For the 10th straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee, presented by the restaurants of Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, dining guides, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as voting for your "Best of Dining 2016."
Playworks, a 20-year-old national organization that arrived in Milwaukee in 2011, recently reported that via its commitment to bringing safe and healthy play to children, it has directly impacted 15,000 kids across 25 schools locally.
Most of those schools are in MPS and in the School District of Waukesha. Among them, in Milwaukee, are Hartford Avenue University, Brown Street Academy, Carver Academy of Math and Science, Elm Creative Arts, La Escuela Fratney, Hopkins Lloyd, Pierce, Siefert, Allen-Field, Rogers Street Academy, Neeskara, Curtin Leadership Academy, Milwaukee French Immersion, Hawthorne, Gwen T. Jackson and Story.
In Waukesha, schools include Bethesda, Blair, Hadfield and Hawthorne STEM Elementary Schools.
The goal for the nonprofit – which focuses on inclusion, respect, healthy play and healthy community – is to multiply that number by 10 over the next four years.
"Playworks for every kid has always been our vision. After 20 years of bringing safe and healthy play to hundreds of thousands of kids across the country, Playworks has attracted $26 million in funding to bring the power of play to 10% of the nation's elementary schools," reads the Playworks Wisconsin website.
"Play improves children’s social and emotional well-being and readiness to learn. When we make safe, healthy play a priority in 7,000 elementary schools, we can reach a tipping point of change in the education system."
Now, Playworks has a new partner in BelAir Cantina, which has been supporting local causes for three years via the Powered by Tacos program. Previous partners have included the Urban Ecology Center and the skate park in Wauwatosa's Hart Park.
(PHOTO: BelAir Cantina Facebook)
Beginning this week, BelAir locations are offering a "kid-inspired" – meaning "Cheetos-encrusted" chicken – High 5 Taco (pictured above), the proceeds of which will support Playworks Wisconsin's Junior Coach Leadership Program in 22 elementary schools in Milwaukee and Waukesha.
"We discussed Playworks early in the year and did a lot of research," BelAir co-owner Kristyn Eitel said in a statement. "When we started getting involved, we really felt there was going to be an immediate impact in the community. That is what we try to focus on when we are working with Powered by Tacos.
"It's about our community and making it better, and also having the opportunity to have our employees involved. When we came to the school and we were able to have recess with the kids, the impact it had on myself and the managers was incredible! I am so excited to be a part of this."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
