individually settle inside the slits of a piece of cardboard, and then I'd go through the patterns of weaving. In each intentional tangling of the pieces of yarn, I knew the end goal of what I was making, but the monotony of repeating the same thing over and over and over made it easy to get bored, easy to want a break. When you'd see the end result of a bracelet, you almost forget the individual strands of yarn that went into making it, and instead you see completely new with a different function all together.
Every passing year feels like another colorful strand of yarn. Let's add this to the pattern I guess. The larger this tapestry gets, the more skills are added, new vibrant colors, new weavers, new shapes. And what once was thought to function as a towel, now functions as a blanket, or a banner, or (insert another example here). It's been beautiful to experience so many years of each program. Each year of each program has had a different feel, different students (some overlapping), different staff and helpers (some interwoven and constant), different schools, challenges, different curriculums, different focuses.
Here are a few new patterns for this school year that will shape and further 2nd Mile's experience.
Nature Rangers - Every Wednesday, Ms. Joni comes to lead an activity outside, with the intention of getting students to love and choose to spend time in nature over technology. Less screens! More green! Students take mindful moments, do breathing, thanking God for the breath in their lungs. Students have gathered bits of nature (leaves, branches, pine needles, etc) to create art. I'm exciting for the many ways students are encouraged to touch grass.
Two:fiftytwo After School Program - New students! But also, many of them we got to know at our Trailblazers Summer Camp. While last year we were heavy on the number of older 5th graders, this year we have many 1st and 2nd graders. The maturity balance shifted, causing a lot more teaching moments and repeating those teachable moments over and over again. We hope to build long lasting relationships with every student, and those chances go up when a student joins us so early in their development.
The Ville Church - Perhaps my favorite partnership with loads of potential, this church had a history of moving locations around the city, looking for the perfect spot to do ministry. When they found a spot on Pearl Street, their presence and love has been felt by the neighborhood. 2nd Mile and The Ville have similar visions for the neighborhood, and the way we've been able to assist each other has been a lot like Chris Paul and Blake Griffin in lob city. Just alley-oops all over the place. We have 2nd Mile students attending church there. We have Ville members helping with 2nd Mile programs.
BLOCK - Just like 252, BLOCK's average age of a student has decreased. Inheriting many of those older 5th grade students from a year ago means there are many young 6th graders being integrated with our older middle and high school students. These 6th graders are close friends due to 252, which can be off putting to the BLOCK vets used to a calmer program. Adding new colors to the pattern, you always need to make sure it makes sense with the journey BLOCK has been on, but also opens up for exciting opportunities to build on a culture of developing leaders who are developing new incoming leaders. I'm excited to see where these new students take the culture of BLOCK in years to come.
These pictures say a thousand words to me, but in an effort to stay brief and succinct, I'll make their captions slightly longer, rather than write those 1,000 words.
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| Ms. Joni leading Nature Rangers at Brentwood Park. They are writing in their nature journals. Joni also volunteers at BLOCK and is on 2nd Mile's board. Many hats she wears. |
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| Chance, Braden, Maximus, and Saiquet enjoyed carving pumpkins, then using them for a baking soda and vinegar experiment outside. |
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| BLOCK got creative downtown with some photography. We plan on putting all their art for the 2025-26 school year in an art gallery in May. |
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| BLOCK students spray paint poles for a giant kerplunk game for the 16th Annual Family Fall Festival. There were 10 BLOCK students who volunteered at the event, a record! |
Students created art out of nature for Nature Rangers. This student made an awesome pirate ship out of sticks, branches, and parts of a palm tree.
Max brought it to our attention that he's never seen the sun rise. We woke up early one morning and he was shocked that the sky could look the way it did. He was so happy.
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| Ms. Shakeria taught us how to make shrimp and grits, a meal special to her and her mom. Last month, students and staff shared something special about ourselves with the group. |
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| 252 students made birdfeeders out of pinecones and birdseed. Normally, you'd use peanut butter, but a student is allergic so we tried coconut oil. Newsflash: it melts in the hot Florida heat. |
BLOCK student came to Church In Action (CIA) at the Ville and trimmed our future Sunday School house.
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| Chess night at Open Court. I got to see a fellow summer intern Rod (right) who interned with me and Missi back in 2010. Another familiar thread in the tapestry. |
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| A BLOCK student and her mom volunteered on a Saturday with Groundworks Jax in our Nutritional Garden. To our surprise, it made the front page of The Florida Times-Union newspaper a few weeks later. I'm gonna frame this I think. |
