A monument to Dodo Birds

About the Program

This book contains writing from 826michigan’s New Monuments virtual field trip program. During this program, students explore what a monument is and can be, dreaming up new possibilities for local ways to honor heroes and specialties, from the playful (coney dogs and magical creatures) to the serious (activists and abolitionists). In collaboration with 826michigan volunteers, students envision and draw these new possibilities, and then write about why they think their new monuments should be built. This project is based on the work by student writers at our sister chapter 826 New Orleans and their publication Courageous, Eccentric, Diverse: New Monuments for New Orleans.

A monument to Kids in the Community

Annika Hansen

I want to make a monument to the kids that this community supports. People who are the adults of our community are always the ones to get the attention from the rest of our community, but the children do so much more than the adults expect. Like this writing program where kids are encouraged to write about things that they want to change. And I know many kids who would spend their afternoons walking to the local park and picking up trash there and in fields that people like to have picnics in, etc. So my point is that kids should get more attention from the community than they get. Even many kids do dog walking businesses! Just admit, many adults who have dogs are busy with work and other adult things I would not know about because I’m a kid, and so they ask the kids if they can walk the dog. Just think, without the kids walking the dogs it would be much different.