The staff may need to be updated also.

I said that Kentlake made a contribution to how this unfolded in a few big ways. The first is this: I'd originally not intended to cover sports to the degree that I've covered it. Of course, there are many things that I'm still photographing that I've not bothered posting yet. But I'd photographed a few football games before my first Kentlake game, and my first Kentlake game was a big, big turning point for me.

The week prior to that game, I spent just about every day down at Earthworks Park, just down the hill from French Field. I'd gone their to photograph it in order to get some "beauty shots"; it was once a nice park. But what I found there was a high level of what appeared to be neglect; vandalism and litter. The place was a sad mess.

I left somewhat heartbroken. On the way home, I got angry. By the time I got home, I decided to grab some garbage bags and gloves and return to clean the place up. I spent a few hours doing so until I realized that the mess was bigger than I could manage.

I finally sat down on a bench and tried to think about what to do. And while thinking I realized that a mere clean-up party of volunteers couldn't help the place. I began to see that there was evidence of something bigger than simple neglect. The layout of the park itself had problems.

The following days, I spent a lot of the time at the park photographing the damage and doing a basic survey. I was really interested in the forces at work in the park. I had some basic amateur skills in archaeology that I picked up, and tried to put them to work. I sent photos of structures to people I knew with experience in such matters to help me understand what was going on.

In the evenings, I spent my time researching the parks history by scanning newspaper archives and old City of Kent planning documents and budgets. I was trying to see where the park fit in the big scheme of things. I obtained overhead images of the park and surrounding areas from the time the park was created.

To my great surprise, the park was not the victim of neglect or budget shortfalls. I discovered that the City had been, for years, pumping money into the park. But they were pumping money into creating an unrealistic mythology of the place and not putting money into the park itself. This can be seen on the City of Kent's website: there are more pages dedicated to promoting an irresponsible myth about Earthworks Park than there are pages on any department of the City government. That was rather heart-breaking.

I spent several very lonely days in that park seeing mostly only some homeless people, a few with clear mental health problems.

Near the end of that week, I went to my first Kentlake game, against Thomas Jefferson, at French Field. And the energy of the Kentlake students was just amazing to me, particularly after that long, lonely week. I posted about this on a few forums; how impressed I was. It really lifted my spirits.

And at that night, at French Field, something really hit me. I realized that in just a few hours more members of this community gathered together at French Field than had been at Earthworks Parks in over a year. And that French Field was both much older than Earthworks and the people attending were participating in a tradition far older and more culturally rich.

And to then look at page after page of breathless hyperbole from the Kent Arts Commission about the cultural significance of Earthworks, and to learn that it was Kent's only designated historic landmark, made me aware that there was a tremendous cleavage in this community. The people officially in charge of our culture seemed to know nothing about it.

And so that's how that Kentlake game had a big influence on my outlook and also contributed to my own deepening awareness of the importance of high school sports. When it comes right down to it, it's really not about what the athletes are doing on the field. It's how it all brings the community together.

Thanks

And I also want to thank all of the Kentlake students who have subscribed to Kent Photo Survey, emailed me, and shared our work with others.

Kentlake played a substantial role in the evolution of Kent Photo Survey in 4 ways, and I hope to elaborate on those here soon. One of the problems I had in answering Michala's questions was that I wanted to offer some lengthy explanations, but I realized she had limited space in her column. It occurred to me earlier, however, that I could easily elaborate on those answers here, as well answer any questions of Kentlake students.

Kent Photo Survey has been evolving in recent months, and due to the popularity of the project I am comfortable that it can now move beyond the original parameters.

In starting the project, my long-term goal was to increase the community's shared memory. But I realized that I had to develop some contemporary following for things to work. So much of the work that is currently displayed by Kent Photo Survey tends to be a bit more stylized.

It is my hope that the project will serve to further connect this community. I want people to know more about cool things going on. I want to show people, both in this community and on the outside, things in a positive light. To some degree, I hope my work leads to people turning off the television to watch "reality shows" about distant, far away people and places.. and leads them to experience the real world here in their community. It is my hope that the presentations of the history of this area go beyond mere stories told about mythical good old days and instead give more people a deeper understand of how the community evolved. This will hopefully lead to more people in the community making more informed decisions by having a more complete understanding of the causes of many of our problems, and more importantly, many of our success.

I encourage any who have questions about the project, Kent history, and digital photography to feel free to ask any questions that they may have.

Thank you.