You're going to perspire this summer. A lot. Sometimes just stepping out the front door in St. Louis is enough to cause your sweat glands to spew like Old Faithful. Sure, you could run back into the air conditioning. But to do so is to surrender. And we St. Louisans are a tougher lot than that. Besides, sweating is actually good for you: It removes toxins from the body (according to the 28 seconds of scientific research put into this article). So go ahead and break a sweat this summer with some of the following fun, outdoor activities.

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People may gripe about the heat and humidity of St. Louis in the summer. But ask someone to share his or her favorite memory about this town, and chances are you're going to hear a story about something that happened between May and September.

Why? Because summer is when we get together with friends and share. When we slow down just long enough to appreciate all that is here for the taking. And as RFT discovered when we sat down to brainstorm what we love about summer in St. Louis, the reasons could be infinite. Here, though, are 25 places to begin.

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The parking lot east of the Tivoli Theatre is scheduled to reopen next month.

Workers are halfway finished with construction of a permeable parking lot in the Delmar Loop. The lot, adjacent to the Tivoli Theatre, mirrors a similar "green" parking lot University City installed on Kingsland and Loop South in 2009.

Megan Fuller, a project manager for University City, tells Daily RFT that the municipality considered repaving the original asphalt lot, but in the end chose a more environmental route.

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via Facebook

After writing this morning about a local fundraising effort to save beloved Edwardsville store Once Upon a Toy from bankruptcy, Daily RFT received word that the initiative has been an overwhelming success. And it appears now that the small business will stay afloat after a crowdsourcing effort in less than a week easily surpassed an initial $75,000 goal.

"I can't believe what has just happened! This entire process has been epic and fairy tale like!" Once Upon a Toy owner Shawnta' Ray wrote on Facebook today. "This story is actually about a group of people who worked together to make something happen out of love, not just about a small business who was gifted a second chance."

How did residents save the toy store? Details below along with our original coverage of the fundraising effort.

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eslfire.com

Video and more photos below.

For four months, East St. Louis firefighter Robert Schield strapped a camera to himself while on the job, capturing all sorts of dramatic footage of fires and rescues.

"It lets viewers see what it's like to wear the helmet of an East St. Louis firefighter," Schield tells Daily RFT. "Maybe it could help."

The footage, professionally edited in an intense video on view below, is about more than just giving people a glimpse of life at the department. It's also aimed at raising awareness around a large round of layoffs that could happen in the coming months that the union and firefighters say could put the remaining employees -- and residents of East St. Louis -- at great risk.

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Mayor Francis Slay and the city's Department of Human Services have a long-term plan to abolish chronic homelessness in the city -- unveiled this week, just days before the primary election.

Officials say they have been working on "The Beginning of the End: Abolishing Chronic Homelessness," (conveniently abbreviated as The BEACH Project) for quite some time and that the announcement has nothing to do with the timing of the final stretch of Slay's re-election bid.

"In St. Louis, I think we have moved very progressively and very aggressively to address the needs of chronic homeless people," Bill Siedhoff, director of the city's department of human services, tells Daily RFT. "We really believe we are on the cusp of ending chronic homelessness...and we would be the first city in the country to accomplish that."

How?

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Sam Levin

Sign that remains inside the last Pevely structure on Grand and Chouteau. Big photos below.

What's going on with the Pevely Dairy complex? Not a whole lot, it seems, much to the frustration of preservationists and other groups that fought to stop Saint Louis University from demolishing the landmark complex on South Grand Boulevard.

Several university spokespeople did not respond to Daily RFT's repeated calls for comment last week, but a recent internal report -- which a group of unhappy activists and city residents have sent our way -- reveals that the project originally slated for this site is, at the very least, delayed. For starters, there is no financing or plan, the document, on full view below, says.

"We were promised something really transformative for the area, for the neighborhood," says Jeff Vines, who advocated for the site's preservation. "And what we have right now is a pile of rubble."

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via YouTube

A semi-NSFW Harlem Shake. Videos below.

We can't ignore it any longer. The Harlem Shake has officially gone viral. This video dance meme trend thingy is so viral that folks all over Missouri have been jumping on the fad in hopes of achieving some true virality here. In support of these attempts -- and some have a lot of views already! -- we've collected the top ten Harlem Shake videos made in Missouri. Shockingly, there were quite a few more to choose from.

Check out our favorite locally produced, thirty-second dance videos below.

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Slideshow: Cupid's Undie Run

Big photos below.

Stripping down and getting physical is always fun -- but sometimes it's good for the world, too! Such was the case with this weekend's Cupid's Undie Run in St. Louis, when folks ditched their clothes and ran in the cold to raise money for the Children's Tumor Foundation.

RFT was on site to snap some photos of the do-gooders, so we could, you know, document the do-gooding.

For your viewing pleasure this Monday morning, Daily RFT has chosen our top favorite outfits of the run below. Enjoy!

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Leah Greenbaum

Wells Fargo foreclosure protest last year

Update below: Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like a "You are racist" card!

And fortunately for officials at the Wells Fargo headquarters in St. Louis -- or more likely the security downstairs -- this is the exact message they will receive this afternoon as part of a protest staged by advocacy group Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, or MORE. The group, which does not shy away from confrontational protests, is hoping to draw some attention to the company's predatory lending and influence in local politics through today's action.

And in honor of February 14, MORE has chosen a "break-up" approach.

"It's not me, it's you," says Zach Chasnoff, an organizer, says.

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