Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/175002
YOUR WEA AT WORK Organizing Report Millennial Grant/eSW Me Above: Table tent advertising the eSWAG bazaar. Below: Dirk Andrews working the outdoor bazaar in 106 degree heat. eSWAG and our Millennial members helped sort, organize and display all the materials and then assisted the firstyear teachers in finding and transporting the material. Utilizing funds from the NEA Western Region Long-Term Planning Grant that WEA received in 2013, three WEA Millennial members and one WEA staff member traveled to Phoenix, AZ, to observe and participate in the Arizona Education Association's (AEA) eSWAG Educator Bazaar. eSWAG is the designation that AEA's Millennial members have given themselves as they actively work to organize AEA's younger members. WEA hoped to learn from Arizona's Bazaar with the idea of hosting a future event in Wyoming, as well as to forge an ongoing relationship with AEA. Led by WEA Central President Dirk Andrews, Natrona County EA member Leah Lange, Goshen County EA member Heather Kreiling, and WEA staff member Greg Herold spent two days in Phoenix with AEA staffer Francis Stennis and members of the eSWAG Millennial group. The trip had two primary purposes: one was to learn how eSWAG came into existence, the other to participate in the Educational Bazaar. Above: L-R Dirk Andrews, Heather Kreiling and Leah Lange gather information on the eSWAG (educators Soaring With Aspiring Goals) to prepare for a similar event in Wyoming. Below: Heather helped load some materials and was headed back to work the table with Dirk and Leah. Heather arrived in Phoenix first and was actively moving, sorting and arranging donated materials for the Bazaar in the triple-digit temperatures when the rest of the Wyoming group arrived. The Educational Bazaar centers around two activities. First-year teachers in the region were offered the opportunity to attend one of three professional development sessions at the AEA building in Phoenix: "Welcome to the Jungle" (setting up your classroom for success), "Student Loan Forgiveness," and "Practical Legal Advice to Make Your First Year a Success." Only after attending at least one of these sessions were teachers allowed to participate in the second activity: to "shop" at the Educational Bazaar, an opportunity offered only to first-year teachers. Material for the Bazaar had come from the efforts of eSWAG, who, throughout the previous year, had contacted retired and retiring members and asked them to donate their educational materials for transfer to the first-year teachers. The amount of donated, usable items was unbelievable and dominated the large board room in the AEA office. Items were sorted, cleaned, and moved to the site of the Bazaar, where they were dispersed. 6 BACK TO SCHOOL 2013 BTS 2013.indd 6 | WEAnews 9/17/13 6:47 PM