Physical Wiki Weekend Recap

Physical Wiki Weekend was a smashing success. It's astounding how much change people can affect in a 48-hour period of time.

On Saturday morning I arrived at approximately 8:00am to set up the volunteer station make sure all the tools and materials were in easily accessible places. At 8:30 Jen Larkee arrived and started helping. A steady stream of faces followed: Steve & Andrew our contractors du jour, George Darrow, Dan Voell,  Maxine Appleby, Matt Taylor. This was our morning crew. ­­

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Jen Larkee started in the Flowspace with George Darrow installing ceiling tiles with Dan Voell. Steve & Andrew started putting up drywall, Matt Taylor started taping and mudding the hung drywall. Maxine went and solicited a donation of paint rollers from Crown Hardware. For which we thank them deeply. (They didn't want any kudos, but we're giving it to them anyway!)

Saturday afternoon shift led some of our volunteers down a different path. Pete Prodoehl, Dan Voell, Jeramey Jannene, Jonathan Yankovich, and James all started working on the painting the playspace wall and moving many of the items out of the cabaret stage area for Urban Scrawl while Jen Janviere worked on putting together the wooden canvases for the graffiti artists who were going to be producing works live during that show that night.­

Unfortunately, the afternoon would prove to hold some hardship, Pete Prodoehl, one of our esteemed board members and dear friend fell from a ladder and dislocated both his elbow and his toe. If you'd like to help contribute to Pete's medical bills, you can do so at this event. Details forthcoming.

Shortly after the mighty had fallen (which is actually how the "before" photo is tagged on KeVroN's Flickr photostream), we got an interesting call from Pizza Shuttle. Apparently a certain Program Director for a certain Milwaukee-based International Film Festival called and requested they donate a WHOLE LOT of pizzas. So, I want to thank Jonathan Jackson for his kind and generous donation.

However,  Gabe Wollenberg arrived with the lovely Gaia (pictured at the top of the page in what is probably hands-down the best pic of the day). And started work right away. One thing I didn't know about Gabe that I learned on Saturday - he used to paint professionally. The Playspace got a beautiful coat of white paint, all the stuff got moved and the Urban Scrawl show went off with barely a hitch.

Spreenkler leader and expert ceiling tile installer, ­Steve Glynn arrived with snacks and a cooler full of cold drinks for the volunteers in the afternoon and then proceeded transform the ceiling of the Cafe.

Robin Fall led the charge against weeds around the building as our entire exterior beautification team. Bill Olson of Mainstage started work in the Playspace and with the help of Jeramey Jannene moved just about every set piece from the Cabaret Stage.

In the Flowspace, Jen Larkee, George Darrow, Matt Taylor, and the afternoon addition of Jim Kohli mudded and taped like mad-people.

And after Steve & Andrew left with nearly the entire Cafe drywalled, our own Brian Miracle came and pretty much drywalled all the rest.

There were several people who went beyond anything we ever imagined asking of them. One was Jen Larkee who, after arriving at 8:30, stayed until 5:00pm. Another was Matt Taylor. Not only did Matt stay for most of the day on Saturday but he came back on Sunday and worked until 7:00pm! Brew City Church showed up on Sunday morning with practically their entire congregation to help drywall, tape, mud and move all of the items that had been stored in the "kinderconference" area. Jonathan Yankovich came back on Sunday morning as well - thanks for the assist on the retrieval of more ceiling tiles and more mud for Matt Taylor. Sunday morning also brought us Peter Mortenson, concierge supreme & costume king of Bucketworks not only helped organize the storage area of the Playspace but also brought a cake wishing KeVroN & Patrick Schley a happy birthday to the Pro Member potluck.

And a special thanks to Tim Cigelski, Roy Mowbray, Maureen Cashin Bolog, Dante, and Aqua Exhibits owner Adrian for their kind post-Physical Wiki Weekend volunteerism. We appreciate your help so much.