Madison Senior Center

It is Friday, and as promised, I want to share some good news as we begin the weekend. I am pleased to announce the unveiling of the City’s new initiative LOOK FORWARD.
In ways, big and small, neighbors have been supporting one another through these difficult times. Several weeks ago, I requested staff create a platform that would enable us to recognize some of the vital creative efforts going on throughout the Madison community.

Earlier this week, the City of Madison launched LOOK FORWARD, on the Madison Public Library’s website. LOOK FORWARD is a social media and public art initiative that will promote a sense of connectedness spanning across all neighborhoods and communities within the City of Madison.

Look Forward celebrates the creative, expressive, and caring nature of Madisonians and helps us connect with each other online and look ahead to a time when we can safely be together in person again.

LOOK FORWARD invites you to share how you, your neighbors, your friends and family members, your coworkers, and others have been uplifting each other in ways big and small. Show us what holds "us" together during this challenging time.
The images, events, and stories shared through Look Forward inspire optimism in this time of uncertainty by:

• encouraging healthy behaviors,
• educating people about coping strategies,
• sharing examples of inclusivity, positivity, resilience, and connectedness across all Madison neighborhoods and communities,
• celebrating essential workers such as bus drivers, technology staff, grocery store workers, trash collectors, emergency responders, and medical staff,
• and preparing our community for economic recovery.

You can follow and engage with the campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Facebook: @LookForwardMadison
Instagram: @lookforwardmadison
Twitter: @LookForwardMsn
Website: lookforwardmadison.org

Look Forward is a City of Madison collaboration coordinated by Madison Public Library and Madison Arts Commission, with the artistic support of Art & Sons and The Bubbler.

Do you have stories you would like featured? You can submit them online at www.lookforwardmadison.org.

There are a few other things I wanted to share. I know we all look forward to when we can return to the Dane County Farmers Market on Saturday mornings on the Capitol Square and Wednesdays on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. You can still get your fresh vegetables plants, bakery and other wonderful Wisconsin goods though, by ordering on-line and picking them up at the Alliant Energy Center. You can get all the information here. Thanks for supporting our local farmers and small business’s during this difficult time.

I said I would share stories of collaboration and here is a great one. American Family teamed up with UW Athletics and a number of local restaurants to provide meals for health care workers. What a great way to celebrate National Nurses Appreciation Week. Here is a brief story. Share others with me and LookForward because I would love to pass on the good work!

Last week I shared that the Madison Senior Center had established a pen pal program for older adults and other volunteers. They let me know they have plenty of volunteers, so thank you for that! They want to make sure that they have names of older adults who may benefit from this program. If you have someone in mind, please let the Senior Center know by contacting jweichelt@cityofmadison.com or call 608-266-6581.

I wanted to let you know that during this pandemic we have been working hard to reach all of our residents and providing information in Spanish, Hmong and Chinese. We are providing essential information in videos in Hmong and we are doing reach out through La Movida radio station to our Latinx community. Angela Puerta is a talented City planner and bilingual. She will be doing outreach on La Movida on Monday as we continue to share important information. I recently did a guest appearance and so appreciate the service they provide!

And sometimes it is hard to believe, but there is other on-going City business, including a food scraps recycling program! You can find details here. You can take the appropriate scraps to three Streets Division drop off sites. As we work to maintain social distances and keep staff and residents healthy, you may sometimes find some longer lines at the site, so please be patient.

Letting you know as well that Metro Transit welcomes new General Manager Justin Stuehrenberg, the former Vice President of Planning and Capital Projects of the IndyGo system in Indianapolis.

At IndyGo, Justin lead the team responsible for implementation of its BRT Red Line BRT, helped build one of the largest electric bus fleets in America, and was instrumental in the implementation of a new account based-fare collection system. Justin was also heavily involved in a route restructure of the IndyGo system. I look forward to working with him and I am sure you will see him riding the bus!

I hope you are not tired of me reminding you that we will get through this – together! We are making progress. Thank you for your efforts! And don’t forget to wash your hands.