Brown Faces Green Spaces

10/05/2026

As Brown Faces Green Spaces (BFGS) concludes its 10th season of programming, we are aiming to raise $10,000 to launch us powerfully into our upcoming anniversary year!

For a decade, BFGS has broken down barriers by creating safe, welcoming spaces for all people of color, cultures, and communities to connect with nature, reclaim the outdoors, and build lasting environmental stewardship.

Your tax-deductible gift of $10, $100, $1,000, or whatever you can give directly funds accessible outdoor excursions, eco-education and climate literacy, and community healing spaces. Join us in investing in a green movement that changes lives and ensures everyone feels a sense of belonging in nature -- click the link below to make your gift today! ♻️🌳💚🌍

Help Us Reach $10K as We Celebrate 10 Years of Brown Faces Green Spaces!As we conclude our 10th season of programming, we are standing on the threshold of an…

10/01/2026

An outdoor wellness festival is taking place this Saturday from 12p to 6p at Gateway Park in Gary, bringing live music, family activities and health and environmental resources. Health, wellness and environmental organizations will offer information and resources to residents to help them learn about the environmental initiatives and community projects aimed at revitalizing Gary's lakefront.

The festival will feature live music, face painting and other family-friendly activities focusing on healthy lifestyles, cleaner air and the Lake Michigan shoreline.

09/13/2026

Rip currents can move through the Great Lakes with enough force to carry swimmers beyond the breaking waves, especially where sandbars, piers, and breakwalls channel water back toward deeper water.

A study that points to Lake Michigan as a rip current hotspot, documented 703 current-related drownings and rescue incidents between 2002 and 2020, including 223 deaths, with 448 total incidents occurring on Lake Michigan.

Calm water hides the pull. Documented deaths and measured currents show which Great Lakes beaches carry the strongest, most dangerous rip currents.

09/05/2026

Meet the Linne’s Cicada, the ultimate soundtrack-maker of late summers in the region!

Despite being called "annual" cicadas, these gentle insects spend 2 - 3 years underground sipping tree sap before emerging to produce their iconic sound -- that loud, pulsating buzz produced only by the males flexing organs in their bellies to attract mates. They might look intimidating, but they don't bite, sting, or chew and are completely harmless -- buzzing about telling us that summer is doing its thing!♻️🌳💚🌍

09/05/2026

We had an incredible time at our community fishing derby in partnership with Lake County Parks -- gathering for a summer afternoon of casting lines, learning about our local waterways, and connecting with nature!

Thanks to support from the REI Cooperative Action Fund, the derby came complete with free bait, gear, and hands-on fishing instruction for all skill levels, making for an amazing and fun day of fishing, exploring, and enjoying the great outdoors! ♻️🌳💚🌍

08/28/2026

As communities near the end of National Parks Week, local attention naturally turns to nearby treasures like Indiana Dunes National Park. Yet, beneath the celebrations lies a troubling reality: our public lands remain deeply fractured by a widening "nature gap," with Black and brown visitors accounting for as little as 1 to 2 percent of total park attendance nationwide.

Brown Faces Green Spaces founder, Kimmie Gordon has written an op-ed published in the Chicago Tribune this week, "Why National Parks Week Arrives Amidst a Widening Nature Gap," -- the editorial explores how historical Jim Crow-era exclusion and recent federal policy rollbacks continue to keep marginalized communities on the periphery of the outdoors. ♻️🌳💚🌍





https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/08/22/guest-column-why-national-parks-week-arrives-amidst-a-widening-nature-gap/

08/26/2026

Brown Faces Green Spaces and Lake County Parks have a shared goal: get together, get outside, and connect with nature -- as families gathered for a community fishing derby this past weekend for a sunny afternoon of fishing, community, and outdoor joy!

“We’ve been through something so tremendous and tragic with the storm that came through this area, but out of all the hardship, there is always one place we can go for respite, and that’s nature." ♻️🌳💚🌍

Lake County locals took to the water on Saturday, August 22, eager to cast lines, learn the basics of fishing and enjoy an afternoon outdoors together. Families gathered for a community fishing derby co-hosted and co-organized by Brown Faces Green Spaces (BFGS) and the Lake County Parks and Recreati...

08/24/2026

Gary resident Kimmie Gordon of Brown Faces Green Spaces describes how families survived nearly two weeks without power following the destructive Northwest Indiana storm. She discusses candles, cold showers, lost food, climate change and the neighbors who united during the crisis. ♻️🌳💚🌍

08/24/2026

Climate change isn't a distant problem, it’s actively impacting public health and weather patterns in Gary and our region today.

As Brown Faces Green Spaces founder Kimmie Gordon highlights in Rolling Out, systemic disinvestment leaves local communities most vulnerable to severe weather and power outages. Protecting our neighbors takes both systemic accountability and individual action.

"This could happen again. We must understand global warming, climate change and what the universe and Mother Nature are trying to tell us. We need to pay attention."

Kimmie Gordon describes surviving Gary’s extended power outage and how residents united after the destructive Northwest Indiana storm.