Montessori on the Rio Grande School Wows Mayor Keller of ABQ
ABQ GWEers have a power meeting with Mayor Tim Keller
At 3:30 pm on Monday, May 14, 2018, the GWEers from Montessori on the Rio Grande School went to meet with their mayor, Mayor Tim Keller of Albuquerque, NM. They had given him a challenge to ban plastic straws from the city and, in turn, he gave them an assignment to research alternatives to plastic straws. They were ready. They dressed in their GWE t shirts and brought their Power Point presentation.
They took the elevator to the 11thfloor and went to Mayor Keller’s office, where they met with Alan Armijo, one of the mayor’s assistants. Mr Armijo began the discussion with them and, when he found out that they had a power point presentation, arranged for the proper equipment. GWEers being welcomed them into a conference room.
Mr Armijo explained that the mayor has been in office less than 6 months and that he has a lot of Big problems to solve that involve a lot of meetings. He told them that the mayor would join them as soon as one of his meetings was done.
Sure enough, in a few minutes, Mayor Keller appeared! The GWEers presented their power point presentation and explained their research. The mayor told them that he was super impressed that they had actually followed through with on his assignment, to research alternative straws for their city and he said that it was important to him to have a team of kids to work on the problem. He and the GWEers did some more brainstorming together about how to educate the people of ABQ about the problem with straws. They also brainstormed the idea of getting retail outlets in their city to see plastic straw alternatives to local customers. Mayor Keller asked them to come up with a plan and to come back in the fall, when their GWE group got together, once more. He told them, ”Once we are ready to move on this, you GWEers and I will create a partnership.”
Then, the Mayor had to go, so they took some pictures together
and Mr. Armijo gave them a tour of city hall, explaining who worked where and what City Hall was all about.
The GWEers were really happy with their meeting and with their tour and with their new assignment. Mostly, they were excited to start a partnership with Mayor Keller, to get a lot of things done. J