Risen Christ 7th graders tour Target Field
MINNEAPOLIS -- Target Field is a delight for fans of baseball. It's also inspirational for a group of seventh graders trying to imagine their future.
"You guys ready to go?" Rick Olson. He leads tours for the Minnesota Twins and Target Field. Today he surveys a group of seventh graders fresh off the bus from Risen Christ School in Minneapolis.
Olson and his colleagues plan to take students behind the scenes, including a tour of the opposing team's clubhouse and dugout, not to mention the field itself. Olson also takes the students to an area where rain water is collected.
"80-percent of the rainfall that falls on Target Field gets cleaned, filtered and re-used," said Olson.
The Target Field tours are tailored for the specific needs of any given group, and include offerings in math, science, architecture - even art for students of all levels.
Today, Olson has some allies on the tour -- chaperones who are adult mentors for the school.
"We have a wonderful program with business executives called 'Imagine the Possibilities,'" said Fran Rusciano Murnane, Director of Advancement at Risen Christ. "They work with kids in groups of about six and they meet throughout the year."
The groups focus on specific fields of interest and include small business owners with a variety of backgrounds. The group touring Target Field focuses on construction, and some of the mentors work at companies that had a hand in building the ballpark.
"There's architecture, there's engineering, there's project management, there's sales," said Michael McHugh with the Midwest Construction Group. "There's so many other varieties of opportunities within construction. I want to convey that to the kids and open their eyes other opportunities in construction.
McHugh is also a civil rights commissioner for the City of Minneapolis, who ensures that equal opportunity rules are followed for construction projects within the city.
Equal opportunity is something students at Risen Christ, which is an extremely diverse school, need to know about.
"When I was in their shoes, I didn't have somebody like myself, the business owner, to come in and talk to them about business and opportunities in the future, and I realize I can give back that way," said McHugh, who was once a student in the building that houses Risen Christ.
Barbara Brick, president of The Brick Company, is similarly driven to give back. "For the girls, it's really important because the girls don't always thing of construction as an industry they want to go into," said Brick. "For me it was very empowering."
Luis Cabrera is excited about being a part of the tour. But even in 7th grade, he knows this is not just for fun and games. "When we grow up, we can get a better life."
"I think a definition of poverty is being without options," said Rusciano Murnane, who oversees the program at Risen Christ School. "We want to make sure they (students) have a lot of options to choose from."
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All rights reserved.)
You Might Be Interested In