Kenyette Edwards' Graduation Day

In the midst of a pandemic and a father battling stage four lung cancer, a family finds a way to celebrate the high school graduation of Kenyette Edwards. The Menomonee Falls High School virtual graduation is scheduled for the end of June, but Kenyette and her family knew that her father, Kenyatta Edwards may not live to see that day. Having never missed a graduation, the family was determined not to let him miss this one.

It didn’t take long for Kenyette’s mother, Natasha Dotson to organize a graduation in the front yard of Kenyatta’s home, where he is spending his hospice care. He sat outside on his porch as family members rolled out a red carpet and blew up balloons for the graduate. Aunts, uncles, cousins and friends gathered around the makeshift stage with masks covering their smiling faces.

Surrounded by a cheering family with cameras in their hands, Kenyette walked down the front porch steps to receive her diploma. Bob Vitale, principal of Menomonee Falls High School and a longtime mentor to the family, was there to present the diploma. “I’m so proud of her,” says Vitale as he holds back tears in his eyes. “We go way back; this is a really awesome family.” He helped Kenyette and her older siblings with hardships through school and made sure he was present for this special occasion.

After posing for photos, Kenyette walked up the front porch steps to her father to hug him and show him the hard-earned diploma. “This was better than doing the regular graduation because my daddy wasn’t even going to be able to make it so I’m actually happier that we did this instead,” says Kenyette. The intimate setting was filled with laughter that could be heard across the neighborhood. In this story of resilience, support and unconditional love, a smiling father got one more chance to tell his daughter how proud he is.

See the published article on the Shepherd Express.

How are Healthcare Workers Responding to COVID-19?

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Healthcare workers assess incoming patients at Columbia St. Mary's on North Ave.

Everyone is scrambling in this time of crisis, but healthcare workers are the people on the front lines being pushed to the edge. As confirmed coronavirus cases increase in Wisconsin and around the country, hospitals and testing facilities are being overwhelmed and the systems in place are cracking under the pressure.

“It’s becoming clearer that we don’t have the infrastructure to handle what’s coming,” says Jaime Lucas, the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP), a statewide union. Unions like WFNHP and healthcare workers around the country are demanding safer working conditions and more support, but so far, their employers have offered little help.

The biggest problem in hospitals and laboratories at the moment is that there are not enough staff members to handle the influx of patients and testing needs. But this issue can’t be blamed solely on the evolving crisis. Ascension, a healthcare company owning a multitude of hospitals in Wisconsin, made large cuts to their staff in hospitals like Ascension St. Francis as recently as six months ago.

“There wasn’t enough staff before this pandemic. Now you’re in this crisis mode,” says Connie Smith, an OR Tech and president of the WFNHP Service and Tech Chapter in the hospital. She explained the layoffs were mostly clerical workers, which forced the nurses to pick up those extra tasks. “Those cuts are playing havoc right now” because the nurses are being distracted from their patients and having to train new people, making it impossible to keep up with the swiftly rising demand for care.

Without Protection

Overworked and under supported, many nurses are being asked to treat COVID-19 patients without proper protection. A nurse at Froedtert Hospital who requested to stay anonymous said on Thursday, “they are not providing us with N95 masks, only paper masks telling us that we are following CDC guidelines.” However, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states on their website, “Use of N95 or higher-level respirators are recommended for HCP (healthcare personnel) who have been medically cleared, trained, and fit-tested.”

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Emergency Dept. entrance at Columbia St. Mary's on North Ave.

The CDC website also posted an update saying, “Based on local and regional situational analysis of PPE (personal protective equipment) supplies, facemasks are an acceptable alternative when the supply chain of respirators cannot meet the demand,” but the CDC makes it clear, that “healthcare facilities are responsible for protecting their HCP from exposure to pathogens, including by providing appropriate PPE.”  The guidelines are changing, but only because there are not enough supplies, putting our health care workers at greater risk of disease.

The healthcare facilities in Wisconsin and around the country do not have the systems in place to protect their staff and have not taken the necessary precautions to prepare. This has become obvious when nurses at Ascension St. Francis Hospital are told to reuse N95 masks, according to Smith. Yet, standard practice is to replace these masks after exposure to a pathogen like COVID-19.

Nurses and techs charge that the poor planning also shows when hospital management departments take weeks to respond to crisis preparation plans. The WFNHP has a union chapter at Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories (WDL), a lab owned by Froedtert that analyzes blood, urine and other samples for patients. Charles de la Pena, the president of that chapter, requested a meeting with the management of WDL on March 6 to discuss a COVID-19 protection plan for their lab techs, before any cases occurred in Milwaukee. The management of the lab took two weeks to respond to the request. “WDL management worked on contingency planning to keep the lab staffed and open, but less about PPE and protocols for containment,” says Lucas. 

Vital Role

These workers play a vital role during this time of crisis and if their basic health and safety needs are not being met, then we will not have a workforce to take care of the growing number of patients. The WFNHP sent out a proposed list of immediate solutions to Wisconsin health care employers that included instituting a policy of paid leave forgiveness and providing child care solutions. The WFNHP commented that Ascension and Advocate Aurora have been communicative but have taken no action yet.

Workers such as the nurse at Froedtert Hospital are treating extremely sick COVID-19 patients with only paper masks, then having to return home to their children, worrying about putting their families at risk. “I’m in tears thinking about all this. I feel like I can’t even be around my kids,” said the nurse. Nurses like this are scrambling for childcare options while working extremely long work weeks.

Additionally, sources at WFNHP say that many of their members are required to use their limited paid leave to stay home, even if they were exposed to a COVID-19 patient. This forces them to make the decision between risking the spread of infection by returning to work or exhausting their paid leave and potentially losing their jobs.

The WFNHP have published their list of immediate solutions that will help ease the burden on people on the front lines. The employers need to properly train their workers on how to handle COVID-19 situations and provide clear communications on their proposed crisis plans, which has yet to happen.

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Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories and Froedtert Hospital were asked to comment but have not responded.

An Ascension Wisconsin Spokesperson sent the following comment:

Ascension Wisconsin has a number of protocols and policies in place to protect our associates, one of which is following CDC guidelines regarding personal protective equipment (PPE). The CDC has recently updated the PPE used for COVID-19, and Ascension is adhering strictly to those guidelines. Ascension Wisconsin is taking proactive steps with our distributor and suppliers to ensure access to supplies. We are arranging expedited shipments directly from manufacturers, assessing alternative products and taking advantage of our abilities as a national system to make intra-hospital inventory transfers when appropriate. We have also implemented conservation measures, in anticipation of further supply chain disruption over the coming months due to COVID-19.

Additionally, we are postponing surgeries, procedures and tests that are deemed non-urgent to ensure the availability of resources to meet emergent health needs during this pandemic.  

We continually review staffing models, while respecting our collective bargaining agreements, to ensure efficiency of our resources, while providing the highest quality and most compassionate care. Out of respect for the privacy of our associates, we do not comment on personnel matters.

Read this article on the Shepherd Express.

Breaking Down the Barriers with a New Kind of Market - Circulate MKE seeks to change Milwaukee’s economy

In Milwaukee, most people stay in the areas of town where they are comfortable—with the people that match their economic status and skin color. That’s been the norm in this city, but Shalina S. Ali and Fidel Verdin are working hard to change that culture.

In 2015, these two community organizers started Circulate MKE, a creative entrepreneur market that connects small vendors from different corners of the city to shoppers. Circulate MKE has always been more than the standard pop-up market because Ali and Verdin have made a point to host their events in vacant spaces located in various communities, whether they be black, brown, white or anything else. In doing so, their market brings new business to those spaces and to the surrounding neighborhood.

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Their intention from the beginning has been to create connections among different groups of people and to support small vendors with the business tools they need. In the minds of Ali and Verdin, segregation stems from economics, so that’s where they decided to focus their energy.  If they could influence people to spend their money locally and in neighborhoods that need a stronger economy, then maybe we could take a step in the right direction of fixing the city’s segregation problem.

How it All Started

Long before 2015, Ali and Verdin were fighting for equal opportunities in the city. As two people of color, they see Milwaukee in a different light than most affluent white residents who live in majority-white areas such as Downtown or the East Side. They grew up in neighborhoods with fewer resources and vital institutions such as banks and supermarkets. This has been a systemic, national problem for decades, based largely in the history of redlining, which often led to minority communities being denied access to services.

Many of Milwaukee’s residents live with the effects of our country’s institutional racism and consequently have to travel farther to access a bank, healthcare office or supermarket. Not only do they have to travel downtown for the necessities, but most theaters, restaurants and other entertainment are in more affluent parts of the city. Residents from lower-income neighborhoods have to spend their money in other areas of the city, but residents from neighborhoods with plenty of resources don’t ever have a reason to travel to poor black neighborhoods. As Verdin sees it, “[The city] only became racially segregated because of money.”

Ali and Verdin saw economics divide people their whole lives, so they began thinking of ways economics could bring people together. The idea for Circulate MKE first came to fruition because Ali would purchase all her jewelry, lotions and other material goods from makers she knew from her communities. Friends would constantly ask her where her earrings and other products came from, and she would introduce them to her vendors. She soon realized there was an opportunity to connect people on a larger scale that would allow her to help both the vendors and the buyers.

The moment she ran the idea past Verdin, he was committed. The two began brainstorming on how to get people to spend their money on local vendors in a way that distributes wealth equally throughout the city. They wanted both dollars and ideas to circulate. “It’s about shared resources and being able to work together as entrepreneurs and startups, or just craft people,” says Verdin. Most importantly, the markets had to be nondiscriminatory and accessible to everyone, so from the beginning, they did not charge the vendors or shoppers to participate.

Location Matters

It was important for the market to represent and include all the communities in Milwaukee as well as to create economic growth for everyone. Verdin and Ali decided the only way to accomplish that was by moving the location around the city. They would approach owners of buildings that weren’t being used and ask them to use their space for the maker’s market. They have been able to bring new business to unused spaces around the city while creating relationships with building owners.

Every new location created more awareness for Circulate MKE while also bringing in new vendors and customers. The regular bi-monthly market took place for about three years, but people began to create their own versions of the market, developing a culture for pop-up craft markets in Milwaukee. Circulate MKE now operates only about five of their own markets every year because they are focusing on developing the skills of the business owners, allowing them to go in the direction they please. The diverse events have stimulated new economic activity in often-forgotten parts of the city and gave people a reason to cross the invisible lines that Milwaukee seems to have.

An Equal Economy, a Change in Culture

The markets have started to break down barriers. Verdin and Ali know that white people often avoid inner-city neighborhoods because they don’t feel safe, but Circulate MKE has been showing people that those fears and prejudices are only in our heads. “We’re building relationships, we’re busting myths about stereotypes of people, and we’re showing how a community can collectively come in and add love and life,” says Verdin.

Thanks to these markets, Milwaukee residents of all races have been moving throughout the city because they now have a relationship with a vendor or a customer. Previously, as the two activists explain, people would travel to the underserved parts of the city to spend their money as a political statement. Places like the Sherman Phoenix (a collective of food and shops), for instance, tends to draw white customers to the Sherman Park neighborhood. But Ali says that having it in one location is not enough. “That’s where the laziness of our city comes in. We can celebrate this and not get comfortable believing that the work is done.”

Places like the Sherman Phoenix are the result of a lot of hard work put in by community organizers like Ali and Verdin and are a step in the right direction. However, the city cannot take this as a sign that the problem is solved. There is still a lot of work to do. Ali and Verdin are dedicated to changing the culture of the city by getting people to cross those lines in an organic way—simply to buy something from their local vendor. By changing the culture and how we see each other as human beings, we can move closer to becoming a united city.

Learn more at circulatemke.com.

Read this article on the Shepherd Express.

How Milwaukee Barber Shops Open Conversations for African American Men

On Saturday morning, in the busy barber shop on MLK Drive and Garfield Avenue, you will hear the sound of shears clipping, trimmers buzzing and men talking amongst each other. Gee’s Clippers always seems to be full of energy and people with hopeful faces. There is a welcoming atmosphere in the midst of the bustling barber shop.

On the other side of town, on 76th Street and Capitol Drive, you’ll find a quieter barber shop with a staff that seems like a family. Styles Par Excellence, managed by Dart Townsend, has a staff that supports one another and their clientele by being there to listen when someone needs to share their struggles. These barber shops, like others in the city, hold onto a culture that has been rooted in the African American community for decades. Barber shops have been a gathering place for black men, providing a safe space to talk and build self-esteem.

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A barber is far more than someone that cuts hair; he is a role model, a health advocate and a reliable person to talk to. Especially to a man dealing with difficult life experiences like poverty or family problems, a barber is a steady person in his life who can empower him with a new haircut. As is commonly reported in the news, the rates of obesity, incarceration and poverty among African Americans are vastly higher compared to those of whites.

Most Milwaukee residents probably already know that our city is one of the most segregated cities in the country and home to the zip code with the highest percentage of black male incarceration. Those issues are real and present for too many local men, but barbers “can be an ear to those individuals that come from a broken home,” states Gaulien “Gee” Smith, owner of Gee’s Clippers. More than that, these barbers are embracing their role as trusted community members and partnering with organizations like the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative (MFI) to bring real solutions to this city.

One of those solutions is an event put on by Gee’s Clippers and MFI called “Real Men Real Talk,” a conversation for and about men. The idea came together when Gaulien Smith and MFI’s project director Natasha Dotson realized that men aren’t talking to each other about their personal issues. Dotson has witnessed how hypermasculinity can cause men to withdraw from their families and avoid confronting their problems. Smith has seen similar patterns in his customers and over time has seen more mothers bringing their sons to the shop, rather than fathers. Men have been withdrawing from the family because they don’t know how to act as fathers. But going to the barber is one of the key ways African American men have traditionally bonded with their sons, Dotson explains. “That’s what men did. It was a man thing.”

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Real Men Real Talk is Dotson and Smith’s direct response to those problems. The recurring event is a workshop and open conversation which gives men the tools to be engaged with their families and steer their lives in a positive direction. Hosted in Gee’s barber shop, the gathering is only for men and pulls in leaders and business owners from around the city to teach men about entrepreneurship, health and confidence. The moderator of Real Men Real Talk, Kwabena Antoine Nixon, explains the conversation provides black men a place for healing, a place to discuss their concerns and a place to feel welcomed.

“Barber shops are the heartbeat of the community,” Smith insists. They are one of the few places many of these men feel comfortable talking about their vulnerabilities. Many men don’t know where to look for help so they choose to go to their barber, someone they trust, a place they can let their guard down. “You can say the things here you can’t say nowhere else,” says Anthony Millions, a barber at Gee’s Clippers. “You can talk to somebody, another man, about things you can’t talk to your girl about.” These conversations allow men to talk through their frustrations, find guidance and be more present when they go back to their families.

Gee’s Clippers allows for one-on-one conversations between barber and customer, but Styles Par Excellence tends to be a group conversation in their smaller space. “Everything is on the table when you’re in the shop. Everybody is welcome to chime in,” says Townsend. “It’s like a group therapy session, so to speak.” Whether it’s a conversation between two men or ten, these barbers make sure their shops are a place for men to have meaningful conversations whenever they are needed.

The essential thing that barber shops provide is trust. When boys and men sit in their barber’s chair to get a haircut, they are sitting in the chair of a man they confide in. “In this day and time, for the most part, a barber is the only positive male role model a kid might talk to on a regular basis. We don’t have enough positive African American men out here,” says Smith. He believes barbers have a responsibility to impart as much positive energy and insight as they possibly can. While inside a barber shop, a man gets to escape from the burdens of daily life and be in a sanctuary that guides him to become a stronger man. 

Dr. Kyana Young and the Marquette University Strategic Innovation Fund

 Dr. Kyana Young, a postdoctoral fellow at Marquette University, began working in the Global Water Center in 2016.  With a background in environmental engineering, Young’s passion is finding solutions for safe water to improve global and public health.  Soon after she arrived, it occurred to her that there was a lack of diverse groups of people represented in the building.  But it didn’t take her long to do something about that. 

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She spoke with staff at Marshall High School and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), including Larry Farris, Toby Hairston, Rochelle Sandrin, Jan Haven, and Megan Sun, who helped her come up with an idea for a program that would provide opportunities to demographics that are underrepresented in scientific fields relating to water research.  She applied for a grant from Marquette University with the support of the group at MPS, and was awarded the Marquette University Strategic Innovation Fund Grant.  The grant made it possible for her to provide internships to students at Milwaukee’s Marshall High School and bring them to the labs of the Global Water Center to do hands-on research. When working in the classroom at Marshall High School, the youth learn how to write lab reports and do data analysis with their teacher Megan Sun.  The students are taught how to apply their newly learned scientific knowledge to solve real world problems.

Each student is assigned a project for the semester by participating companies and universities.  Young asked these organizations to host and mentor the youth, including Stonehouse Water Technologies, Youth Rising Up, Solar Water Works, DRM International Inc., Sun Yat-Sen University, Grand Valley State University, Assembly of God and Marquette University.  Dr. Young knew that the students needed more than community partners, they needed mentors like Dr. Moe Mukiibi, the chief technology officer at Stonehouse Water Technologies (the company with the most interns in the program), to make the program a success.  The program is meant to “create a path for them that could be life changing, so that they can see why they are working in a lab and see what this can become,” says Mukiibi.

 “When you provide an opportunity and you back that up with resources, this is what can happen,” says Young as she describes how the students have excelled far beyond the expectations of the program. “This impacts the global community.”  Thanks to Young and the team at MPS, these students have a chance to explore their interests and realize career paths that can make a major difference in their lives.   

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View the article on the Shepherd Express website, part of my regular Hero of the Week column.

Urban Guesthouses and B&Bs: A New Way to Experience Milwaukee

I recently wrote an article for the Shepherd Express about Milwaukee's guesthouses and B&Bs, highlighting the uniqueness of these businesses and why people would want to stay at this type of accommodation.  You can read the article here or see it on the Shepherd Express website.

The accommodation industry is shifting toward small cozy guesthouses and Milwaukee is picking up on the trend. When most of us imagine a bed and breakfast (B&B), we think of a remote cottage in the countryside, but Milwaukee has urban guesthouses and B&Bs that offer easy access to the city and a comfortable, welcoming place to rest your head at night. With the rise of the “sharing economy” through sites like Airbnb and Couchsurfing, people in the industry are realizing that travelers are looking for a “home away from home.”

Imagine for a moment that you are visiting a new city for a few days, and when you first arrive to your accommodation, you are greeted by a friendly face—the owner of the house. Rather than walking into a generic lobby, you enter what feels like home, with a personalized touch. You sit down in the common room with a warm cup of tea to have genuine conversation with the other guests, and suddenly this city doesn’t feel so strange.

As travelers, we are drawn to these small, unique businesses when looking for accommodations because we want a story. The structure and design of a guesthouse tells the story of its neighborhood, just as much as its owner does. By staying in a family-run guesthouse or B&B, you get the chance to meet the people who run it and see Milwaukee through their eyes. Not only will they reveal the hidden corners of Milwaukee, but they take the time to learn about you and your interests before suggesting the perfect outing. When traveling, the place where you stay should be as much a part of the experience as the rest of the city.

Milwaukee has six small, family-run guesthouses or B&Bs that are all notably unique. From Victorian-style bed and breakfasts to a guesthouse in the midst of flourishing gardens and a cozy gallery space, each place adds a unique accent to the urban neighborhoods of this city.

Here they are in alphabetical order:

The Brumder Mansion

www.milwaukeemansion.com

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The Brumder Mansion brings a different experience to the Concordia neighborhood. Built on Wisconsin Avenue in 1910 by George Brumder (1839-1910), the building has a theater in the basement and five bedrooms, most of which have a Jacuzzi and fireplace. Nine years ago, Tom and Julie Carr came from California, bought the Brumder Mansion and rebuilt the basement theater. Some guests come for romantic escapes in the bed and breakfast, while others come specifically for the theater.

“This isn’t a bed and breakfast; it’s a Hollywood set,” says Tom Carr. Stay a night during one of the performances, and you will be taken away into another world of fantasy and imaginary characters. The Brumder’s theater puts on four to five shows per year, made possible by production manager Amanda Hull, artistic director Tom Marks and Milwaukee Entertainment Group. Whether you are trying to solve a murder mystery or you are being swept up into the madness of the Hatter in Alice’s Wonderland, you won’t be bored. Don’t miss their upcoming shows including Dancing with Hamlet.

Kinn Guesthouse

www.kinnmke.com

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Originally from Chicago, Charles and Connie Bailey moved their family to Milwaukee in 2015 when they bought the Cream City brick building on Kinnickinnic Avenue in Bay View. After a year-and-a-half of restoring the building, the couple opened Kinn Guesthouse in March of 2017. The name Kinn comes from Charles’ father and grandfather who ran the Drake hotels in Chicago and passed the trade down to him. The eight-room guesthouse has a chic modern feel with large windows in every room, making the rooms seem twice their actual size. All but one of the rooms and the spacious common area are on the second floor of the building, above the restaurant, Kindred.

Before you get to your room, you will be stopped by the stunning kitchen and living room space that is free for all the guests to use. Along with the deep-cushioned couch, gallery wall and fully outfitted kitchen, the Baileys have a Nespresso machine, bottle of wine and popcorn waiting for their guests. “People care to live in a different way,” says Charles. “They want something that’s more cozy and comfortable and feels more like home than the big hotels.” If you stay at Kinn, you will most likely meet the charming couple and be treated to the Honey Pie pastries that they offer every weekend.

Manderley Bed & Breakfast

www.bedandbreakfastmilwaukee.com

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For the last 17 years, Marie and Andrew Parker have been running Manderley Bed and Breakfast, making it the oldest running B&B in Milwaukee. Originally from the Milwaukee area, the couple decided to open the bed and breakfast once they discovered the elaborate mansion on Wells Street in the Concordia neighborhood. “Even in its dilapidated condition, it had charm and appeal,” explains Andrew. After seven years of rebuilding the structure and designing the interior with hand-made stencils and hand-painted art, they finally opened their dream business. Because there were no other Milwaukee B&Bs at the time, the couple helped the city write the laws pertaining to bed and breakfasts, making Concordia the official Bed and Breakfast District of Milwaukee.

When you first walk up to the Manderley mansion, you will most likely be greeted by one of the friendly cats waiting for you on the porch. As you pass through the door into the house, you will be taken back in time to a Victorian era filled with old books, ornate wall décor and a warm fireplace. Andrew and Marie will make you feel right at home with friendly conversation over fresh breakfast from their backyard chicken coop and vegetable garden. There is no doubt these two are dedicated to their guests and to Milwaukee.

Muse Gallery Guesthouse

www.themuseguesthouse.com

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When you choose to stay at the Muse Gallery Guesthouse in the heart of Bay View, you may spend hours sitting and talking with Mary Ellen Hermann and Andrew Meechan—the owners of the place. The novelty of this guesthouse comes from the Milwaukee art hanging on its walls and the dedication the couple has for the local artists. All of the art changes quarterly, thanks to the curating of Renée “Luna” Bebeau. To see the work on display, stop in during one of their gallery events or during the Bay View Gallery Night.

As experienced travelers, Hermann and Meechan see the value in bed and breakfasts because of the well-traveled people they often meet in such places. “When you have breakfast with them, you learn so many things, particularly the next two dozen places you want to go visit,” explains Mary Ellen. The guesthouse is meant to be an experience and a welcoming place for travelers to relax and feel like they are part of the city.

Sanger House Gardens

www.sangerhousegardens.com

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While walking up the front stairs to the Sanger House Gardens through the lush greenery, you can look over the vast array of plants at the beautiful cityscape of Milwaukee. If you continue on the winding pathways through the arching branches and multitude of colors, you will reach the carriage house in the back of the garden. There is only one bedroom in this urban getaway, but it is a luxury space with two floors, kitchen, laundry machines and double doors that open to the gardens. Steve Bialk and Angela Duckert bought the Brewer’s Hill property in 1985 and have been enhancing the gardens ever since.

About five years ago, they decided to start a wedding and event business in the space. Along with formal events, the couple has also hosted neighborhood garden clubs and participated in Doors Open Milwaukee 2017. After getting repeated requests for a guesthouse, Bialk and Duckert finally renovated the carriage house and opened the guesthouse last April. There is no breakfast included with your stay, but when you arrive, you’ll get a personal tour of the gardens and personal suggestions for your Milwaukee stay. One of the best things about Sanger is that pets are allowed. It’s a place where you get the best of both worlds: close proximity to the city and a hideaway amidst blooming flowers.

Schuster Mansion Bed & Breakfast

www.schustermansion.com

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In that same Concordia neighborhood, you will find Schuster Mansion Bed and Breakfast, run by Rick and Laura Sue Mosier. They’re known for their Victorian-style high tea and exceptional hospitality. If you want coffee or tea delivered to your room in the morning, a choice of breakfast from their menu that has not changed in 10 years and freshly-ironed sheets every night, then the Schuster Mansion is the place for you. As you wander through the halls of the mansion, you get lost in the relics adorning the walls and the hand-made decorations throughout the house. The attention to detail is unreal, even down to the shower curtain rings covered in fabric so they don’t make a sound.

The moment you meet Rick and Laura Sue Mosier, you already feel like old friends. “It is so fun to meet people and learn about their lives and why they’re here. We’re part of people’s lives,” says Laura Sue. After talking with the couple for what could be hours, they will give you customized suggestions about the city based on your interests and their own secrets spots in Milwaukee.