I Am Whitmore Lake Preview

Why Now?

People are always questioning what I'm thinking. I never really know what to say, because even I don't always know the answer, until I've already said it... or about halfway through a process.


Why make a documentary about white teens in a town without much diversity... now? 
Why invest your time and energy in telling the story of a town that's tired, nearly dried up, and ultimately going to disappear? 
Why Bother? 

Well....  "why not?"
If everyone just stops doing things because they're tired... what's going to get done? If we want to see change but we don't do something while we're young, what's going to be there when we're old?
The most important commodity especially on a small town is Community.  Really uniting as a community is essential especially as we see the world around us breaking down. 

A little background about myself: I've lived in Michigan my entire life, but we moved a lot. Our family moved to the Whitmore Lake area when I was a young teen. Aside from frequent trips to the library, we rarely went into town. Instead the majority of our time was spent in Ann Arbor... and later in college I was commuting out to the Detroit area and spending more and more time farther away.  
I had no real desire to go to the little town just up the road. To me there was no purpose. 

But there was something about Whitmore Lake that always struck me. Something I pushed aside for years. Something I saw; especially at the high school football games. 
The people in this town had a sense of pride in their little community. At some point I started to notice that going away. 
Based on my limited interactions, people seemed to be more and more isolated with less and less going in in town; Especially for the young people. While that's not the hugest issue I saw what was happening: leaving Whitmore Lake looked down on, forgotten and almost hopeless.    

When my sister and I decided to partner with a group called the American Dream Project to organize some concerts February of 2013  (really on our end the planning/ search for a venue started in September) most people who knew us looked at us confused. We weren't really the event planning "type" and neither one of us really spent very much time IN Whitmore Lake. 

Our first event was actually called the Whitmore Lake J.A.M (Just Add Music)
No one from Whitmore Lake came. 

When we put together Elevate as part of The American Dream Project's  Freedom Festival in downtown Whitmore Lake. The general response from local people was:
"Really? EDM Here? Hip Hop? Here?" 
There was confusion but also genuine excitement from the younger people. Both at the Extravaganza where our event team volunteered to run the bounce houses as well as when we talked to people during the Independence Day parade. 
Side note, the parade is one of the best events with the best turnouts our town has everyone comes out to town and it's a really great time. 

Unfortunately, that sense of excitement didn't cary over to people actually showing up. We had maybe 200 people come through the "big Summer event" on July 6th not including the musicians. and that was Elevate's biggest turn out. Ever. 

Since then we've been working to promote the events better and to talk to the teens as we try to grow this into something that they think is fun that they want to be involved in that they are really honestly excited about and for,  I'm so thankful that they were welcoming to us and got on board to help work toward making Elevate a staple in the community.
  
As I've gotten to know a few of the teens from town as more than just a face I recognized,  as people- All of whom I can honestly say are really talented individuals in their own ways and a whole lot of fun. Hopefully each of them (including our South Lyon honoraries) will be writing posts on this blog as well about their experiences with the documentary process. 

There are a lot of "hidden gems" in this community both among the teens as well as the older residents who remember the times back when there were things to do. (Roller Rinks, Outdoor movies, public beaches, dances, outdoor events, a movie theater...)

Hope that once this documentary is done people will see what I've begun to see: There is more here than party stores, bars and empty buildings. there are people with heart, talents and stories. There is art... if you know where to look for it. 
I believe there is hope for Whitmore Lake. We just have to care and learn to love our community starting small scale and reaching out. Stepping out.

Looking forward to being able to show you all a little preview of the documentary soon!
Next up you'll be hearing from David...

Love, 
A

Post by Elevate Concert Series.