St. Louis Blues Walk for Wishes

The St. Louis Blues have been a part of the National Hockey League since 1967. Through that time, they have had many sucessful seasons and have had many prestigious players come through their organization. Some of these players include Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull, and Glenn Hall who are all hall of famers. They have young talent in the system named Vladimir Tarasenko who shows much potential to be a great player for the St. Louis Blues. The original building that they played in was called the Arena and the current building that they play in now is the Scottrade Center, which is located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. 

  There is always a great atmosphere around the building. This picture shows a wide variety of fans with two friends walking up from the garage, a dad holding his son, and a guy with his partner in the right part of the frame. 

 

The experience inside Scottrade Center is unbelievable. It is always very loud and being able to see the fast action on the ice live is something special. 

 The Blues have taken that great fan base that they have and have done events such as the St. Louis Blues Walk for Wishes to give back to community. They have partnered with the Make-a-Wish Foundation with the common goal being to grant children battling life-threatening medical conditions a wish. The families, volunteers, companies, and other supporters, such as the Blues, believe the positivity that the children gain from having their wish come true can play a big factor in helping them get healthy. 

The walk was on April 18, 2015 and it started on the Muny's lower parking lot. 

There were many free activities before and after the walk for the participants and the many children that were there.

There were multiple running and walking options so that all participants could take part.

No matter if the participants were part of the walking or running section, all of them showed great passion for the Walk for Wishes' cause. 

As everyone finished, there was a timer to let people know how they did with the goals that they set beforehand. Some of the 5k runners finished under 18 minutes! 

The St. Louis Blues Walk for Wishes on April 18 raised enough funds to grant 110 wishes for local children. This was the largest turnout for this foundations' walk in this county's history!  

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What can you do?

Attend the walks to help raise funds 

Help spread the message and the cause

Any help at all will help a child who is facing a life-threatening medical condition and as mentioned early, positivity can be the best treatment!

Visit the link to find out more ways that you can help! 

lWays to help

Here's an encouraging video of a St. Louis Blue star TJ Oshie taking part in the Make-a-Wish foundation. 

lTJ Oshie Make-A-Wish

Homeless Shelter

The visit to this homeless shelter was different than I expected it to be. I have volunteered at a homeless shelter before but it was more of a mass feeding shelter where the volunteers stood in a line giving out food to the homeless people in a big cafeteria. This shelter was much smaller and was focused on helping people who have had a bad break in life back into the real world to be sucessfull. 

St. Louis Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens were founded by Henry Shaw who came to St. Louis in 1819. Dr. George Engelmann, who was a German physician-botanist, encouraged Shaw to make the garden more than a public park. The Botanical Garden's opened to the public in 1859 and has continued to grow their horticultural display and search for a deeper education. It is now a National Historic Landmark and a center for science and conservation, education, and horticultural display. 

Little Italy

It was a great experience walking through Little Italy. I have lived in St. Louis my whole life and have even visited this area before but have never walked through the neighborhoods on foot before. It was interesting to learn about the different style of housing such as the 'shot-gun' style which is where the front door and back door are in line with eachother. Seeing the Italian culture from the eyes of the streets was an enriching journey and it will be fun to go back again soon.  

St. Louis Arch and Graffiti Wall

The St. Louis Arch has been a symbol for the Gateway to the West ever since it was completed on October 28, 1965. A Finnish American by the name of Eero Saarinen and a German American named Hannskarl Bandel designed the Gateway Arch in 1947. The construction for this monument began 16 years later and took two years approximately to build. 

The grounds surrounding the Arch are currently under construction because a new and refreshing park is being built around the monument. 

If one were to walk from the Arch up the Mississippi River walkway, then they would find the Graffiti Wall which goes for almost two miles. It is filled with art that is constantly changing as time goes on. 

Laumeier Sculpture Park

Laumeier Sculpture Park is there because of a woman named Matilda Laumeier. In 1968, she left 72 acres of land to the St. Louis Public in memory of her husband, Henry H. Laumeier. The park was proposed for the use of sculpture in 1975 and has grown immensely since. 

The Triangle Over Bridge and Water is meant to serve as a 'conceptual membrane for refracting space and time.' 

Johann Feilacher carved his wood sculptures with a chainshaw and Redwood I, shown above, is thought to be the largest contemporary wood sculpture in the world. 

The Howl-Along sculpture was built to let dogs show off what they can do serving as a stage for dogs. 

St. Louis City Garden

The City Garden of St. Louis is three blocks long and is near the St. Louis Arch. It contains the controversial piece of art that is shown in the photo below. The triangle looking figure was built so that people inside of it could get the different views of the city by looking out the different openings. However, the workers in the nearby buildings were displeased with the lack of appeal that this triangle figure gave off. Another interesting fact is that it cost millions of dollars to build. After seeing it, it was mindboggling to think that basically a wall could cost millions of dollars to build. 

The phrase 'Big Business' immediately came to my mind after looking at this picture. 

World Bird Sanctuary and Elk Park

The World Bird Sanctuary and Elk Park were places that I have never been to before. When we went to see the birds, it started snowing. No other visitors weathered the storm, so our group was the only one there. The workers at the Sanctuary looked happy to see us and brought the birds up close and personal to us so that we could see their beauty first hand. 

This was the first time that I had seen a bald eagle up close and it was awesome to see our national bird and its beauty.

Our professor told us to hide behind a tree, such as the one above, if the elk started charging at us. However, none of the elk charged while we were there. 

They seemed to be very used to people, and we walked up very close to them. 

This is one of my favorite photos. It shows the weak baby elk who is very small in build, and it also shows the elk at the bottom right who is the leader of the pack. He is watching over the group at all times. 

Castlewood State Park

Castlewood State Park is a reason to pick up the hobby of hiking. Every step along the trail offers a beautiful and unique view. Early in the 1900s, this area was a popular retreat for partying St. Louisians. There even use be dance clubs around this area but the vast valley and beautiful scenery are what remain. 

I liked this picture because it shows the sudden drop of the cliff if one would keep walking, and it also shows the vast valley on the right. 

When walking down from the top of the cliff, there is this unique abandoned staircase that has become part of the forest.