Ms. Gilbert's Visit to Councilman Rosendahl's Office

March 30, 2008

Visit Councilman Rosendahl's website....Let's say "THANK YOU" to Ms. Mary at the West LA Office for facilitating 3 free buses!

Room 11 is now going to the TREE PEOPLE!
8 classes are also going to MALIBU FOUNDATION'S OCEAN DAY! Part of WORLDWIDE WHALE PROJECT on June 6th! Thanks again, Councilman Rosendahl.


Yesterday, Monday, March 24th, 2008

Wow...I'm proud of myself. I took a chance and I was a bit anxious about it...but the result was so positive. Here's the tale:

Our class needs donations for 5 buses (1 for the Tree People trip; 4 for the Malibu Foundation's Ocean Day Beach Clean Up at Dockweiler Beach) and fees for a trip to the Tree People ($100).

So a month ago our class set about brainstorming how to to raise the money. Since we're learning about our community and the various roles of helpers, like elected officials, we worked really hard on writing letters to Councilman Rosendahl, asking for his help. We also are asking our School Board Member, Marlene Canter, for help.

After several attempts at reaching someone in the Councilman's office (by email of course)....I decided to walk over to his office, which is right around the corner from my school, and hand-deliver the beautifully written letters and illustrations created by the students in Room 11.

But, horror of horrors....I arrived at the West LA Municipal Building to find it locked! And it wasn't even 5pm yet....

Not to be deterred...I tried to find an open door somewhere....but all the doors were locked. Sadly, I began to walk back to school when suddenly I spied a gentleman standing on the steps at the back entrance to the building. I am very shy and don't like approaching strangers, but I thought, "It's worth a try....maybe this man will be compassionate enough to let me in to the building....maybe he works for the Councilman!...."

So what do you know, I approached him, and walking across the parking lot, asked if he worked for the Councilman, and if he could open the door so that I could deliver my students' work. He opened the door for me and although he didn't work for the Councilman, he understood the importance of my mission, and so trusted me enough to let me in the back way.

I arrived at Councilman Rosendahl's office and was very warmly greeted by Mary. She was so kind! Mary actually grew up in our neighborhood and she went to Nora Sterry when she was a little girl!

So Mary called the Councilman's downtown office and connected me with Anatoaly De Jesus , who is in charge of arranging buses for schools for the Councilman. Did you know that every school gets 3 buses each school year from the Councilman? Wow!

So today I will be trying to talk to Anataly on the phone to arrange for the buses for our trip on April 28th to the Tree People, where we are learning about the connection between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica mountains by particupating in their MAGICAL ECO-TOUR.

I am so happy that I took a scary chance and that now we will probably get the help we need to continue our learning about our role as citizens in the world in terms of connections to our enviornment and our government.