News & Events

City High/Middle School Students Hit Economicology Turf

February 3, 2009September 3, 2014Wege AdminEducation

Students are never too young to start learning how to compost!

To say the first economicology curriculum in town is up and running after one semester is not exactly true. Students at City High/Middle School have raced out of the gate to implement the principles of balancing the economy with the ecology. Peter Wege has advocated this philosophy since starting The Wege Foundation over 40 years ago, and he coined the term economicology to summarize it. The Wege Foundation is now sponsoring a premier Grand Rapids Public School to pioneer this environmental-financial approach to education.

And, to be precise, the first students whose classes are infused with economicology values actually jumped the starting gate before the doors opened in the fall of 2008. As school let out last spring, City High students in the Environmental Club decided they’d had enough of watching everyone’s lunch leftovers fill up trash bags. They needed to do something about it, and September was too far away.

Some of the E Club students actually followed garbage trucks and saw all their school’s food refuse end up in the dump. They recognized this as negative economicology. Pay for dumping and damage the environment. Their solution? Composting.

Over the summer they interviewed the food-service people at San Chez and the Grand Plaza Hotel knowing those restaurants both composted. They found out that environmental haulers named SPURT were the ones who did the composting. They also found out how strict SPURT’s rules are to ensure only food waste gets into the composting containers.

When school opened last fall, composting was in place at City High/Middle . No extra staff time (cost!) was needed because student volunteers did it all. Principal Dale Hovenkamp noted there was “a learning curve for a while.” Faculty and students had to learn how to sort and separate foods and dishware into the correct recycle bins.

By second semester 2009, after-lunch sorting was second nature. According to Principle Hovenkamp, the composting project has raised awareness for all the 620 seventh-through-twelfth grade students at the school on Fuller. “This is a very smart group of kids,” Hovenkamp makes clear. “They understand why we need to do these things.”

The ripple effect of this economicology transformation is already happening. East Grand Rapids High School students heard their friends from City High talking about it, and they wanted in. East students have now checked out how City’s composting program works…they plan to go therefore and do likewise at their own school.

Yet more to come at City High/Middle? A wind turbine. Boycotting the sale of bottled water. Using their compost on apple trees started in the school science labs to be planted on school property. Selling CFL (compact fluorescent Light bulbs) to save energy and raise money for more economicology projects.

No, the kids who jumped the gun last summer using economicology to make theirs a better world haven’t even made the first post around their track.

Brandie Perry from The Wege Foundation is shown with Dale Hovenkamp, principal of City High/Middle School–part of the Grand Rapids Public School System. The poster behind them represents the new economicology curriculum that started in the fall of 2008 and is being taught across the curriculum in all six grades, 7th-12th. Funded by The Wege Foundation, the curriculum is based on Peter Wege’s economicology principles that advocate a balance between the economy and the environment.

The Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers: How they came to be

November 8, 2008September 8, 2014Wege AdminEducation, Environment

Majors Roger and Joy Ross, chief administrators of the Kroc Center, and Jaylen Jennings, a Kroc Leadership Academy student, are seen at the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new family center. Neighborhood children like Jaylen are already attending Kroc programs taking place in their nearby grade schools: New Branches and Brookside.

In 2002 when Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, built a world-class family recreation center in a blighted part of San Diego, no crystal ball could have foreseen the impact of her gift. That original Kroc Community Center elevated the neighborhood and the endless streams of families who came there.

The transformation Joan Kroc saw happening in the lives of those San Diego residents, especially the children, moved her to rewrite her will. She wanted inner-city families across the country to have the same opportunity for sports, recreation, education, the arts, and worship. The only organization she knew that could make such a big dream happen was the Salvation Army.

When Joan Kroc died in October, 2003, her largest single bequest was $1.7 billion to the Salvation Army. The generosity of this historic donation stunned the Army. It also challenged them unlike any gift ever had. Her terms were strict. The money had only one purpose: to build 38 Kroc Community Centers from California to the East Coast.

She also made sure the Centers would be maintained as world-class operations. To guarantee that future quality, she stipulated all grants must go half toward construction and half for an endowment to operate the Centers. In addition, each community awarded a grant had to raise local dollars equal to half the endowment bequest.

Every penny of her $1.7 billion had to go toward the new Kroc Centers—none of it could be spent on any existing operations. In the same month of her death five years later, the first shovel of dirt was dug at 2500 South Division in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to start the $56 million Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center.

Additional article – The Money Trail: Grand Rapids Kroc Center

Additional article – Wege Foundation Contributed to GREEN Kroc

Read more about Ray and Joan Kroc Center at www.kroccenter.org

Wege Foundation’s Areas of Interests

Environment
Education
The Arts
Human Services
Health Care

Ray and Joan Kroc Center’s Programs

LEED Certified/Geo-Thermal
Classrooms/Tutoring/Computer Labs
Performing Arts Auditorium: Music
Safe Playgrounds/Recreation/Mentoring
Fitness Center/Sports/Medical Clinic

Wisconsin Governor Shares Good News on Saving the Lakes

October 30, 2008September 22, 2014Wege AdminEnvironment

Seven representatives of The Wege Foundation, including Trustees Mary Nelson, Peter Wege II, and Ellen Satterlee, attended the 4th Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference in Milwaukee September 10-12. Most appropriately, the seven Wege Foundation delegates traveled from Grand Rapids to Milwaukee by crossing Lake Michigan on the Lake Express ferry.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle welcomed the over 300 attendees, all members of organizations collaborating to save the Lakes. The conference was sponsored by The Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition. The HOW-GL Coalition was a direct result of the first Great Lakes Conference held in Grand Rapids in 2004 and called together by Peter Wege and The Wege Foundation. Wege’s advocacy has been consistent ever since. “We must do something for the Great Lakes while there’s still time.”

In thanking Wege and the Foundation, Governor Doyle told the crowd that without Peter’s vision, the remarkable strides that have been made in four years could never have happened. “Real progress has been made,” Doyle said. “HOW focused national attention on this issue.” In the tight Presidential race, the Wisconsin governor noted, “We are pivotal states in this election.”

Speaking of the rapid progress the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact has made moving through Congress, Governor Doyle said, “The Compact has gained real momentum. The flow is now in our direction!”

Calling the Great Lakes “part of who we are,” Doyle, who also chairs the Council of Great Lakes Governors, told the audience that Wisconsin has tripled the amount of money it is spending to fight invasive species. The state has allocated $7.7 million to clean up sediment.

Governor Doyle pointed out some the Lakes’ economic impact for Wisconsin. Over $6 billion in revenue is connected to the Lakes, with as much as $2.3 Billion in Milwaukee alone. Eleven thousand jobs in the state are tied to the Lakes. Governor Doyle predicted even higher financial gains as the high costs of oil have spurred a resurgence of Great Lakes shipping.

He said that in any photo of the Earth from outer space, the Great Lakes always stand out. Governor James Doyle closed by saying of the five Lakes, “They are a special gift from God.”

Peter M. Wege Once More Honors His Parents

October 8, 2008September 8, 2014Wege AdminCommunity Service

As the only child of Peter Martin and Sophia Dubridge Wege, Peter M. Wege began honoring their memory half a century ago. Because of his mother’s strong Catholic faith, her son often used his gifts to church causes as an opportunity to memorialize his parents. His first major gift in 1959 went to help build Alburtus Magnus Hall of Science for Aquinas College.

At the ceremonies opening the new science hall on October 22, 1960, Wege dedicated the building to his parents. A memorial plaque at the entrance to the science building commemorates both Peter Martin, who died in 1947, and Sophia Dubridge Wege, who died August 17, 1959. Almost fifty years later, on September 23, 2008, Peter again paid tribute to his parents and, again, it was through the Catholic Church. This most recent gift was an act of spontaneous generosity and for the most personal of reasons. Seated outdoors in the new Cathedral Square during the dedication of the Catholic Diocese headquarters at 360 S. Division, Peter went back in time as he gazed across the Square. He was looking at a renovated office building on the northwest corner of Division and Wealthy.

In 1911, his father moved into the upstairs apartment in that building when he came to Grand Rapids from Ohio to start Metal Office Furniture. After he married Grand Rapids native Sophia Dubridge, it was their first home. It became the first home of their only child Peter M. Wege when he was born in Februrary 1920.

Now that original Wege home overlooks the newly dedicated Cathedral Square, anchored by the $22 million, 100,000 square-foot Cathedral Square Center building. The new Center is, of course, LEED certified as all Peter Wege’s capital donations must be.

The Most Reverend Walter A. Hurley, Bishop of Grand Rapids was as stunned as the 600 people in the audience were at Peter’s additional, surprise gift. When he had time to reflect on what Peter Martin and Sophia Wege’s son had done for the church, Bishop Hurley wrote:

I am grateful to Peter Wege for his extraordinary gift to the diocesan Cathedral Square project. This recent gift reflects a tradition of support for the Diocese of Grand Rapids, its parishes, schools, and institutions as well as many local, national, and international programs and organizations. Time and again, through his unwavering generosity, Mr. Wege has demonstrated his commitment to and passion for the church, the community, education, healthcare, and the environment.

GRAM’S FIRST REPORT CARD

September 8, 2008September 8, 2014Wege AdminArts & Culture

After one year in operation as the world’s first art museum to win a Gold LEED medal from the United States Green Building Council, the Grand Rapids Art Museum has doubled its attendance. The new GRAM welcomed twice as many people to its galleries in one year as the number of those who visited GRAM in its last year in the former federal building.

Over those twelve months, the 70,000 viewers to the old GRAM have grown to 140,000 people who came through the doors of the new “green” art museum. Even more significant for the future is that 1,000 new people have signed on to become members of GRAM. Another sign of success in its first year is that 185 tour groups, including visitors from Germany, visited the art museum this year.

GRAM earned national recognition when Newsweek Magazine named the 125,000 square-feet new art museum one of the “Six Most Important Buildings of 2007.” Its location in the heart of Grand Rapids overlooking the Rosa Parks ice rink—the city’s own Rockefeller Plaza—has made GRAM a popular destination. After walking through the galleries, visitors browse the gift shop and watch the skaters over lunch in the cafeteria.

Peter Wege, President of The Wege Foundation, donated the lead gift that initiated the campaign to give his hometown a world-class new building to house its only art museum. His one stipulation: “I want it to be the first LEED-certified museum in the world.” The U.S. Green Building Council’s historic announcement that GRAM had earned the first Gold rating ever awarded to a museum honored Peter’s request—and fulfilled his dream.

Read more on the history and wonderful gift given by Peter M. Wege @ Fast Company Magazine

Economicology Principles Move into Grand Rapids’ Classrooms

August 8, 2008September 8, 2014Wege AdminEducation, Environment

Thanks to The Wege Foundation, the Grand Rapids Public Schools are infusing Peter Wege’s concept of economicology into the curriculum. Wege coined the word economicology to define the balance needed between the economy and the ecology. The word summarizes Wege’s advocacy for educating the public on the reality that a prosperous economy depends on maintaining a healthy environment.

The first two GRPS schools that will begin teaching economicology in the fall of 2008 are the seventh graders at City High-Middle School and the sixth graders at the Southeast Academic Center. The environmental principles The Wege Foundation has promoted for forty years will be worked into all subjects for those pioneering students. Each school year a new grade will be added.

City High-Middle School Principal Dale Hovenkamp and his staff have been preparing this program for over a year. A committed environmentalist himself, Hovenkamp is excited that his school is one of the two pilots for economicology. City High-Middle School is the top performing high school in the area, the third best in the state of Michigan.

Along with introducing economicology into the schools, the GRPS is moving toward offering the International Baccalaureate Program. The IB Middle Years Programme is the most recognized pre-university educational program in the world. As its name suggests, the curriculum is based on global learning with 125 countries already participating.

Principal Dale Hovenkamp told a press conference. “The International Baccalaureate program and the Economicology program offer great potential for new and more powerful learnin. The faculty at Grand Rapids City High-Middle is eager to meet this challenge.”

PEACE WITH NATURE INITIATIVE

July 15, 2008May 30, 2017Wege AdminEnvironment

The forward-thinking president of Costa Rica Oscar Arias Sanchez has launched an international conservation effort that could help save 4% of the world’s biodiversity. Called the Peace With Nature Initiative, President Arias’s plan continues the visionary environmentalism Costa Rica began two decades ago.

Working with Dr. Dan Janzen, University of Pennsylvania biologist, in the 1990s the Costa Rican government began buying up private land to be permanently preserved. Today Costa Rica has put one-fourth of all the country’s land into national parks and green space. Dr. Janzen spearheaded the creation of the Area de Conservaction Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica rich with rain forests and wildlife. Those 163-000 hectares of preserved land support 4% of the Earth’s biodiversity.

The cost to ensure the survival of this vital biodiversity in the ACG is $500 million, meaning $1,000 can save one species of life. Peace With Nature will both acquire more sensitive lands in Costa Rica, and it will create an organization to permanently restore and manage the preserved land. Peter Wege and The Wege Foundation have become early supporters contributing $2 million.

President Arias said this when he launched the Peace With Nature Initiative:
To survive in the 21st Century, we need different ethics than in the past, need
to recognize our interdependency, understand that we are all responsible for
each other.

An earlier American conservationist and crusader for national parks said the same thing a century ago. John Muir wrote, “When you tug on one thing in nature, you find it is connected to everything else.”

U of P Biologist Discusses Costa Rica and Species Bar Coding

July 8, 2008September 8, 2014Wege AdminEnvironment

In late July, 2008, The Wege Foundation invited friends from several West Michigan foundations to meet University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. Dan Janzen and his wife Dr. Winnie Hallwachs Janzen and learn about their conservation work in the Costa Rican rain forest. Since Peter Wege first met the Janzens in 1991, The Wege Foundation has supported their work buying private land to be permanently preserved. The two Dr. Janzens have worked closely with the Costa Rican government to help the Central American country become the global leader in conserved park land relative to its size.

From the first small purchases of land in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in 1991 through 2005, The Wege Foundation has been the single best supporter among 8,500 other donors. Collectively, these donors have expanded the ACG parcel by parcel so by 2005, the ACG had grown to 376,380 acres—equal to 2% of the entire country! The ACG is now regarded as the leading example of tropical forest restoration in the world.

The importance of preserving this particular land mass, and the topic of Dr. Janzen’s talk to the foundation members, is that the ACG contains 4% of the world’s biodiversity. It is also home to 235,000 species—as many species as exist in all of North America! The professor of biology at the U of P is now part of an international initiative to analyze the DNA of every living species. Mapping out the DNA enables the scientists to then bar code that species to be catalogued for future research.

Dr. Janzen foresees the time when all ten million species of life can be googled through bar coding. He is using his expertise to bar code insects, with butterflies his particular specialty. The University of Guelph in Canada is doing the same for birds. For instance, if Dr. Janzen sends a Costa Rican bird’s feather to the
bar-coding biologists at Guelph, they can check the DNA and identify the species.

“We need to change all human relationships with wild things,” Dan Janzen explained. If humans can’t name a living thing, the professor believes, we won’t care about whether it lives or dies. But naming each species through bar coding gives it an identity so people will want to preserve it. He told The Wege Foundation guests that this project he calls “bioliteracy” will elevate the human spirit. “By sustaining and restoring biodiversity, we will rediscover our own humanity.”

Humanity is pressed for time, according to Janzen, if we are going to save species from man’s careless extinction by bar coding each life form to be libraried. In 1963, not even 50 years ago, the Earth had 95% of the species known in 1600. By 2007, biologists could account for only 70% of those from 1600 still remaining.

ASU Chief Goes After Fellow Academic Leaders

June 15, 2008September 8, 2014Wege AdminEducation, Environment

The 2008 Climate Leadership Summit of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment concluded its two days of meetings in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on June 6. Speaking at the closing luncheon, the chairman of the ACUPCC and president of Arizona State University, Michael M. Crowe did not tiptoe around the sensitive topic of membership.

Crowe congratulated the 550 colleges and universities whose presidents have already pledged to Climate Commitment on their campuses, while noting another 4,000 have not yet done so. This head of a major public university himself, Crowe interpreted the slowness of other academic CEOs to sign on as an indication that “most college presidents are cowards.” He urged his audience representing the schools of higher education who are members of the ACUPCC to do whatever they could to encourage the other heel-dragging presidents to join their coalition.

Crowe told his fellow ACUPCC colleagues that colleges and universities have an obligation to do more than “produce leaders…we have to lead ourselves.” Crowe stressed that all of their schools must teach their students about the necessity of climate neutrality “through what we do.”

“We need to make sustainable connections between buildings and nature, between people and the outside.”

Before the lunch began, one ACUPCC member from New England offered a spontaneous toast to Peter Wege for his visionary environmental thinking. John Lebica, Assistant Vice President for Facilities and Sustainability at Cape Cod Community College, saluted Wege as “somebody who has built such a strong foundation for all of us to add on to.”