new directions

the theme of the week begins with the final day of a month-long camp for girls who will be entering middle school in the fall....addressing self-esteem, body image, bullying, and all the other lovely issues that kick into gear at that age....wish we'd gotten to this sooner than the very last day when they were really just preparing for a talent show for family....so, i shot them doing that

and then it was off to the college, where the Lt. Gov. and a state rep were coming to tour DTE's massive solar panel project - 2000 panels, the biggest in the state and the first to include an educational component as they partnered with students to build it....

next day, i went out to a dirt bike/4-wheeler motor sports track...we did a story on a kid who who was badly hurt riding last summer - the crash left him paralyzed from the waist down, and friends recently modified a bike so that he would be able to ride again....this was the third time he had ridden, and i have to say, it kind of choked me up to watch him take off and go soaring over the hills on the smaller track...just imagining the freedom he must be feeling, and the guts it took to get back out there and ride again

later that night, i headed up to Novi for 2 events going on simultaneously - an outdoor sculpture exhibit opening and a Beatles tribute band playing in the park

saturday, with little sleep given how late a night it was after editing and submitting the freelance stuff, started with (coffee first and foremost) a fundraising bake sale, part of a feed hungry children in America effort

then out to the fair ball games park for the opening day of the baseball tournament

i felt really wiped out after the heat of the day and lack of sleep...and i felt like i should have gone back and shot more games, but i just didn't have it in me at that point...so, as the saying goes, it is what it is...and now i am on to the next week's adventures, which will include addressing a group of kids at the local community center about starting a neighborhood journalism online site...