The Rethos class schedule ended on a sweet note—with 2 classes of Gingerbread Architecture: The Sweet Elements of Design, one held at the Weyerhaeuser Museum with the Morrison County Historical Society in Little Falls, and one at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud. Kids and their parents learned about architecture and design basics, while making a house out of gingerbread. We even had a family from Alabama in the class—they were looking for something different to do while in town!
The group sketched out a "blueprint" of their house plan, and although each attendee got the same basic kit, but customized it to their hearts desire!
The goal of these classes is to get young people interested and energized about historic preservation and the built environment in general. As Stearns History Museum Exhibits and Collections Curator (and class instructor) Eric Cheever stated:
The role of Rethos is about sustainability. It's about preserving and maintaining older buildings into the future, as opposed to tearing them down and building new. And I think that if we can just get kids interested in architecture and building, all the better.
St. Cloud based Station WJON sent a reporter to write a fantastic photo essay on the classes.
This rounds out a full year of Rethos classes which included hands on classes like wood window repair, diy toilet repair, and exterior painting. Difficult topics such as racism in real estate and the development of suburbs were also tackled. Many classes offered continuing education credits for real estate agents. In total, Rethos hosted 40 educational events reaching 1047 students. Attendees came from 35 unique MN counties and 12 unique Wisconsin counties, plus 25 additional states. And this year continued our sliding scale class fees.
We look forward to a new year full of enlightening classes, both in-person and online. We hope to see you at one of our sessions soon!
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