Greetings fellow volunteers,
Can you believe it is February already! Remember when we were kids in school and for those of us in the Chicago-area, the February doldrums of gray snow and gray days set in? CAF is doing its part to relieve those gray days for school children by introducing student groups to architecture and helping them to appreciate why design matters.
A new team of volunteers is collaborating with CAF staff to lead Student Loop field trips. This ninety minute walking tour includes seven sites – the Railway Exchange Building, the CNA Building, the Wabash Roosevelt Tower, Harold Washington Library, the Monadnock Building, the Federal Center and the Marquette Building.
At each site, the students are engaged in a conversation to help them learn how to read a building, including interpreting structure, skin and context.
These wonderful volunteers are called Education Guides and are a new group made up of both VEVs and docents. The initial class of Education Guides completed their training and led their first Student Loop tours last October. Additional guides are being trained in February in anticipation of the busy spring student field trip season.
Education Guides will also be trained to lead Art in Architecture student field trips and they assist CAF staff in facilitating ongoing family and student events, including Read and Build sessions and weekend festivals.
Interested in joining the Education Guides? Contact either Bob Sutter, the VEV Team Leader of the Education Guides or Angela Esposito, CAF Manager of Studio Programs. (And a big thanks to Bob for his contributions to this letter.) Both Hallie Rosen, CAF Director for Volunteer Engagement and Angela Esposito led the initial recruitment and training program for the Education Guides.
So don’t let the winter doldrums set in – join the Education Guides.
Looking forward to seeing you in the shop, the atrium or the Design Studio!
Sincerely,
Ellen Oberhart
Chairman of the Volunteer Steering Committee