-
- Amira Pechauer (left) and Skie Meadows, high school juniors and members of Hephatha Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, spearheaded an air-quality program in their community, borne out of their participation in the ELCA Horizon Apprenticeship Program. Photos: Mary Martha Kannass
-
- Meadows and Pechauer spoke at a press conference about the program, held at Hephatha Lutheran on Aug. 6, alongside Sarah Kroening of the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin (far left), Jayne Black of the Moms Clean Air Force (third from left), U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (center) and Alexander Malchow of the Faith in Place Action Fund (far right).
Led by a pair of 17-year-olds, a Wisconsin congregation is improving its members’ and neighbors’ lives by helping them learn about the role air quality plays in making choices about healthy activities.
Skie Meadows and Amira Pechauer, high school juniors and members of Hephatha Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, spearheaded a partnership between the congregation and Love My Air Wisconsin (LMA WI), a program administered by the nonprofit Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin. Funded through the Inflation Recovery Act, the alliance focuses on providing real-time data on air quality.
Meadows and Pechauer’s work with LMA WI was borne of their participation last summer in the ELCA Horizon Apprenticeship Program. The program, which receives funding from Mission Support, is for young adults of color or whose primary language isn’t English. Working through their home congregations and under the mentorship of their pastors, apprentices spend eight 20-hour weeks pursuing projects that help them discern their future and the role Jesus and the church has in their lives.
Hephatha and LMA WI had a mutual partner in Hopkins Lloyd Community School, three blocks from the church. Hopkins Lloyd was among the schools at which LMA WI had installed an air-quality monitor, enabling school staff and families to make informed decisions about student exposure to less-than-ideal air quality. Teachers also incorporate the air-quality data into lesson plans, giving students hands-on, practical learning opportunities.
The city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County have a high incidence of asthma, a chronic respiratory condition in which the lungs’ airways become inflamed and narrowed. Asthma’s cause is not fully understood, but environmental factors during early childhood, such as exposure to allergens and air pollution, can increase the risk.
Socioeconomic conditions contribute to asthma being a major public concern in Milwaukee, where 22% of the population lives below the poverty line, more than double the rate for Wisconsin as a whole.
Being of use to the community
Serving the north side of Milwaukee, Hephatha was founded by German immigrants 111 years ago and became a predominantly African-descent congregation following white flight in the 1950s and ’60s. Hephatha has more than 400 members and averages about 125 people for Sunday worship.
“It’s always been a neighborhood congregation,” said Mary Martha Kannass, who has served Hephatha as pastor for 33 years. “Our congregation is very engaged with the neighborhood—that’s what’s important to us, being of use to the community we serve.”
Hephatha’s history of service includes initiatives to take on the issues of lead poisoning and infant mortality. For 30 years, the congregation has operated a work ministry in which younger members perform good deeds that range from helping older adults to community cleanup projects.
Meadows and Pechauer “have grown up in our work ministry,” Kannass said, and when LMA WI approached Hephatha about a summer partnership, the girls were game to take that on as a Horizon Apprenticeship project.
“They’re both very connected to their faith life,” Kannass said. “They’re engaged here as leaders, as servants. I admire both of them and am honored to serve with them—they are people who other people should know about.”
“It makes me proud, knowing I get to help out and that my community can learn from me.”
LMA WI taught the teens how air-quality monitoring worked, lent them monitors and tablets, and gave them curriculum sheets for leading small-group sessions over the summer, including sessions on asthma education and how poor air quality affects people’s lungs.
“Service is important, to have a chance to help out,” Meadows said. “Not everyone has that chance, so when you get it, take it. It makes me proud, knowing I get to help out and that my community can learn from me.”
Because asthma is believed to have a genetic component, Meadows and Pechauer worked with member families affected by it to monitor the air in their homes. Three families received home monitors.
“I didn’t know about the different levels of air quality, how those levels determine when it’s safe to be outside and how they affect asthma,” Meadows said. “Knowing more people are informed brings me relief.”
In August, Hephatha was the site of a news conference to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act and to celebrate the work being done locally on the clean air and climate change fronts. Among those on hand were Meadows, Pechauer and Gwen Moore, who has represented the Milwaukee area in Congress since 2005.
“We are grateful we got the chance to share something this important with you,” Pechauer said at the conference. “By working with Love My Air, we are helping all the families at Hephatha who have kids with asthma to know when to check the outdoor air so they know when it’s safe to play outside. This program has been a wonderful experience for Skie and me.”
