by Jesse Harden

Nearly four years ago, my family moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Waco, Texas, to attend Baylor University. I had never been to Waco, and knew nothing about it. My family’s time in Waco is now complete, and we will be returning to Albuquerque. In this short time, Waco has become more than a space we have occupied, it has become a place that has shaped us.

The concept of place speaks of the physical space we occupy at a given moment as more than the geographic boundaries of our existence, those in which we live, work, play and worship. Conceiving of place goes deeper than mere geography to the intangible ways our environment (its history, beauty and inhabitants) begins to have formative power in our lives. Dale M. Coulter (in an article found HERE) delves into the formative power of place,

“As much as humans seek to carve out the land they occupy, more times than not, it carves them. It turns ordinary humans into Southerners or Midwesterners or New Englanders”

In Short, where we are forms who we are. We are a product of the places we have lived. In the four short years my family has been in this place, we have, in many ways, become Wacoans. This place, its people, geography and culture have captivated us, and we are forever changed.

Two significant aspects of Waco that have forever carved their mark in my family are the prevalence of concern for the common good and the many assets that this community has to leverage toward this concern. First, as I have lived in Waco and have interacted with various members of this community, I have been overwhelmed by the general love, pride and concern each has had for this city. I worked as an intern, both with Communities in Schools and Mission Waco as a part of my studies. Additionally, I pastored at Highland Baptist church for two years. In each of these settings, I met people who love Waco deeply, and are dedicating their lives to see Waco flourish.

In my work at Mission Waco, I was primarily involved with their work to bring an end to North Waco’s food desert, working with the community to establish Waco’s first non-profit grocery store, the Jubilee Food Market. Among my responsibilities was to promote and process the OASIS Shares that Mission Waco is selling to raise funds for the market. I was privileged to see the name and generosity of each individual, foundation and organization that gave generously to this effort, providing nearly 75% of the needed funds in just a few months. The response of the greater Waco community to the opportunity in North Waco to provide fresh and affordable food to their neighbors was a truly humbling and inspiring experience (Shares are still available, by the way, and can be purchased HERE).

In addition to the generosity and concern of Wacoans for the common good of their city, I have been overwhelmed by the number of assets Waco has available to work toward a truly thriving, fruitful and just city. Waco has so many strengths waiting to be identified, connected and leveraged! As a part of my internship with Mission Waco, I partnered with North Waco residents to complete an asset map of the 3.5 square miles surrounding the Jubilee Food Market. Our team chose just five categories of assets to map, and identified 105 assets! Imagine the potential of these assets being connected together. Imagine the number of assets within Waco as a whole!

Very few people have the opportunity and platform to thank a city for their hospitality and formative role in their lives. I have such an opportunity now. Thank you, Waco! You are more than a space in which people live, you are a place by which people are formed. You have welcomed my family and allowed us to become Wacoans. And, though it grieves us to leave, we will carry our new identity to Albuquerque, inspired by your generosity and passion to see your community prosper.

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Jesse Harden just graduated with his Masters of Divinity and Masters of Social Work from Baylor University. He is a church planter and community development practitioner in Albuquerque, NM. 

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 

by Rick Allen

It all started with a mule. In 1865, a young Confederate veteran by the name of Albert Parsons sold a mule and some cotton land for the money to attend Waco University. He made it through one year before the allure of Radical Republican politics called him. He began taking political appointments and doing political field work. On one of these trips to a former slave neighborhood, he met a young woman of mixed ethnicities calling herself Lucy Gonzales. They fell in love and attempted to marry. Texas at that time was a state that had legal strictures against “miscegenation”. So…they sold what they had and went to Chicago where they could legally wed.

In Chicago, Albert worked as a printer and eventually had his own newspaper. Lucy, who had learned to read and write, became a labor organizer in garment factories. She also, alongside Albert, led the first May Day parade in Chicago on May 1^st 1886 with 80,000 labor union members marching behind. It appeared the days of twelve hour work shifts and children working during school hours were over. Just days later, a riot erupted during a labor rally in the Haymarket Square and several police were killed by a bomb. After a “kangaroo court” of business owners found Albert and four other innocents guilty of the deaths, they were hung.

Lucy wrote pamphlets about this injustice and by 1900 was a leader in the growing movements of socialism and anarchism. She became a hero to the poor and a “radical” to the rich. She encouraged strikes, walkouts and takeovers of factories. She helped start the American Communist Party and the International Workers of the World. By 1940, she was on an FBI watch list and even the NYC Police Commissioner described her as the, “most dangerous woman in America.” She died from a mysterious fire in her apartment in 1942. The police confiscated all her property and it disappeared.

Today, the USA , Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and a dozen other countries refuse to celebrate Labor Day or Workers Day on May 1^st. However, more than 200 countries remember with their own marches the day Lucy and Albert led the big parade.

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Rick Allen has worn many hats since coming to Waco in 1982. He has been a history and English teacher, social worker, therapist, special educator, school counselor, Dean of Students, Waco City Councilman, landscaper, xeriscaper, pedicab entrepeneur, B&B host, board member, Sunday school teacher, junior college instructor, MHMR curriculum writer, public speaker, blogger and dad.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 

by Saddiq Granger

“…every ghetto
made me regret my days in the new Jerusalem.
you know it’s hot
don’t forget what you got
looking back…” – Lauryn Hill

I often hear banter about the trappings of my culture with no idea of the heritage or tradition enshrined in them, or the adaptations made through generations of struggle. I hear comments made with no idea of the beauty and complex symbolism inherent in cultures that can trace their roots to the dawn of time, that hold the oldest creation stories. The story of my culture is the story of humanity, it is the main tree that all branches are believed to have sprung from.

I am from the “Ghetto” — a word borrowed from the Italians in Venice during a time in which they segregated the living quarters of the Jews — 27th & Berks in Philadelphia to be exact. I’ll provide you with pictures but if you don’t believe me look it up.

Growing up I realized something. The people I was looking at, everyone around me, they were all asleep. No matter how intelligent, they were they were gone as sure as if they had been snoring. So, as a young bull, I engaged in this period where I thought I was the only one who knew what was going on. As an adult, it sometimes seems like I was right.

This lesson was a milestone for me. I learned that consciousness is a choice, and if you have a choice, you have a question.

I was born in the hood; I am ghetto. I know the commandments: look four ways before crossing the street, never let nobody know how much dough you hold, never let them know your next move, never trust nobody. If you don’t know these then you don’t know my side of town; it’s no East Waco. My neighborhood is called the Bad Lands–also known as City Killadelphia. I come from a hood that depends on the drug trade as its main economic support system. These drugs are chef’d in higher income communities where people can afford supplies and have a working knowledge of chemistry. Then they flip’em in large quantities in our hood where they are then sold back to members of upper class (mostly the Caucasian community) and of course local clients (mostly Black or Latino). This serves a few purposes, one of the most important, in my opinion, being that the negative fallout from drug use and selling is not witnessed in places besides “the hood.”

Most of my white peers and I don’t have the same cultural norms to use as a frame of reference. I don’t know very many White people who lived in my community; I saw a sea of Black hopelessness and struggle, people who worked hard and got little for it. As a young child the only correlation I could blame it on was to my skin.

My mom is a hard worker, single parent, straight-A college graduate with a medical degree, who has had more jobs than I can count, most of them what we would call a “hustle” to try and support me and make a better life for herself. I watched and learned from her. My entire life my mother has been a force to be reckoned with it seems. I have never seen her bow to nobody. I learned from these early times in my life to be strong because I had to be, to be self-reliant because there would be no one else. I learned the wealth of achievement and success Africans as a people had contributed to the world. I couldn’t reconcile my feelings of remorse for my condition (skin, ghetto) and this deep love I had for myself and my culture and my family who are all hard working and intelligent. It was a conflict for a long time, until I became conscious of the fact that my skin did NOT equal ghetto. Although I could have told you every fact about Black history, Africa, and the state of our “post-racial” society, I felt this longing to escape, a fleeing from myself and the boxes that (I) had come to mean. It was not about hating being Black, but hating being poor and having some intrinsic sense, even then, that the two were connected.

I began to question what it meant to “Be.”

I am, because…… I am, because, it is? Because it happened? Because I did?

What was shaping me? Was it my external world? My home life? At the time I thought it was a universal consciousness, and now I’m pretty sure it is.

Growing up young gifted and Black in my neighborhood is an experience in isolation. To be and not to be a part of a culture you clearly belong to is an adjustment. It dawns on you slowly that when they look at you, they are not seeing you; that you do not matter. They are seeing your talent, some unspoiled light in a world long gone dark for them. You are their prodigal son, some Black Moses that they silently cry to for release. That dependence — the yearning for release and acceptance — breeds envy and doubt. It causes questions of self-worth, poisons unity. The reality is no one makes it out. No matter how far you run, you can never leave your past.

Sure you leave the neighborhood and “do better,” but then you catch a few words that put you right back where you came from.

There is this perception across the color line that you pick up on early, it usually sounds something like

“if they would just” or “I don’t see why” or ” why do they have to” and is usually finished by something that should have been left unsaid.

There is a misconception that because we have lived so close for so long, our culture should have assimilated by now. There is a lack of realization that cultures of color — no matter how recent or long ago their immigration — are still different cultures. They are cultures equally as valid as a means of self-expression as White culture, and with drawbacks and failings just like White culture. In my opinion White culture has been enshrined as a story we are fed, so sacred that when presented with new evidence we cling to the old like a leech. I can point to more than a few historical examples. A college history class makes you realize how much of our national his-story is fabricated. But, the dis-value placed on African-American history, art, science, medicine and culture has hurt our communication. It has led to these subjects being regarded as a topic for radicals and rabble rousers.

When’s the last time you read a great Black book?

When your hand goes up in history class you hear, “Why don’t they just learn normal history like everyone else,” or ” not everything is about being Black.”

I chuckle, because it is. I am learning that this skin I’m in means something different to everyone and life presents me with the challenge of proving most of them wrong. I am learning that “normal” history is the result of one people conquering another and selling its own version of events as the only one.

I wrestled with how to present this, about how to make understanding possible, and I felt like understanding would be impossible until we understand the fissure in experience. I felt like no matter how inconvenient, this conversation can’t be put on pause, or halted. I can’t stop being who I am or having my heritage because it would be more convenient to be perceived as something other. Everything I am I owe to the hood, my talent and my skills are all born and bred there. I may have learned the king’s English, the violin, and other skills after, but my childhood in the hood taught me that you are never living for yourself, and all things are temporary. How much of me is still the boy from the projects? Is the difference between me and other young kings opportunity, or is there something special about us few, proud, brave who make it out?

Consciousness comes when you stop looking for a new way to do things and make your own, when you start to question why, why you believe the way you do. Think about the world from your perspective and then shift it slightly until you are viewing yourself from across the room; really give it a shot.

No matter what you do, what you think, or who you know — your actions change you. At the end of the day every experience everyone has ever had has led up to you. Essentially, I am because I exist.

Ase.

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Saddiq Granger is a native Philadelphian, violinist and aspiring community organizer now residing in Waco, Texas.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

By Sara Beth Stoltzfus

I came to Waco from Pennsylvania 6 years ago. I came from studying in a small college town after spending eight years in another small college town. I was thrilled Waco had an Olive Garden.

While I wasn’t initially sold on Waco and Texas (arriving in August did not help), Waco eventually grew to be home. I moved from being an Americorp-like volunteer at a local domestic violence shelter to being employed by that shelter. I found a warm church home. I found a boyfriend who would eventually become my husband. And, I found extra-curricular activities to support my activist passions. After leaving Waco for two years to go to Austin for my Masters of Social Work, I returned with some (or a lot) of hesitancy. Where will I eat? What will I do with my time? Am I too weird now, and will I be able to accept and fit into a town with a more conservative mindset? Sure, I still consider these topics. AND I understand that because I am a white, straight, cisgender, Christian, U.S. citizen individual, it’s MUCH easier for me to stay here, exist here and fight here. It’s much easier to be out about who I am. I unfortunately cannot say that for many of my gay and undocumented friends. That is something we need to change.

But I also have a lot of hope for Waco. There are lots of folks committed to #Wacotown. I get sad when my young and single friends look to move elsewhere. I don’t fault them as Waco is more oriented towards “traditional” families and college folks, not single 30 and 40 year olds-not young and single folks who are gay.

And at the same time, I really think that there is a lot of possibility in Waco. If you have an idea, a dream, a vision, you can (with the help of others) do it! Because we are not already Austin or Dallas, you can take part in the development of something new, something needed. This is not to say that we should throw things together haphazardly because no one else is doing it, because “at least we are doing something.” We should be intentional in our work. Because it’s really exciting if you think about it.

Look at Act Locally Waco and this very blog. Ashley Bean Thornton decided to start a website to connect Wacoans to local events and resources in the community and look at it now! Look at the Waco Poetry Society. A solid group of people meet regularly, share their poetry and create with one another. Go Jenuine! What about the Community Race Relations Coalition, InterWaco and Citizens for Responsible Lending, among others? These are some of the very cool grassroots organizations taking root in Waco.

In 2010, two of my friends got together and created a group advocating for the passage of the Dream Act, a piece of legislation that was designed as a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth who had lived most of their lives in the United States. That group grew and we did some pretty awesome things together. Recently, a friend commented on an article I shared on Facebook about immigrant women who are participating in a hunger strike, protesting their detention and the inhumane conditions of immigrant detention. She said, “want to do something in solidarity with these women?” I said “yes” and tagged a few friends on the post. Recently, we had an event to write letters of support to the detained women. At least 15 people came! Now we are planning additional meetings for the Waco Immigration Alliance (previously the Waco DREAM Act Alliance). How awesome is that?! One comment turned into something more!

I feel like Waco is on the cusp of so much. I hope it won’t all be gentrification and Whole Foods. I’m not looking for cool coffee shops and new boutiques. I’m looking for a continued fight for justice-and grassroots organizations emerging from Facebook conversations. I’m looking for people saying – publicaly — we love you for who you are: gay, straight, trans, Muslim, undocumented, black, a poetry lover, a chess player-whatever. I know I’m only 6 years a Texan and 4 years a Wacoan. I have much to learn about what Waco has been through and what Waco is currently going through. I know there is much more grassroots work that has been done than what is listed in this post and I am definitely the beneficiary of lots of hard work.

But I am committed to staying, learning, fighting and creating. I’m hopeful. #WacoWeDo.

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This Act Locally Waco blog post was written by Sara Beth Stoltzfus. Sara Beth is a Social Worker at MCH Family Outreach through the Methodist Children’s Home. Sara Beth is originally from Pennsylvania but has been living in Texas for more than 6 years, 4 of which have been spent in Waco. Sara Beth enjoys spending time with her husband, James, and dog, Bud, as well as with her church community, Hope Fellowship. Sara Beth also enjoys participating in social justice work with other Wacoans.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 

By Pam McKown

What does it mean to be a woman? For some it means you calmly usher children to school, engage in a productive day at work, and then settle in safely at home with family to rest peacefully before doing it again.

Yes, this is the reality for some women, but for many women life looks different. For some it means you look as though you have it all together, but inside there is a battle being waged that includes feelings of guilt, insecurity, fear and vulnerability, and regret for mistakes made. For some women life looks like illness, death, loneliness, depression, or anxiety. For some women, it feels like you have sacrificed everything and you have nothing. You find yourself homeless and striving to find a safe place to sleep while wondering “How did this happen?” You could be secretly planning to leave an abusive partner, questioning how you will make it, or what freedom will look like. You may be trying to convince yourself, “It isn’t so bad here…” even though you know it is. For some of us the story of our lives may include any and all of these things.

Take Heart Ministries (THM), a new non-profit here in Waco, is working to connect women of all walks of life through the uniqueness that makes us women. Our mission is to build dignity, improve health, and restore hope to women who are homeless or in transition by providing them with female hygiene products.

See…women may all look different, feel different, be different and have different stories, but the one thing we share is that fact that we all have dealt with menstruation. Take Heart Ministries hopes to address the needs of homeless women by providing a month’s supply of tampons, pads, cleansing wipes, a box of granola bars and bottled water in a purple backpack called a “Love Tote.” What possibly could some tampons or pads mean to a woman who has nothing? It’s not going to feed her; it’s not going to clothe her; it’s not going to sustain her. But, at Take Heart Ministries we believe it will help her maintain her health and restore her dignity. It might help her stand tall with their face lifted and say, “I’m going to overcome.” And let’s be honest…we all long for that.

As women we all share the physical fact of menstruation. Take Heart Ministries seeks to build on that physical similarity to unite women of this community in a genuine authenticity that comes from being honest with ourselves and other women about our stories. Because if I’m honest, I have an understanding of the need to be loved deeply. I have my own feelings of loneliness, depression, feeling unknown and without purpose. I have made choices to give myself “love” or “happiness” through excessively drinking alcohol, sex, an addiction to pornography, battles with postpartum depression and infidelity in my marriage. These things gave me an immediate outlet to give my love to something or someone but continually left me empty and longing.

I have felt out of control in anger, addiction, sadness, guilt and isolation. Though the battle has been won and my head has been lifted, I still feel plagued at times with the lessons that I learned from this time. Even now, when things get tough, I face a strong urge – not return to the behaviors – but to revert back to the safe place of shame.

What does this mean? It means that in order to share a model for authentically loving others, we have to get real and honest. It means your story and my story are not perfect, but they also are not over! If we as women unite in brokenness and authenticity, love can heal what hurt divides. Mercy is waiting on the other side of our honesty. This is the very heart of Take Heart Ministries: to be honest with our own stories in order to share them. In doing so, we relate in the foundation of being a woman and become available to show God’s redeeming love to others by living out the very redemption He has given us.

Our hope is to engage you in this conversation, to challenge the women in this community to let down the walls that divide us, to join hands in serving and loving each other, and in recognizing the value that we all have simply by being uniquely ourselves. Take Heart Ministries would love to share our heart with you and groups that you are involved in. We currently have community partners that are distributing our Love Totes. We would love to see how we could provide that gift to your agency or group. It is a small gesture that relieves a woman of one burden she is carrying. Check us out at www.takeheartministry.org and feel free to contact me about how you can become involved in the life changing work taking place here.

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Pam McKown is a Clinical Social Worker who provides individual therapy to those dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues at Journey Counseling Center. She is the Co-Founder of Take Heart Ministries. She is a long time native of Waco. She has a passion for social justice and journeying with people through life and finding true meaning and hope. She also is highly passionate about her family and the Baylor Bears.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

by Barbara Bridgewater

Several years ago, several of my church family decided to invest in some property in the Sanger Heights neighborhood where we live in order to provide inexpensive housing to our other church family members who wanted to live in the neighborhood and to other families who wanted to live here, too. We call ourselves Casa Azul, reflecting the Spanish speaking influence of our church. We bought two pieces of property that we rent to different families and it takes all seven of us to keep up the business of being good landlords. Many of our discussions over the years have been as to whether or not to hire someone to do what’s needed or to do it ourselves. With each of us maintaining other jobs and families, we often choose to hire out the maintenance or other work.

But not always. Sometimes, despite our other schedules, we take time to go visit our renters, try to fix what’s needed or mow the lawn ourselves. At times, this feels a little inefficient, especially when it comes to mowing the lawns, which I’ve taken upon myself to do.

I could, instead, easily work another two hours and earn the money to pay someone the time it takes for me to get the mower, get to the property, get hot and sweaty as I repeat monotonous patterns and then shower off the results! And sometimes, we do just that: hire someone else who already has a business mowing lawns to do ours as well. But not usually. Usually, I choose to walk to get the mower, then walk to the properties to mow them. Usually I choose to do it because something magical happens that I hadn’t planned on in my busy life.

Usually I meet a neighbor along my walk I hadn’t met before or one I hadn’t seen in a while. One time, an elderly neighbor really needed his front lawn mowed but had no money until the following week, so I mowed it for him. Another time, a stranger asked if he could mow the lawn for some extra money, and we ended up in a long conversation about other benefits around the city that he could use in his time of need. Most of the time, I converse with one of the renters, and usually she offers me something to drink and we sit pause for a bit and talk. Always, I am able to greet at least a half dozen people in my neighborhood whom otherwise I wouldn’t see that day. Always, I marvel at my diverse neighborhood and smile at the new improvements, the ways in which we are growing this neighborhood together, the pothole that I need to report to the city, the child that is growing up, and the new flowers someone has lovingly planted.

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Barbara Bridgewater has lived with her husband, Phillip, and 2 daughters in the diverse north Waco neighborhood of Sanger Heights for 17 years. She teaches English to adults through MCC and works with homeless families at Compassion Ministries (while Phillip works with Habitat for Humanity International). Barbara attends a church in that neighborhood called Hope Fellowship, where Casa Azul was born.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

by Adam Moore

How well do you know Waco? I don’t mean Waco history, politics, or where to find the best burrito in town (I tend to favor Sergio’s food truck). Rather, I mean have you actually seen the different areas of our city? Have you been to the various neighborhoods? Are you familiar with the historical parts of Waco? Have you spent much time on ‘the other side of the train tracks’ or ‘the other side of the river’? How big is your idea of Waco? Is it centered on your particular neighborhood and the most common places you frequent, or is it bigger than that? I think these questions matter. And I think most of us don’t know Waco as well as we think we do. At least, I know that was true of me. Even though I’ve lived in Waco for much of the past 17 years, I’ve only recently gained a broader perspective of the geography of our town. And oddly enough, it took getting a little lost for me to begin to open my eyes to the larger city around me.

About six months ago I fixed up my dad’s old bike and started riding it around Waco. I figured it would be a good way to get some exercise, but I was also interested in getting out and exploring some areas of town I had never been to before. At first I would just leave my house and start riding, not really sure where I was going or how I would get back. I live in a fairly central part of town, so no matter which direction I went, I was likely to find somewhere new to get a little lost. Originally, the goal was just to explore, but as I started to discover more of our city, I also began to take photos of what I was seeing–houses, businesses, murals, churches, parks–anything that caught my attention. I created an Instagram account (@Lost_in_Waco) and starting sharing what I was seeing. I was fascinated and intrigued by the history, the culture, and the hidden beauty to be found everywhere I went, even in the so-called ‘less desirable’ areas of town. Riding through Waco I made a concerted effort to pay attention to what was around me–while also keeping my eyes on the road–and to try and notice what might normally go unappreciated. Of course, not everything I’ve seen has been positive, but I do try and see beauty where it might typically be overlooked. And I’ve realized it isn’t that hard to find.

So why does this matter?

I think there are a lot of good things happening in Waco right now–there is much to be optimistic about. However, if we fail to have a broad geographic vision of our city, then we cannot have a comprehensive vision of a prospering Waco. Any dream of a more vital and flourishing Waco must include much more than the few areas of town I most often frequent. What I have found is that by getting a little lost in Waco–going out into the city and exploring the unfamiliar–I have come to better understand both the challenges facing our community and the significant assets of our city. And I do not mean assets that can simply be appropriated for my own benefit (or the benefit of people like me); I mean the existing businesses, neighborhoods, and people that already make Waco a great community. Perhaps you would benefit from going out and getting a little lost in Waco–what do you think?

If you do decide to go explore, I certainly recommend riding a bike, but you might want to drive to a different area of town and go for a walk, or simply find some local businesses to support in areas you seldom frequent. Not only will you broaden your knowledge of Waco geography, you’ll also get to interact with new people. Of course, you can also get on Instagram, start sharing your own photos, and join the growing community posting photos under #wacotown, #waco, #wacoisawonderland, #wacomurals, #housesofwaco, #churchesofwaco, and even #lostinwaco. And if we ever cross paths on Instagram, or if you see me riding my bike around town, be sure to say hello. I’ll be happy to point you in a great direction to get lost.

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Adam Moore rides his bike and takes pictures around Waco. You can find his photos on Instagram (@Lost_in_Waco) and on Facebook (Lost in Waco). He lives in Waco with his wife, Brooke, and his two daughters, who both attend Lake Air Montessori in Waco ISD. Adam works as a program coordinator for the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core in the Honors College at Baylor. You can contact Adam at [email protected].

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.