First things first. If you ever find yourself in a fellowship, or with the title “fellow”, call your fellow fellows, your “fellow fellows.” It’s maybe my favorite thing to say ever.  “Well, let me ask my fellow fellows.” “My fellow fellows and I…” No? Ok. Moving on.

Since I live in the suburbs, it’s hard to “participate” in Detroit. There’s often situations where I wish I knew more or had access to things in Detroit. If people are talking about the impacts of Detroit’s foreclosure issues or the effects of changing I-375 to a surface road, I want to participate but don’t feel educated enough.

I always hear about amazing Detroit restaurants.  I’ve been telling myself I’ll go to Lafayette since I moved here. Also need to try El Barzon. And Takoi. And the new Founders Taproom. But driving 30 minutes after a long day at work? Haha yeah ok.

There’s so many interesting people in Detroit. Whether it’s the owner of a small business or the guy who sang “Eat em up Tigers!” I’m always curious about the people that inhabit Detroit.

Challenge Detroit takes all of these aspects of Detroit I’m curious about, hands them to me, says “Welp, here ya go.” Every Friday, especially a Project Kick-off day, has felt like a glorified field trip, not a job. I’m learning everything I’ve always wanted to know about Detroit, but couldn’t motivate myself to learn or didn’t know where to start.

We’ve done workshops exemplifying why Detroit struggles to appropriate government funds. We’ve met the Chief Storyteller for the Detroit government. At first, I was like this Chief Story guy belongs in Elf or some kid’s movie with this title, but he actually has the coolest job: curate the narrative of the neighborhoods of Detroit. (http://www.theneighborhoods.org/).  We’ve done a 6 week project with Motor City Match, an organization that provides gap funding to small businesses and landlords.

We’ve had sandwiches from Stache International (I don’t even like spicy food, but their spicy turkey sandwich is bomb). Our home base at TechTown is dangerously close to Bucharest Grill.

But my favorite thing about Challenge Detroit is the people, my fellow fellows. Challenge provides a unique structure for interaction between a diverse group of people, who wouldn’t interact otherwise. There are fellows who have lived in Detroit their whole lives. There’s people from the suburbs, and people from as far away as Nebraska. We work in different industries, and are of different races, ages, and genders. We combine our vastly different backgrounds with a mutual interest in the bettering of Detroit. Which is cool because if we want to create a Detroit for everyone, it should be created by everyone.  It makes our projects extra impactful, since we see things in different ways. And 26 new friends for me? Twist my arm.