We hear stories of community heroes from time to time - people who made a big splash, saving lives, raising money, stepping in when others couldn’t - or wouldn’t. But there are also people who, every day, do something that make their community a better place to be.

There’s a local youth agriculture program that has goals bigger than getting kids into farming. Milwaukee native Nick DeMarsh founded Young Farmers MKE with the intent to encourage participants to make goals and plans for the future - farming just seemed to be the perfect medium to get there.

Last Saturday, two dozen people gathered under the sizzling summer sun to play Water Story MKE.

It is the brainchild of Michael Timm, who teamed up with Reflo, a nonprofit dedicated to water sustainability to create the app.

A new album from the Milwaukee-based Wooldridge Brothers is always something to look forward to. 

With just a few weeks left in the summer, teachers are asking themselves what needs to be done to get ready for the upcoming school year.

And preparations are not just about classroom supplies, or lesson plans.

Many Milwaukee-based educators have spent the summer thinking about race and cultural differences. They say they want to break down barriers between their staff and students.

Janette Braverman is a person with a lot on her plate. She is the first African American to serve on the Ozaukee County Board of Supervisors and has a two-decade career in the IT and manufacturing industries. As if that weren't enough, Braverman also owns her own consulting business and is deeply invested in church life. 

It was five years ago on August 5th when a gunman walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek and killed six congregants and injured others. It was one of the worst religious hate crimes carried out in this country, but it also brought many disparate parts of Milwaukee together in support of the Sikh community.

Commemorations of the anniversary are planned over the next two weekends. Leaders of the Sikh Temple are planning a major observance on August 6th. But people of other faiths and in the secular community will mark the anniversary as well.

The Koch Marshall Trio did not stop by the Lake Effect studio to play around. The group, which consists of lead guitarist Greg Koch, his son and drummer Dylan Koch, and Toby Lee Marshall on the Hammond B3 organ, say they came to share their heavy grooves mixed with blues sensibility. 

Bees first began to creep into Charlie Koenen’s life in 2002. Today his previous careers in computer programming and consulting might as well belong to someone else altogether.

Koenen is a beevangelist through and through. “I never would have predicted the path, but the importance is really astonishing - a beehive when it’s operating. That’s the amazement I want to give everybody,” he says.