Our Members
A selection of Great Oak members have chosen to write up a short bio.
Adi Alicia Amy H Helen Jillian Katie Nancy Willie
Alicia
I originally moved to Ann Arbor to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan. I stayed initially for a job right after graduate school, and then met my husband Aaron, a Michigan native.
We moved into Great Oak because we thought it would be a good and open neighborhood space for young children (which we were planning to welcome into our home)-- lots of places to run and hide, and develop their growing sense of self and experience a certain kind of freedom of space within close proximity to their home -- an increasingly hard space to create for kids in our too-busy, too-fast society.
We've found great benefits for ourselves as adults as well. For example, common meals -- no cooking, no afterward clean up -- make for more relaxing evenings after a long day at work, and the communal set up makes it easier to find someone willing and able to helpout for a minute or two with an outdoor or household project that could use an extra hand.