Watch this episode to meet an eclectic collection of people who share what matters most to them in their Wisconsin lives including: an urban farmer and a pair that surfs the chilly waters of Lake Michigan.
In this episode, meet a collection of people who share their unique stories, including Will Allen. Allen is a former professional basketball player who now devotes his life to urban farming. He’s passionate about finding ways to make fresh food widely accessible to people living in Milwaukee’s low-income urban areas. To that end, he created Growing Power, a nonprofit organization that works to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Take a deeper dive into the workings of Will’s aquaponics system.
Next up, it’s Maureen Hebl’s story. It was a bike accident that brought Hebl to yoga, and after her recovery she kept at it, deepening her practice while living in Thailand. Now she’s a busy yoga instructor, holding classes at Madison studios, community centers, and giving private lessons. Hebl has added a surprising variation to traditional practice, doing yoga on a stand-up paddleboard on the water. Paddleboards have become a popular pursuit on Madison’s lakes and Hebl can be found there on summer nights leading classes for her floating students. It’s not just for yoga! Take a Paddleboard tour of Wisconsin waters.
Then, Wisconsin Life travels to Green Bay to meet David Turney. As a member of the Menominee Nation, Turney worried that young people were increasingly losing touch with their cultural heritage, including the native language. Turney found that by bringing a Menominee language course into the Green Bay public schools, not only did young people find an interest in traditional ways, they also began to find more academic success overall. Find out how many Wisconsin city names are rooted in Menominee language.
Wisconsin Life also catches up with Dan Orth of Fairchild. Orth has been hunting since he was a boy, but his hunting skills can’t compare to those of his hunting partner, a Goshawk named ‘Daisy.’ Check out a gallery of striking falcon images.
Finally, it’s over to Sheboygan where Alex Marks and his friends live to catch waves. Ordinarily you’d find such hardcore surfers in California or Hawaii… but they love to surf the Great Lakes. Sheboygan is home to their beaches of choice, winter is their optimum time to surf, and on a good day, they only need a board and a five-millimeter thick rubber suit to hit the surf – and dodge the ice chunks in Lake Michigan.
