This weekend Julie and I drove up to Grand Rapids to visit my parents and attend the ArtPrize Contest. If you haven't heard of it, ArtPrize is a world wide art competition held throughout the city. Most of the art is inside of various venues, such as downtown restaurants, hotels, and public buildings like the Library and various museums. This picture was taken inside the Gerald R. Ford Museum. The large rock next to us is a piece of the Berlin Wall that was brought over by Fred Meijer. I don't know if the Meijer painted on the wall has any connection to Fred, but it is pretty cool.

Click here for more about ArtPrize.

Blessings in a Backpack

Today, Julie (my wife), who is a teacher at Wayne High School in Fort Wayne, had the privilege of hearing Liz Murray speak. Liz is the author of "Homeless to Harvard," a story of her life as a teen and daughter of addicts and how she was able to persevere and succeed where most people would have given up and allowed life to run them over. The speech was sponsored by Meijer, as part of the Blessings in a Backpack program. Julie said the students were really touched by Liz's story and many of them were motivated to start fund raisers to support the program.

An added bonus to the event, was that Doug Meijer, second son of Fred Meijer, was present at then event. My wife informed him that her husband (me) is a Meijer fanatic. That may be exaggerating just bit, but I think Doug was pleased with the news. It unfortunately didn't turn into a job offer, but I am still holding out hope.

Check out Blessings in a Backpack @ blessingsinapackback.org