[Being Katie]

When our week was coming to an end in Manistee, we still hadn’t made any plans for the following week (big surprise); so we turned to Mona for ideas.  She told us about her son, Chris—who she had been raving about all week—and a project he’d working on down at Central Michigan University, called the Campus Grow Endeavor, to develop community gardens on campus.  She said he had just recently gotten his hands on several plots of land and needs help cultivating them to get them ready for seeds.  We of course thought it was a great idea right off the bat and wanted to get involved, but I was also very eager to meet this son of hers she had talked about so much.

When we got to Mount Pleasant, at Chris’s house, we spent a little while talking and getting acquainted with each other in his living room, sharing stories about his mom, and so on.  We told him about the connection we made with Mona, through her nurturing nature and eagerness to help us in any way.  For instance, on the first day we were in Manistee, during our little tour/ orientation, I asked where the public showers were and she told me the only place is at the gas station for $4 a shower (that’s $12 for the three of us to use water!), but that we were also more than welcome to use her shower.  When we took her up on her offer, we ended up staying for dinner, then leaving our laundry to wash while we found some wireless internet.  When we got back around 9:30 that night, not only did we have clean laundry, clean bodies and full bellies, but Mona had baked us a loaf of bread! We were absolutely tickled.

That wasn’t the only time she opened her door to us.  Another day we had plans to see some local musicians perform at a little outdoor venue right on the river.  On our way there, Mona and I were riding in her car listening to Eddie from Ohio, while the boys followed in the van. When we noticed that they were no longer behind us, we turned back to find them pulled over on the side of the road with the van smoking.  I wasn’t surprised, to be honest.  The wonderful thing, however, was that the woman whose house we parked in front of immediately came to lend a hand.  She first jumped on the phone to call a mechanic she was friends with, and then—ready for this? — she drove to pick him up and bring him to the van, while we went to watch the concert (upon her insistence), leaving our things piled on her tree lawn.  By the time we came back (after indulging in some delicious sundaes) our van had been checked out; apparently our power steering belt (or whatever) had been breaking for a while and finally snapped, causing the smoke.  This wasn’t a major loss for us, considering we didn’t even know the van was initially made with power steering. Even though there was no real concern, we left the van over night at Lynn’s house, while we went a few blocks over to spend the night at Mona’s.  She and her husband, Felipe, took us in without any hesitation.  I have a feeling it was partly because they have two sons (23 and 26 or something) and I’m sure they’d want people to do the same for their boys.  It’s comforting to know there are so many good parents and people out there who care for anyone as they would their child or friend.

But I digress.
The first morning in Mount Pleasant, we woke up to Chris cooking some eggs and veggies for the four of us before we headed out to the garden.  (I’m sensing some Mona influence, here).  We spent the next few hours tilling, weeding and seeding until lunch time when we decided to dip in the river for a bit of a rinse.  Turned out, the river had a series of rapids that we got to play in for a while, just long enough to get some nice bruises and lose some jewelry.  Then we ventured over to Chris’s friends’ house to cook up lunch and hang out, get to know each other a bit more.

After enjoying a delicious lunch, we went to a coffee shop, Kaya’s, to get some internet and devise a game plan for the rest of the week.  One of the items on the to-do list was to design a logo for the Campus Grow project and create signs to stand in the gardens, which I got very excited about, because I hadn’t had much time to create anything and this could potentially be my outlet.

That it was.

I spent the next three days developing the design, and oil painting it on the three wooden boards.  It didn’t take long for me to get comfortable on the strip of sidewalk in front of Chris’s door, with my paints and brushes sprawled all around, talking with people walking by or in and out of the house, listening to music coming through the windows; I was completely in my element and it was a glorious few days.  Tackling all three of those boards was pretty daunting, though, and I didn’t see myself completing them all in just a few days, so Chris (McNulty) came to the rescue to help lay down some primary layers for me.  As Chris will assure you, I’m rather fastidious when it comes to painting, and,  I must say, he was extremely patient and tolerant while I went about trying to control his every stroke (I hope I’m exaggerating here).  We finished them all without a problem, and I’m so grateful I came at such a time when I was able to participate in the project this way.

While I painted, the boys usually went to the garden and spent their days tilling, weeding and planting soy to give the ground a nitrogen boost for next spring.  This Campus Grow Endeavor is part of a larger mission known as the Mount Pleasant Food Project.  Chris and his friends are working on developing Campus Grow into their own nonprofit, so, as a start-up nonprofit ourselves, Chris (McNulty) spent some time sharing knowledge and experience about navigating through all the jargon and mounds of paperwork.  The week ended up being pretty productive on a number of levels.  It got to the point one day when all these blossoming young activists were simultaneously working on different things in each room and outside of Chris’s house, all enthusiastically engrossed in work—a beautiful sight to see.
Chris was kind enough to let us crash at his place for the entire week, which was not the original plan; the plan was to camp out on a nearby farm, but things played out differently.  I’m so glad they did, because we were able to more intimately connect with Chris and his friends, hanging out, enjoying and making music, sharing and debating ideas, cooking and eating food they (or someone they know) grew.  They’re a vibrant, motivated, conscious group of individuals that are part of a very strong community of people dedicated to creating positive change.

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