Students from the Rising Dragon Martial Arts Studio (3429 W. Greenfield Ave.) shared demonstrations of Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and Kenpo. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Peter Armstrong of the Wisconsin Bike Fed (3618 W. Pierce St.) works on a bike brought by a neighbor. Armstrong is the new project coordinator for the Mobile Bike Hub, a program transitioning from Layton Boulevard West Neighbors to the Bike Fed this summer. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Nayla Bezares of Escuela Verde (3628 W. Pierce St.) talks to a neighborhood youth about her school's unique educational offerings. Escuela Verde completed its move to Silver City this summer. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Glenna Holstein, branch manager of the Menomonee Valley Urban Ecology Center, shares details with attendees about their Young Scientist Club, who provided free healthy snacks. (Photo by Adam Carr)
The Washington Park Urban Ecology Center sent a group of students from their Young Scientist Club to check out the Summer Celebration. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Angela Steinkamp sold her scratch-made treats along with cold milk. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Leana' Cristiana', the reigning Mrs. Wisconsin America, performed several songs with guitar and vocals at the event. She stayed afterwards with her daughter. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Neighbor Leah Kelly looks on as her daughter Ionna Kelly and friend Aniyah Vaughn are fitted for bike helmets by the UEC's Lainet Garcia Rivera before a ride in Three Bridges Park. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Attendees of the Summer Celebration both enjoyed performances and activities on Pierce Street and in the adjacent Menomonee Valley. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Volunteer coordinator Chris Steinkamp led volunteers in planting native plant species in Three Bridges Park, including phlox, prairie sedge, early sunflower, and more. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Three Bridges Park also saw its regular Saturday traffic of bikers, walkers, hikers, and community gardeners. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Natalia Andrus shows off her face paint and arm-dolphin. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Kathleen Flaherty was one of a handful of plein air painters who scattered throughout Three Bridges Park and the neighborhood. Their work will be featured in a plein air art show taking place at the Menomonee Valley UEC opening October 3rd. (Photo by Adam Carr)
UEC also saw normal business, including members who borrowed a tandem kayak to paddle the Menomonee River. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Lea Cutsforth (left) and Laura Lofton (right) paint young attendees' faces above the Menomonee River. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Throughout the event visitors used the street as a canvas, adding their chalk drawings. (Photo by Adam Carr)
On a hot and sunny day, there's nothing better than a good old fashioned sprinkler dash to cool off. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Musician David HB Drake performed Americana and folks songs throughout the four hour event. He also showed some neighborhood youth how to play a few of his many instruments. (Photo by Adam Carr)
Marking the second anniversary of Three Bridges Park, near south side residents came together for the Summer Celebration at the Menomonee Valley Urban Ecology Center.
The event included fishing lessons, free bike lending, bug and bird exploration hikes, a martial arts demonstration, “Snakes of the World” demonstration by the Milwaukee Snake Group, plen air painting, games, food and more. Music was performed by Acoustic Blu, Leana’ Cristiana’ (Mrs. Wisconsin America), and David HB Drake.
Related
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site.
*** Also, the code below will NOT copy the featured image on the page. You are welcome to download the main image as a separate element for publication with this story. ***
You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules.
- Credit should be given, in this format: “By Ron Smith, Wisconsin Watch”
- Editing material is prohibited, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and in-house style (for example, using “Milwaukee, Wis.” instead of “Milwaukee” or changing “yesterday” to “last week”)
- Other than minor cosmetic and font changes, you may not change the structural appearance or visual format of a story.
- If published online, you must include the links and link to milwaukeenns.org
- If you share the story on social media, please mention @milwaukeenns (Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky), and ensure that the original featured image associated with the story is visible on the social media post.
- Don’t sell the story or any part of it — it may not be marketed as a product.
- Don’t extract, store or resell Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content as a database.
- Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.
- Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.
- Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.
- Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use.
- If we send you a request to change or remove Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately.
For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org.
UEC Summer Celebration connects neighborhood and nature
by Adam Carr, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
July 26, 2015
